NEW YORK, NY
Thursday, February 13th, 2025
The Specialty Food Association is excited to announce that the first cohort of its Maker Prep Course, a collaborative six-month educational program, graduated at the 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show, the first major expo of the year for the food industry, which took place from January 19-21 in Las Vegas.
Designed to provide foundational knowledge and guidance to up-and-coming specialty food manufacturers in set groups, Maker Prep Course comprised in-person and virtual learning, expert coaching, and peer-to-peer collaboration to provide participants with a thorough understanding of how to launch, market, and distribute their products.
"SFA is fully committed to supporting the early-stage specialty food makers who create so much innovation and excitement, and part of that support comes through demystifying the CPG industry, making it more approachable and navigable," said Phil Robinson, SVP of Member Development at SFA in a recent press release. "Core to our mission is transformative education like Maker Prep Course. The SFA team is thrilled to see this cohort graduate with the tools to succeed in our $207 billion industry."
The graduates in the Winter 2025 Class included:
- Peepal People, Alyzeh Rizvi
- La Gringuita, Caroline McGinley
- Black Girl Tamales, Chef LaToya Larkin
- The Daltas Group LLC, Christian Holslin
- Girls Can Grill, Christie Vanover
- GLOBETROTTER GRANOLA, Dara Rosenfeld
- True Treats LLC, Dawn Truesdell & Olivia Truesdell
- Big Mama's Foods, Ethan Shapiro
- The Bread Box Bakery, Matlhogonolo Ledwaba
- Indigenous Delights, Mpho Mogodiri
- Beituti, Rawia Abdel Samad
- Soronko Kitchen, Samantha Wontumi
- Southern Caramel, Sarah Smith
- Muria Foods, Shyela Malani
- Bake Your Mark, LLC, Stufona D. Latta;
- Hoppy Valley Farm, Ann Bush & Jarred Bush
- Kinship Milk Tea, Caitlin Cash
- Un Chin! Seasoning Co., Grace Urena
- Mr. Joe Foods LLC, Jean Joseph
- Elgon Nuts, Gladys Sitati & Joseph W Sitati
- Columbia Grain, Karen Matsuoka & Shannon McKinney
- CookIt Media, Laurie Buckle
- Revvl, Lexx + Livv Mills
- Jeepney, Li Joan Baculi
- Personal Culinary Solutions LLC, Lori Vannelli
- Norrico Naturals, Venus Ramos
- Local to Global Foods, Thulani Mlamb
- Lettuce Eatz, Melissa G. Monroe
- That’s My Jam, Lisa White
The Specialty Food Association is excited to announce that the first cohort of its Maker Prep Course, a collaborative six-month educational program, graduated at the 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show.
Enrollment in Maker Prep Course included:
- Online course programming from July 2024 to January 2025, including knowledge building through digital educational materials, class discussions in a dedicated group chat platform, personal exploration prompts to apply concepts to participants’ businesses, and live coaching sessions with industry experts once per month.
- Dedicated educational sessions, tours, and other programs at the 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show
- One-year Tier 1 membership for non-SFA members
- Badges for the 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show and 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show
The 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show also saw the kick-off of the next Maker Prep Course group: the Class of Summer 2025.
