$7.6M of Dayton ARPA funds targeting minority-owned business aid: Who’s being helped?

May 22, 2022 – Arcade tenant 6888 Kitchen named as one of the allocatees for Dayton’s American Rescue Plan aid.

Dayton city leaders allocated $7.6 million of the $138 million in federal funds the city is receiving through the American Rescue Plan to support minority-owned businesses.

The non-profit OH Taste was awarded $750,000 to help establish a “shared kitchen incubator” at the Dayton Arcade. The initiative is part of a project called 6888 (“Six Triple Eight”) Kitchen at the Arcade that will provide “training, business support resources and commercial kitchen space for under-resourced entrepreneurs developing food businesses,” according to a project overview on the agency’s website.

“We’re not just giving them a place to cook, it really is kind of like an academy for serious food business owners,” said OH Taste founder Charlynda Scales.

Scales said they hope to start building this summer. The project has received more than $1 million in Congressional earmark funding and is working to get more, she said.

Arcade News