A look at what happened to established business owners and lessons for the next crisis by Howard Wial, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and Devon Yee, Senior Research Analyst, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City December 2021 During the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, ... Read More

Mona Ahmad decided to leave her job at a bank in Boston to take care of her daughter and newborn twins. But more time at home allowed her to cook her traditional family meals—that’s when her love for cooking really took off. Ahmad turned her passion into a business by ... Read More

“Let me start by saying it was never my intention to open a school,” says Barbara Chavous-Pennock, CEO of Somerset Academy Early Learning Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Opening with this statement, she’s about to tell an incredible journey of never giving up and of always persevering—not even for herself, but ... Read More

Liseth Velez wanted to be in the military from a very young age. “I came to this country when I was seven, and from the moment that I had any kind of conscious of career or anything like that, I just knew I wanted to join the military.” After completing ... Read More

Since its onset in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the economy and led to massive disruption across almost every industry – and the food industry is certainly no exception. Government-imposed public health restrictions closed restaurants and slowed down other food-service industry operations, which caused a ripple ... Read More