Empower's recently opened Camerena Adelante Center in the heart of the Nomar District in Wichita will assist the local community with the resources and knowledge needed to pursue and grow their food-related businesses.
It’s early on a Saturday morning, but Faith Lugalia is already awake and standing over a deep fryer in one of the professional kitchen spaces at Empower’s Camarena Adelante Center in the Nomar District of Wichita. Faith is making samosas, a savory pastry with roots in East Africa, with the intent to sell them later in the morning at a Wichita farmers market.
“I have so many good memories wrapped around eating samosas and it bringing people together and just creating good memories,” Faith says. “I wanted to bring that part of my culture to Wichita and share it with others.”
Faith Lugalia says access to a professional kitchen is allowing her to pursue her dream.
She’s only two months into following her dream of using her passion for cooking and her culture to start a business, but even getting this far likely wouldn’t have happened without Empower’s help.
Empower is an organization that’s developing deep roots in Wichita’s North End, an area of the city with historical and cultural ties to the thousands of Latino immigrants who have made it their home. Its goal is to transform the community by inspiring and strengthening the people who already live there to create lasting progress. Empower wants to remove the barriers that prevent people from developing further, gaining more education and making opportunities for themselves and their families.
Their latest efforts to accomplish this revolve around the opening of the Camarena Adelante Center, located at the heart of the Nomar District at 21st and Broadway. The center houses meeting rooms, office space, and professional, fully equipped kitchens and prep spaces.
“We’re able to help entrepreneurs like Faith who want to come and start a business,” says Ariel Rodriguez, Empower’s executive director. “They may not have the means or access to go lease a full-time space that they’re ready to operate from, but this facility provides actual capabilities to individuals.”
Empower Executive Director Ariel Rodgriguez and Commercial Kitchen and Operations Manager Sally Aguilar take part in ribbon-cutting and building opening festivities
At the recent ribbon-cutting ceremony for the building, you could already see the potential impact a community center and organization like Empower could have on the area. Local residents and stakeholders were joined by a host of community and civic leaders, including Wichita Mayor Lily Wu.
The event turned into its own mini-festival, with street vendors and local entrepreneurs showing off their food and products as music from a DJ filled the air. Hope was the overwhelming feeling that emanated from both speakers and attendees.
In the short term, the professional kitchen spaces at the center are meant to help people start a new business, or maybe just a side hustle, or simply allow someone to take something they’ve already been doing from home into a place with better equipment that allows them to grow.
Whatever the case, Empower wants to help people learn the skills necessary to create something for themselves. It wants to begin to make enough of an incremental difference in people’s lives that they’re able to build real financial independence and long-term household wealth.
“A year from now, we might see that there’s a really cool business, like a food truck that’s come from this,” Ariel says. “But maybe a decade from now, we’ll see how that has led to much further progress, not just from the individual, but for the whole community.”
Koch is a founding supporter of Empower and continues to provide financial support, knowledge and volunteers. Koch shares Empower’s vision of strengthening communities and the workforce by removing barriers and empowering people to develop their own unique talents and abilities.
“Communities thrive when people are able to apply their talents and skills to create value for others,” says Amy Johnson, Koch community affairs manager and Empower board member. “Koch is proud to support an organization that is not only providing access to equipment and space but also walking alongside entrepreneurs launching and growing businesses.”
Faith says the team at Empower, especially Commercial Kitchen and Operations Manager Sally Aguilar, was the key to turning her dream into reality. Not only did Empower provide a licensed kitchen to prepare her food, but the business expertise to walk her through all the other details about forming a company, getting the proper permits and pricing her products appropriately.
“Every step of the way, Sally went above and beyond,” Faith says. “She worked with my schedule, always emailed me and would answer any question I had because I didn’t know anything about the logistics of starting a business. Her experience isn’t something that you can really Google or YouTube or ChatGPT.”
That extra effort, available for free to anyone who asks, is what gave Faith the courage to take the first steps. Without it, she says she likely wouldn’t have started. Her dream would still just be an idea on paper — a "what-if" or "maybe someday."
Faith recognizes that her journey is just beginning and that there are still many hurdles she’ll have to face. But so far, she’s succeeding. She’s sold out of product at the farmers market for several weeks in a row.
“Sometimes I’m like, whoa, I’m a business owner,” she says. “Wow! This is real.”
