How McCain’s Streets Ahead Programme, powered by KERB, is helping emerging street food traders take the next step
Turning a good food idea into a working business takes more than a strong dish.
For many emerging street food traders, the challenge is not a lack of talent or ambition, but a lack of access to the support, funding, equipment, trading opportunities and industry knowledge needed to turn that ambition into something sustainable.
That is the gap McCain’s Streets Ahead Programme, powered by KERB, is working to close.
Now in its fourth year, Streets Ahead helps people facing barriers to entering hospitality build the skills and confidence needed to start a street food business. This year, the addition of the InKERBator experience brought that work into a live market environment at Cowcross Yards Market in London, giving selected participants the chance to cook, serve and sell their food to real customers.
For Gavin, founder of Cleaver’s Kitchen, the impact has been life-changing.
He said: “It’s helped change my life in a positive way, in many ways that I can’t even explain.”
What is the McCain Streets Ahead programme, powered by KERB?
Streets Ahead was created to support people who want to build a future in street food, but may not have the same route into the hospitality industry as others.
McCain’s programme is powered by KERB+, the social enterprise arm of KERB, which was created to support access, opportunity and progression in street food and hospitality.
It supports people from five areas of need: youth and long-term unemployment, refugees, homelessness, people with convictions and those with disabilities.
Lisa Donohue, managing director of KERB+, said the work reflects the reason KERB was founded in the first place.
“KERB actually started as a markets operator,” she explained.
“We were founded by a woman called Petra Barran, who was an independent street food operator herself.
“She saw the power and the potential of gathering talented traders together. How she describes it, which I love, was to create spaces for communities to connect through the joy of food.”
KERB+ now works across membership, markets and coaching programmes, supporting independent traders and helping people access employment or entrepreneurship in hospitality.
Lisa said McCain’s Streets Ahead programme developed from a recognition that talent alone is not always enough to get people through the door.
She said: “We recognised there are a lot of people out there who want to work in hospitality or get into the industry, but face many, many barriers.”
Lisa said the aim of KERB+’s coaching programmes, including McCain’s Streets Ahead, is to remove as many of those barriers as possible.
Why McCain Created Streets Ahead
For McCain, the programme is part of a wider ambition to support hospitality and invest in future talent within the sector.
Lucy Smith, product manager at McCain and lead for the Streets Ahead programme, said: “McCain is really passionate about supporting the industry and being that ally for our customers and hospitality as a whole.
“We’d identified that there are certain barriers to entering the industry, particularly for people from maybe disadvantaged backgrounds.
“We partnered with KERB, who are experts in the street food world, to bring to life a Streets Ahead programme that could provide those people with the coaching and the funding to get them into the industry.”
Street food was chosen because it offers a comparatively accessible entry point into hospitality, while still giving entrepreneurs room to be creative and build something personal.
Lucy said: “The reason why we chose street food is it’s seen as the gateway to the industry. It’s where creativity can really thrive for these individuals.”
Streets Ahead runs two cohorts a year, with participants going through a six-month journey that includes online learning, in-person sessions, food development and a final panel day.
At panel day, participants submit a pitch deck, present their business proposition and cook their dishes for a panel made up of representatives from McCain and KERB. It is also the point at which the level of investment from McCain is decided.
Lucy described panel day as “the graduation, as it were, of the programme” and “my favourite day of the year by far.”
From training room to trading pitch
Over the past four years, Streets Ahead has received 340 referrals, with 130 people taking part in the programme. More than 65 businesses have been funded, with more than £340,000 invested by McCain into finalists to help them start their food businesses.
For Lisa, the impact is seen most clearly when participants move from talking about an idea to actually serving customers.
She said: “To see them move from people who have real, obvious talent in terms of being able to cook and deliver delicious dishes, but getting that off paper and into real life, and helping them to get their investment - they would never have got that money. They’d never have been able to start a business without it.”
The introduction of InKERBator has added a new practical stage to that journey.
Previously, after panel day, participants received their investment and post-programme coaching to help them plan their next move. InKERBator now gives selected entrepreneurs the chance to put that learning into practice in a live trading environment.
At Cowcross Yards Market, that meant the programme was no longer theoretical. Participants had to cook, serve, talk to customers, manage orders and find out how their food worked in a real street food setting.
The showcase brought together food influenced by Syria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and the Caribbean, showing the range of ideas, cultures and personal stories coming through the programme. It also gave the traders something that can be difficult to recreate in a classroom: the pace, pressure and feedback of live trading.
The impact on traders: Gavin, Cleaver’s Kitchen
One of the traders putting that experience into practice was Gavin, founder of Cleaver’s Kitchen.
Gavin, from south London, serves a generational coco bread sandwich inspired by his Caribbean heritage, with family from Grenada and Antigua.
His food is rooted in family history. The sandwich brings together warm coco bread, chicken, dry Caribbean slaw, ackee mayonnaise, fried plantain chips and pikliz.
Describing the dish, Gavin said: “It’s passed down from grandparents to grandparents to grandparents.
“It has a lot of colour, a lot of vibrance, a lot of layers, a lot of texture and a lot of crunch.”
But Gavin’s journey with McCain’s Streets Aheadalso shows the wider purpose of the programme.
He was introduced to KERB while in Wormwood Scrubs, before going on to work with KERB after leaving prison and later joining McCain’s Streets Ahead.
He said: “When I came out of prison, I’d done work with KERB and then KERB put me through to Streets Ahead.
“I’d done a programme where I went to the kitchen, where I put my dish, and then McCain helped me get the money.
“I haven’t felt the need to think about old ways. It’s just like I’ve got something to think about, a positive future.
“The most positive thing is that it’s helped me reconnect with my family.”
For Lisa, seeing him trade at Cowcross Yards was a significant moment.
She said: “I met Gav from Cleaver’s Kitchen in Wormwood Scrubs, and he was a man with a dream and a trailer.
“To see him actually serving his great-great-grandmother’s coco breads out of his trailer in the middle of the market on a rainy day in London is amazing. It’s such a wonderful story.”
How does InKERBator support new food traders?
The next step for each participant will depend on their business, location and ambitions.
Some may move into KERB markets. Others may trade at local markets, festivals, private catering events or other hospitality opportunities.
Lisa said the aim is to make sure participants continue to receive support once funding has been awarded.
She said: “We don’t want to just say, ‘here’s your money, off you go.’ That was never the idea.
“We want to make sure that they’re spending their money wisely, buying the right kit, looking for the right trading opportunities, that they are legal, that they’ve got all their compliance training in place.
“To be able to really support people through those hidden barriers, helping to remove them, helping people to buy the right gear, hone their dishes, get their branding right, think about how they talk about their business, how they sell their dishes to their customers and give themselves confidence in their own ideas - that’s really important.”
For McCain, Streets Ahead remains part of its commitment to supporting the future of the hospitality industry.
Lucy said: “Just reiterating McCain’s ambition to be an ally to the industry and that we want to support future entrepreneurs to flourish.
“It’s something that we’re committed to.”
As the programme moves into its fifth year with McCain, Streets Ahead continues to show what practical support can do for people trying to find a way into hospitality.
At Cowcross Yards, that could be seen in the most direct way: traders serving their food, speaking to customers and testing their ideas in a live market.
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