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New program in Arizona helps veterans interested in opening restaurant, food truck

cuties lemonade
Posted at 2:29 PM, Aug 30, 2021
and last updated 2021-08-30 15:29:52-04

PHOENIX — The City of Phoenix is looking for veterans that want to open their own food business.

According to organizers, the program will walk veterans through the ins and outs of starting a company, whether a restaurant, food truck, grocery store or farm.

"So in this program, veterans can choose anywhere in the food economy they want to participate and build a business around that," said Hanna Layton with Thrive Consultancy, the company in charge of the training.

Layton said the program is free to veterans and will last 10 weeks.

"The program is a training program designed for entrepreneurs who are interested in starting or joining a sustainable food enterprise," she said.

Army veteran Quincy Milam owns Cutie's Lemonade which has several locations and multiple food trucks.

He did not go through the program but said he wished he had a place to go for help.

He told ABC15 that there was a lot of paperwork he wasn't familiar with.

"All the business licenses, the insurances, it goes on and on, it never stops," Milam said.

He said some of his military skills did transfer over into the civilian world and made running a business more doable.

"You have a mission. You want to get that done. You want to build it up. You got to keep that moving forward," he said.

"So it's really to grow from so small to our fourth store and three food trucks," he added.

The deadline to sign up for the program is Aug. 31. For more information, click here.

Patrick Hayes at KNXV first reported this story.