A local faith based group called the La Amistad Economic Development Corporation (La Amistad), an organization affiliated with St. Albans Congregational Church, may have stumbled across the recipe for success when they recently received a grant $50,000 from the Empire State Development Corporation.

The grant was obtained by the group with the help of Assemblyman William Scarborough to help develop a food service business kitchen as a source of economic development.

According to Scarborough, the HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Enterprises) kitchen, founded by La Amistad will provide low income residents with technical support to either start their own or build an existing food service business.

Called a "kitchen incubator," the commercial cooking space gives Southeast Queens residents a space to learn about cooking and create dishes for an actual state-of-the-art kitchen.

The kitchen itself is a well-appointed facility with all the amenities of any commercial kitchen including its own original appliances and sinks, and professional mixers, slicers and bakers’ racks donated to the program by a major Wall Street firm.

For Earl Ackwood the Kitchen Incubator program is providing an opportunity that for him is a dream come true.

For years, Ackwood said he had toiled both as an independent caterer and as an institutional chef. Now between assignments, Ackwood said he went to La Amistad in hopes of finally getting the technical support to develop and market his own special recipe for bread pudding.

Known as "Brother Earl’s Heavenly Taste Bread Pudding Muffin," the treat it is a new take on an old dessert.

Ackwood, who said he "hated bread pudding" as a child, developed his recipe about 20-years-ago after coming up with just the right mix of fruits such as raisins, cherries and fresh apples.

This also varies the sizes from melon ball size to regular muffin size to bundt pan sizes.

It is a delicious, just sweet enough concoction that he hopes will make him the Famous Amos of puddings.

"I watch a lot of nature shows," said Ackwood, "and the animals don’t get colon cancer so I’ve made my product a health product with fresh fruits. La Amistad is giving me the opportunity to finally pursue my dream to market it."

But if Ackwood is grateful for the business opportunity at La Amistad, the program’s CEO is also gratified to have found someone with his enthusiasm for the program and his own product.

According to Elfrida A. Scott, a Civil Rights Attorney and the CEO of La Amistad, which began operations at the beginning of 1998, a study was conducted to determine the most efficient use of the Family Life Center’s institutional kitchen. Soon after the idea for the incubator was born.

"Research revealed that one component of a healthy community is a set of resources focused on helping community members start or expand a small business," said Scott.

"Kitchen incubators, though not plentiful, were found to be functioning successfully as local economic development tools in large, diverse urban populations such as New York City," she said.

"La Amistad is approaching this task with a very positive perspective," said Scott. "Rather than seeking to be of service in a world composed of poor people with problems, La Amistad seeks to provoke a community to use all its underutilized assets," she said.

But the program is involved in more meaningful ways than leasing low-rent space to culinary entrepreneurs.

It does not recruit and then leave them to sink or swim in uncharted waters.

Scott revealed that in addition to providing kitchen assistance via food service interns, the program is a fully loaded business model providing assistance with a business plan, scientific testing, packaging and marketing.

"We’re not just here to rent a kitchen," said Scott. "We will guide you through the regulatory maze such as the FDA and help you get (your product) into the supermarket. A lot of people also don’t realize that they must work in a commercial kitchen and that is what we have here and the cost is much lower than what they’d have to pay anywhere else."

According to Scott, $180 gives a client up to eight hours in their kitchen and that includes assistance.

Reminded that some start up owners may not be able to afford the cost given and that they may need more than one day to complete a project or event, Scott said the staff of La Amistad will assist the client in working the cost into their [business] plan.

"By the time they come to us they have already been doing the business from their homes," said Scott. "So we show them how to work the cost of the space into their budget. Anywhere else they have to pay upwards of $300 per day."

According to Scott, La Amistad will also help its clients take advantage of the numerous business support organizations in downtown Jamaica such as the Queens Overall Development Corporation and Jamaica Market where some may be able to literally market their products.

The La Amistad Economic Development Corporation is named for the slave ship that carried 53 Africans to slavery in the United States.

According to Scott who is also a church deacon, naming the economic development component of the St. Albans Congregational Church’s ministry after the famed slave ship was a way of connecting the economic freedom that they hope to give participants to the way their denomination fought to gain freedom for the Africans of the ship.

Scott said that members of the denomination in New Hampshire and their pastors who were abolitionists, raised funds to help the would be slaves gain their freedom to return to their homeland.

John Quincy Adams, who later became a president of the United States was among those congregationalists who took up and won the fight.

They raised well over $100,000, a fortune in the 1800s and Scott claimed part of that money still exists in the congregational denomination.

"That event is part of our church’s history," she said.

Scarborough said he sees the kitchen incubator as a unique economic development opportunity and believes that this faith-based organization has the gumption to succeed.

"I’ve been helping La Amistad for a couple of years," said Scarborough. "It’s a good vehicle to provide economic development for St. Albans and the surrounding areas. I have shepherded it through, in terms of moving the process along so it wouldn’t get bogged down in beuaracracy. I have a great deal of faith in the people who are managing it. Elfrida Scott is very capable," he said.

The Assemblyman also noted that one of the challenges of the food business is having a professional site in which to "take care of the day to day business" and is pleased with being able to assist.

"I’m very hopeful and very optimistic," he reiterated. "And I will continue to assist them."

The program, according to Scott, will assist clients and graduate them into their own businesses because "it’s all about economic development."

The HOPE Kitchen Incubator is located at 172-17 Linden Boulevard.

They are interested in signing up anyone interested in pursuing their dream in the field of food service and can be reached at 658-8369.