Might Have Found A Church Kitchen To Rent..i Have ???, Help
Business By makenice99 Updated 19 Aug 2013 , 4:05pm by obakarr
Good Morning,
Oh my God this maybe my lucky day. I am taking the first big step. I have been thinking about finding a church or daycare centers in my area to rent a kitchen for months now. So this morning I finally did it. I called a church and inquired. While the Board Member I spoke with said they have always rented the space kitchen & hall for parties by the hour this was their first request for kitchen only.
I have been asked to put my request in writing what exactly I was looking for. What my hours would be etc. for the entire board to review and get back to me next week.
Questions for those who rent kitchens:
What types of arrangements did you make for your rental? Is it hourly or monthly? Do you have locker or bring your equipment each day? Are utilities included or extra? Any insight or tips you can give me on your experience is greatly appreciated. Also, I am in the NY area what do you think is a fair hourly and monthly rate. The commerical kitchen in the city want $180 for 8hrs but I don't need 8hrs a night.
I am guessing I would need the kitchen about 2 nights a week for 4 hours to start.
Help,
So, going with the $180/8 hours.... That's $22.50/hr. If you want to use it 8 hrs/week, can you afford $180/week? Will you be making any money that way? That'd be close to $800/month.....
Some things you need to investigate, if you haven't already:
Is the church's kitchen permitted by the health department for long-term commercial use? Sometimes a kitchen may get temporary food permits if they are only rented for occasional events.
Once you start using it, you still need to have your own food permit from the health department. In my area this also includes working with the fire marshall.
You'll also need product liability and general liability insurance.
I'd try to pin down a monthly rate which would allow you unlimited off-hour usage. That way you're not obligated to track every minute you're in the place and if you have a big job, you don't have to worry about added hours in the kitchen cutting into your profit. Look at your budget, figure out your cake costs, etc, then settle on a monthly amount you can comfortably afford while still turning a profit.
Good luck!
How exciting, I'm so jealous. I have not actually done this but I dream about it and here are some important logistical issues that I worry about. According to my state (TX) "everything must reside in the commercial kitchen". I take this to mean my equipment, my ingredients etc can not go from Walmart, to home kitchen to church back to home kitchen. This also means the finished cake has to be delivered from or picked up from the commercial kitchen. I could be misunderstanding this so for anyone who has personal experience with this please pipe in.
That said you would need a "locker" that you could lock where you can keep no perishable items and equipment. For me this is large enough to hold my kitchen aide plus all of my utensils, fondant tools and pans. You would need a section of a refriedgerator where you are allowed to keep perishable ingredients such as eggs, milk and sour cream. I guess you could swing by walmart before each cake and just buy enough for what you need if you do not want to store on site but that adds to your time and cost. I doubt they have a fridge you can lock so know full well your milk may be gone when you get back if the church needed it for coffee. This is not anyone being malicous, just "there is milk in the fridge can someone grab it" kind of thing. You will need somewhere "safe" to keep your cake while it's a work in progress. If you bake, cool, torte and fill the first night and decorate the 2nd night, where will that cake go? Fridge, locker, counter? This always makes me nervous because you have zero control over who has access to the kitchen so if it can't go somewhere that you can lock, you run the risk of someone unintentionally damaging or eating your cake
Also you will need to specify in your letter that you will provide your own insurance because you do not want to leave the church liable if someone gets sick from your cake.
There are people on here who rent church kitchens and hopefully they will pipe in with personal experiences or suggestions on how to handle these issues. It would be a great opportunity for you and for the church.
As far as price goes...$180 for 8 hrs works out to be $22.50 an hour which for NY sounds great. We have a commercial kitchen you can rent here that charges $25 an hour which is why I can not do it. For me personally to be able to afford the commercial kitchen and still make a profit on the cakes, I think $10 to $15 an hr would work for me. Also remember that you get a lot more with a true commercial kitchen, large ovens, over sized mixers, locked food storage areas etc. They are designed to do what you need such as bake numerous cakes at once.That means you should be able to negotiate a lower rate with the church kitchen because they don't have the same amenities and thus it's higher risk and expense to you.
Can you tell I think too much about this...someday...I really hope to be in your shoes and working out the details of this with a local kitchen. I wish you all the best.
Thank you both so much for your post. They were wonderful not only gave great food for thought but focused me to make all the calls necessary. I have found out so much information. Anyone else in the NYC area if you want names & contact #s for various department send me a PM.
Baked Alaska: I did my church kitchen search based on locations which had soup kitchens. Because the church services food to the public, they are required to have a food vendor license and be inspected by the Department of Health already. When I called the small business department they were the ones to suggest finding a church or school kitchen. All I have to do is take the food safety class and get the handlers permit, INS, tax ID etc. Yes, they will come and inspect it once I start the business but its already an approved place.
Sillywabbitz: LOL, dont be jealous I am still only in the planning stages but very eager to give it a try. I have always dreamed of owning my own business and this is the first step I am very nervous.
As far as the lockers and separate stuff I was thinking the same thing myself. My supplies could be used if I were to leave them if I didnt have a locker for non perishables. I am a germ freak I would bring the eggs, milk etc with me each time since these are the item that if they were bad or tampered with could cause major problems for my business.
I agree $10 to $15 an hour is a fair price and will try to see if they will get as close to those numbers. I think it will be a win/win situation for the church too. Since they have a soup kitchen I wouldnt mind donating some of my test cakes. Now I just bring them to the office. Also, while I test the waters they will be having a set monthly income coming in which they didnt have before. In this recession everything is hurting including churches.
Thanks again
A non-profit like a church can not rent their kitchen to a for profit business, they'd lose their non-profit status
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-6844060-.html#6844060
That's my understanding too, kayakado. I think some non-profits just don't realize it. They will find out when the rent gets to their accountant. My license had to go through the planning commission for permission for my location. In my area, a non-profit would have been stopped there. But the tax law is federal, so it is the same everywhere.
A non-profit like a church can not rent their kitchen to a for profit business, they'd lose their non-profit status
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-6844060-.html#6844060
that makes sense. But since I was just planning to inquire with some churches about renting their kitchens, it is also about the most discouraging realization I've had in weeks.
Which is why I say, save yourself--enjoy your hobby. Make money doing something else. Or jump off the cliff and get the ducks in a row, hire employees and do it up big and right. The middle ground is not really there unless your county or parrish cooperates with you.
I wonder about making an offering to the church instead of "renting". I too want to start making cakes for a profit- but I have alot of work to do first. I first need clients. So inorder to get my name out there, I plan to bake, bake, and bake for family, friends and whoever I run into. The deal is - I accept tips and/or buy the ingredients for the cake. If I were to make the cake in the kitchen at the church, I would have alot more work. If things go well and I start to turn a profit - I could give some an "offering" to the church. It would be easier I think for me to do it this way - since I'm 32 and I have been attending this church since I was born. We are a small church but we have been ok'd by the health dept. But that's still way in the future - in the mean time, I have a skater's cake to make for my hair stylist in August. I wonder if we can barter ?
I don't think that they would lose their non-profit status. I read an article the other week about this. Churches have all kinds of businesses that use them (adult education, coffee shops, pre-school, yoga, etc.) As long as the church uses the money that they receive from renting their facility to maintain the building or give to the needy or whatever then they are ok.
When I was renting a chruch kitchen I paid $50 for the first 4 hrs and then $10 per hr after 4hrs. Had alittle storge but not much had to haul everything with me and take it back home.
I don't think that they would lose their non-profit status. I read an article the other week about this. Churches have all kinds of businesses that use them (adult education, coffee shops, pre-school, yoga, etc.) As long as the church uses the money that they receive from renting their facility to maintain the building or give to the needy or whatever then they are ok.
I belive this is correct in CA. My husband is a Firefighter, and they have a non-profit association, which runs a hall. They rent out the kitchen and hall all the time. They do this to make money, but that money has to be used to pay the bills, maintenance, and so on. Anything left over has to go to another non-profit organization, ie - Children's Center, Burn Foundation, ect. This is how they maintain the building for member use free of cost, making a difference in the community along the way! I have thought about renting out their kitchen, but the logistics of it just hasn't worked for me yet. They couldn't secure the kitchen to me for $100 and miss out on $1000 for a fully rented facility on a Friday night, and that is when I do most of my decorating. And there is no secured storage area, and it is all the way across town. I don't want to drive 20 minutes to bake a cake. SO for now, I will do freebies for friends and family.
Go into the link about the nonprofit losing it's status and read the entire ruling, or better yet, have someone with proper legal understanding read it and give a valued opinion of the ruling. It might be ok.
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