Minority Vendor Showcase opens doors for small food businesses
By Jay Jones
jay.jones@agr.georgia.gov
ATLANTA - Brothers Rafael and Angel Guerrero attended their first trade show with their mother at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta last month. They were selling the first crop of Vidalia onions from their family farm and hoped to make some deals with restaurants and hotel buyers at the third annual Minority Vendor Showcase.
“This show is a great way to put ourselves out there, meet new people, and connect, said Rafael, who operates La Hacienda Sweets in Lyons with Angel. “We want to build relationships, and hopefully, the sky is the limit.”
They were among the over 100 small, food businesses at the Minority Vendor Showcase, hosted by the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta. Products covered a wide range of food, beverages, and services.
Show organizers invited buyers for hotels, restaurants and retailers to the showcase to meet and make business deals.
Hyatt Regency Atlanta Executive Chef Thomas McKeown started the showcase as part of Hyatt’s company-wide effort to engage with African- American businesses. He explained that after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, Hyatt’s corporate-wide spending with minority businesses was $1 million annually and $5 million in 2023. This year, it is $38 million.
McKeown said that the showcase has also grown.
“We also want to make sure that all minorities get an opportunity, so when you look around the room, it’s female-owned, veteran-owned, and LGBTQ-owned across the board,” McKeown said.
“We’re opening it up to all minority businesses across the state to give them an opportunity to grow their business and give them a platform.”
Hyatt invited Georgia Grown, the marketing program of the Georgia Department of Agriculture, to be a part of the showcase. Georgia Grown marketing representative Olivia Rader said several Georgia Grown members took advantage of the showcase to demonstrate their products to prospective buyers.
“We are here to support the businesses and give them sales opportunities, Rader said. “It’s these connection points, like the Minority Vendor Showcase, that Georgia Grown can provide to our members.”
Along with the showcase, Georgia Grown hosted a networking event at Hyatt’s Polaris restaurant. The networking event is one in a series that Georgia Grown hosts across the state annually.
Hea Won Chun Harris, founder of eleven TLC, A Wellness Co., in Atlanta, said the show was an excellent opportunity for her as she moves into wholesale distribution of her products. Her company creates organic teas, lattes, drink mixes, and supplements with the tagline: “Feel Good from the Inside Out.”
Harris explained she and her husband operated a shop in Ponce City Market for two years while perfecting their recipes. Last year, they shifted their product lines to consumer packaged goods to break into the market.
“We came from food service, and we have a good edge there,” Harris said. “We do a lot of juice bars, smoothie stores, and coffee bars, so we felt this was a really natural fit for us to meet other people, like hotels and restaurants, looking for new products that might work for them.”
Harris also became a Georgia Grown member last year. She said Georgia Grown has been a great benefit to her company and pointed out that she heard about the Minority Vendor Showcase through Georgia Grown. She described Georgia Grown more as a community than a marketing service.
“There’s so much, you know. Just by having conversations, you can learn about things happening in Georgia and how to connect with people and others who have products we might be able to use, source, and support each other with.”
Harris added, “It’s a nice group of people in terms of community, and it’s an amazing resource for us. I think we were able to do a lot, and it was just a real blessing that we didn’t really even know that we would get to do because we were Georgia Grown members.”
For the Guerrero brothers, the show is the place to shine and build their farming business. They have been harvesters all their lives, but last year, they began starting their own farm. On a 120-acre farm, half is dedicated to growing 60 acres of Vidalia onions, while the other half is growing squash, watermelon, peppers, and sweet corn using organic techniques.
“We’re the first Mexican-American onion growers in our community, so we take a lot of pride in that,” Rafael said. “We want to make sure we make it, get it off our ground, and get it where we leave something for our kids.”