Happy Belly Curbside Kitchen – Finding Opportunity in HealthyFood Owners Terry and Dawn Hall created Happy Belly CurbsideKitchen out of their experiences, knowledge, skills, and interests.The founders had 30 years of experience in the hospitalitybusiness, they traveled extensively across the United States tomeet the requirement of their carriers in hospitality. They werethe children of small business owners and have restaurantexperience combined with formal hospitality education. Terry andDawn recognized several patterns in their travels: 1. Theavailability of fresh, natural food is far less than the need forit. 2. Declines in small-business viability. 3. The inverserelationship between the availability of healthy food and the levelof obesity. When their daughter, Mayer, was born, Terry and Dawndecided that they wanted to eat only healthy, fresh foods. Theywere frustrated by how difficult it was to find the food theywanted when they ate in restaurants. And they wanted flexibility inwork schedules and the opportunity to support their community. Thisled to the idea of creating a mobile restaurant serving the fresh,healthy foods they desired. After the initial frustration of beingturned down repeatedly by mainstream banks, even though they hadrelated work experience, savings, excellent credit, and no debt,the Halls learned of a financing resource in their community thathad different parameters. They secured their initial financing fromAccess to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE Capital), a Cleveland,Georgia-based community development financial institution. ACE hada combination of its own resources and funds from Create Jobs forUSA available and was looking for borrowers like the Halls. Theloan process took seven days for approval. With the funding fromACE, Happy Belly was able to get rolling. The Halls remodeled theircommercial kitchen, purchase a food truck, and hired some dozenpeople. Happy Belly Curbside Kitchen is part of the highlycompetitive Atlanta food-truck market but has some distinctivetwists. The Halls do not call their business a food truck, rather a“curbside kitchen.” They have corporate sponsor, the Big Green Egg,producers of the high-end grill that is pictured on the vehicles.The menu changes frequently, depending on what is fresh and local.Orders are taken in iPads by staff in front of the kitchens, ratherthan from windows in the truck itself. Also, the company has a fullcommercial kitchen in nearby Smyrna, Georgia, that they use forcatering. These factors combine to permit their providing a greatvariety of fresh, healthy food. It was the Hall’s intention to keepthe money earned in the local community. They donated 5 percentprofits to the local Boys and Girls Club and purchased locallywhenever possible. Happy Belly targets customers in Fulton and CobbCounties and focuses on its core value of healthy eating. The Hallspartnered with Adam Verner, a local farmer. This is part of whatthey termed “farm to street,” a play on the farm-to-table movement.They were named one of the 10 Healthiest Food Trucks in America inShape magazine and expanded to two trucks serving the Atlanta area,along with an increasingly successful catering business.Entrepreneurship (MPU3323) CONFIDENTIAL April 2021 FinalExamination 5 Happy Belly Curbside Kitchen is locally based with aglobal view. Source: Nicole McDermott, “The 10 Healthiest FoodTrucks in America,” Shape, accessed November 7, 2020,https://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/meal-ideas/10-healthiest-food-trucksamerica.

 

1. Explain the nature of market for Happy Belly CurbsideKitchen?