Mother Road Market is First Oklahoma Company to Sign Businesses for Refugee Pledge
** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE **
Contacts:
Sarah Lorenzen: 918.261.9006 // sarah@lobecktaylor.org
Cheena Pazzo: 918.625.1937 // cheena@one80.us
Mother Road Market is First Oklahoma Company to Sign Businesses for Refugee Pledge
U.S. initiative is focused on uniting and showing support for refugees
Tulsa, Okla. | Nov. 11, 2021 -- Mother Road Market, a program of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation (LTFF), is the first Oklahoma company to sign the Businesses for Refugees Pledge.
Supported by refugee advocacy organizations including, Refugees International, Refugee Council, Refugee Congress and the UN Refugee Agency, the pledge provides U.S. businesses that are interested in going a step further to support refugees with resources to bolster their existing refugee efforts or design and implement new projects to hire refugees, connect with refugee leaders, convene dialogues on refugee issues in their workplaces, volunteer to assist refugees in their communities, and learn about best practices on refugee integration.
"As Oklahoma is poised to resettle nearly 2,000 Afghan refugees in the near future, it is more important than ever to welcome newcomers who are fleeing war, poverty, trauma and many other hardships," said Elizabeth Frame Ellison, President and CEO of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation. "Joining the pledge reflects our commitment to uplift the voices and experiences of refugees, engage in dialogue, offer inclusive policies and practices and, overall, to create a welcoming and inviting environment for the new people calling Tulsa and Oklahoma home. We are the first entity in the state of Oklahoma to sign the pledge, and I hope to see more businesses follow suit."
The Mother Road Market campus is home to 27 diverse food and retail concepts. As Oklahoma’s only non-profit food hall, Mother Road Market is committed to lowering barriers to success for food and retail entrepreneurs by providing the ability to test concepts with fewer risks. The Market offers restaurant pop-ups at the Takeover Cafe and Landmark Food Truck, and in 2021 had an average of one immigrant-owned company featured each month.
“Our experience at Kitchen 66 and the Takeover Cafe was amazing! We had a lot of visibility and won many customers,” said Alex Figueira, owner of Doctor Kustom and Brazilian native. “Being at Mother Road Market now as a permanent store is the realization of a dream, but it is also the opportunity to increasingly share Brazilian food and culture.”
Current retail pop-ups at LTO | MKT (Limited Time Only Market) and The Vault are also supporting immigrant and refugee causes. Hilo de Amoris owned by an immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico and features goods from her hometown and Trove is a sustainable fashion company that donates a portion of proceeds to support displaced refugees.
Rooted in the inherent belief that food brings people together and is central to supporting families, communities and diverse cultures, LTFF began its journey to provide food entrepreneurs with equitable opportunities for success in 2016 with the launch of Kitchen 66, a food incubator program. The program has served more than 150 businesses, including immigrants from 10 countries. More than half of Kitchen 66 entrepreneurs are women, and recent alumni have represented Guyana, Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador, Canada, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and Ghana.
“We are working to break down barriers through innovative, strategic and long-lasting techniques for underestimated people, including immigrants, people of color, women and, now, refugee populations,” added Ellison. “With the help, support and guidance of many community members and partners, we recently started Cocina 66 for Spanish-language food entrepreneurs.”
Cocina 66 is a collaboration among community leader Elian Hurtado, UMA Tulsa and LTFF’s Kitchen 66. All members of the inaugural Cocina 66 cohort are first-generation immigrants and feature innovative food concepts, including Venezuelan gourmet hamburgers, a Latin bakery, Peruvian cuisine, posole, birria and healthy Hispanic food.
Businesses interested in creating change toward more inclusive communities and policies can find more information atbusinessesforrefugees.org
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ABOUT LTFF: Founded in 1997 by Bill Lobeck and Kathy Taylor, the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation (LTFF) has grown into a second generation investment in making Tulsa an innovative, collaborative and thriving city. Under the leadership of CEO Elizabeth Frame Ellison, LTFF aims to decrease the barriers associated with Tulsans achieving their goals. To fulfill this mission, LTFF acts as a grantmaker, innovator, and convener. LTFF supports the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems in Tulsa through its owned-and-operated programs including Kitchen 66, Mother Road Market, Shops at Mother Road Market and Tulsa StartUp Series, as well as through grants to organizations. For more information about LTFF, visit www.lobecktaylor.com.