What does it take to start a packaged food or natural product business as a person of color? It’s probably not surprising that there people of color are highly under-represented in the CPG industry.

Food and beauty are so personal and often are built on relationships and face to face interactions to tell a story and bring authenticity to the product. But this can be difficult to do when the customer is once removed from the maker. And navigating the CPG industry with it’s own language and expectations is difficult for anyone.

In this honest panel discussion, we will attempt to answer why we don’t have more entrepreneurs of color packaging their delicious or amazing products in Colorado and how we can make this space more inclusive. Our three panelists, Betty Artes of Casa Alvarez Foods, Pamela Richard of Miss Peabody’s and Orion Brown of The Black Travel Box will share their stories and learnings as well as take questions posed ahead of time from early stage or “just an idea” entrepreneurs.