DoorDash recently announced the first business owners who have been selected to participate in its new Accelerator for Local Goods program. 

According to a press release, this six-week educational program will empower minority business owners whose companies offer consumer packaged goods with resources to continue growing their businesses. 

“While we were selecting the participants for the program, we were immediately blown away by the entrepreneurial spirit of all of the business owners,” said Tasia Hawkins, Social Impact Program lead at DoorDash. “It was evident from the applications how much passion these inspiring entrepreneurs have for their businesses and community they operate within. We hope that the immersive educational programming and financial capital helps these businesses quickly scale to the next level.”

The selected business owners are from New York City, Chicago and the Washington, D.C., area. 77% of the participants are women, 68% are people of color, and 20% are immigrants. The selected businesses include Lorenzo’s Frozen Pudding, Stellar Granola and Laine’s Bake Shop in Chicago; Maluli’s Kitchen, Balkan Bites and Jamie’s Farm in New York City; and The Difference Baker, AppleCore’s Bake Shoppe and Zion Roar in D.C.

“Jamie’s Farm was created five years ago with the goal of bringing elements of fine dining into something as humble as granola,” Jamie Kim, founder of Jamie’s Farm in New York City, said in the press release. “After graduating from college, I made the decision to turn this hobby into a full-time job to continue sharing my farm-to-bag granola with more people. Being a part of the DoorDash Accelerator for Local Goods will provide me with the necessary resources to grow my business, including information about wholesale, supply chain and distribution.”

As of 2019, approximately 1.1 million businesses in the U.S. were minority-owned, representing around 18.7% of U.S. businesses, according to the Census Bureau. Almost 21% of businesses, or 1.2 million, were owned by women. The number of Hispanic-owned businesses increased to 6% in 2019, representing growth of around 4.6% from the previous year. There were approximately 581,200 Asian-American businesses owners and 134,567 black business owners as of 2019.