Demetrius Walker, owner of Meek’s Vegan Pizza in Blodgett Food Hall near Texas Southern University, knows that in many ways he’s poised for success.
“Pizza is a big industry. It’s the most popular food on planet Earth. Five billion pizzas are sold every year, worldwide,” Walker said Tuesday morning. “But there’s been a huge void in the vegan pizza market.”
Meek’s opened in June 2021, in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was not the worst time to open a pizza restaurant, however. People still had to eat, and they gravitated toward delivery services such as DoorDash and GrubHub. This year, however, has been challenging. Walker, who has a professional background in economic development and learned to cook thanks to YouTube, Google and books, is aiming to deal with high inflation by making his business operations more efficient.
Small business owner, Demetrius Walker is one of the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients that were announced on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000. Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer
Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000. Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer
Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer
A grant from the city of Houston in partnership with Wells Fargo will help him do just that. On Tuesday, the Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Fund — the Houston Equity Fund — announced the first round grant recipients under its Open for Business Grant program at an event at Emancipation Park.
A combined $5 million will be distributed to 219 small businesses and nonprofits in this first phase of the program, part of a broader $20 million in grants which will go out over three-year period.
RELATED: Houston minority-owned businesses, nonprofits are taking advantage of a rare, $20 million grant
Walker, who received a $15,000 grant, plans to buy a $6,000 pizza dough baller — Meek’s makes its own dough from scratch each day — and, eventually, a machine that prints pizza boxes, which will lower his costs.
Other recipients who attended the event had similarly specific plans. Dana Wells of DW&A, an intellectual capital consulting firm, plans to use her grant to put various programs online as a way of democratizing the career planning process, she said. Eepi Chaad of Arts Connect Houston, a nonprofit focused on arts education, plans to use the funds to support a mapping project to show educators across Houston ISD what kind of arts programming is available at various campuses.
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1of9Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less2of9Executive Director of the Houston Equity Fund, Dr. Gena Jerkins, announces the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less3of9Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less4of9Small business owners, Deidre Mathis and Shannette Prince attend the announcement of the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less5of9Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less6of9Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less7of9Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less8of9Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less9of9Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less
The recipients were selected from about 2,500 Houston-area applicants whose businesses have 50 or fewer employees, are led by people of color and are committed to the Houston Equity Fund’s four pillars of social and racial justice, economic development, youth empowerment and education and community building.
Thomas Jones, president of the Houston Equity Fund, said at the event that the idea arose during a conversation with Mayor Sylvester Turner in August 2020 amid the pandemic and in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. In Wells Fargo, he said, the city found a corporate partner that recognized that for small businesses and nonprofits, capital is a basic need — in most cases, a paramount one.
RELATED: Houston Equity fund gets $20 million donation from banking giant
Gena Jerkins, the fund’s executive director, said fund leaders recognize that small businesses are key to social justice efforts, as well as the health of their communities.
“I’ve had board members say, ‘This is my way of marching,’” she said, after leading the crowd in a round of celebratory applause.
The broader $20 million commitment to the Houston Equity Fund is drawn from Wells Fargo’s $420 million Open for Business Fund, a national small business recovery effort launched during the pandemic, with a focus on racially and ethnically diverse small-business owners.
Marquel Carl, owner of Carl & Coleman Global Security, heard about the grant program while working security the first contract he landed after launching his own business, an event at the Harvest, a church in Greenspoint. Watching a presentation by fund leaders from the back of the room, he said, it occurred to him: “I’m a small business, too.”
Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity Honorary Board Chair Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with Wells Fargo and Black Houston business and civic leaders officially announce the first round of Open for Business Grant recipients on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022 at Emancipation Park Recreation Center in Houston. Over 200 Houston-area small businesses and non-profits will receive a combined $5 million ranging between $10,000 and $65,000.Raquel Natalicchio/Staff photographer
The $20,000 grant his firm received will allow him to provide his 10 employees with bulletproof vests, which run around $1,000 each, and non-lethal weapons such as Tasers, which can cost more than many handguns, the sort of equipment they need to do their work safely in neighborhoods many private security companies avoid, and where trust in law enforcement is not high.
Bishop Shelton Bady, founder and legacy pastor of the Harvest, said the Harvest Community Development Corp., a nonprofit focused on community outreach in Greenspoint, would use its $40,000 grant to buy computers for use in one of its after-school programs. Beyond that, he said, he reckons the grant represents a vote of confidence in the work the nonprofit does and the community it serves.
“After COVID-19, a lot of the wind under our sails was depleted. But now, this infusion of capital motivates us, energizes us. We have a rallying point to say, here’s a new beginning,” Bady said. “It’s a momentum-changer.”
