“We thought that we could get maybe 25 women to do it and ended up getting 100 women to do it, ” said Regarding Her founder Dina Samson. “After that festival we realized that we can really help move the needle for women’s businesses.”
RE: HER, a nonprofit, is now accepting applications for their $20,000 grant intended for self-identifying women who are food and beverage business owners in LA.
The organization is looking for innovative and committed applicants throughout Los Angeles who have a passion for food, and contributing to their community.
Regarding HER, or RE: HER, is a nonprofit organization that was the was founded with the hopes of empowering and advancing self-identifying women food and beverage business owners.
Applicants have to be members of RE: HER’s LA chapter and must be at least 50% woman-or woman owned. It is also required that the business have been opened for at least one to three years with projected 2022 revenues between $250,00 and $1million.
The organization started as a virtual food festival during the pandemic that brought out women restaurant owners from all across the city of LA. “We thought that we could get maybe 25 women to do it and ended up getting 100 women to do it, ” said Regarding Her founder Dina Samson. “After that festival we realized that we can really help move the needle for women’s businesses.”
After the success of the festival, the organization set out to tackle another issue that they felt women were struggling with during the pandemic.
“We realized that women need money. They were going to have to close their businesses because they did not have any working capital,” Samson said.
With the goal in mind, they reached out to DoorDash, who agreed to sponsor $10,000 grants to 15 women. DoorDash also is giving an opportunity for one-on-one coaching with industry experts.
“We put out an application and basically said, ‘hey, listen if you need money to help support your business at this time, we have this grant, please apply,'” she said. The first round of applications brought in around 70 applicants.
They also decided to grow their one-one sessions into a longer program called “Re: Her Academy.”
“We realized going through this on-on-one process that some women really needed more help than just $10,000 and three coaching sessions,” Samson said. “So that is when we decided to come up with the academy.” Her Academy is a two-day, ten-week program that will offer educational training within the industry.
“We realized that all of us… all us women, we just did this on our own. We became entrepreneurs and nobody taught us how to do it. We had to learn everything on our own and make mistakes, ” Samson said. “Then we thought how cool it would be if we could set up this academy and give some money for growth that can then help take these women to the next level.”
Jennica Braddock, Co-Founder of Dreamy Creations, was one of winners who received the grant during the pandemic, which helped her business stay open.
“When COVID hit, it drastically affected us. We were really struggling because events were getting canceled and so I started looking into grants, and I found RE:HER,” Braddock said. “Once we applied, we ended up getting it and it was just really awesome because we were in desperate need, so it definitely gave us some hope.”
Braddock, who recently closed down her retail store to focus on her mobile food trucks, took away more than just money from the reward.
“What was more impactful, and everlasting was the hope that it provided in such a dark time,” she said.