El Nopalito Produce Wins 2016 Faces Of Entrepreneurship Award

WATSONVILLE, Calif. - June 3, 2016 - PRLog -- El Pájaro Community Development Corporation (EPCDC) announced today that Vicente Quintana of El Nopalito Produce will receive one of three 2016 Faces of Entrepreneurship awards on June 7 in Sacramento at the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO) annual member meeting. He is the second EPCDC client to win the award in the past three years as Alfredo Garcia of Watsonville Diesel won the award in 2014.

Vincente started El Nopalito Produce in Watsonville with a 30-pound box of cactus paddles and in just six years turned his kitchen-table business into a thriving concern with six employees, processing 10,000 pounds a week and distributed in more than 30 markets across the Central Coast and South Bay.

Quintana completed EPCDC's Business Education and Loan Program in early 2013. This three-month program trains entrepreneurs on how to successfully plan, market, and manage a new business. It also offers financial literacy and credit management training, individualized consultations with business development specialists, assistance in analyzing the feasibility of a new business concept, and access to micro-loan programs (if desired) to help start or improve the business operations.

Vicente moved into the Commercial Kitchen Incubator (CKI) when it opened in the fall of 2013. "We really took him by the hand and guided him through the process," said Cesario Ruiz, the CKI's facility manager. He estimates that Quintana received more than 40 hours of individualized support from EPCDC in the last year.

More importantly, Vicente now has a sense of belonging, of being a successful businessman able to support his family and build bonds in a community he loves. His nopales are sourced from a local farm whose owner previously spent much of his time trucking cases of cactus to - and often back from, unsold - area farmer's markets. Now the farmer has an assured and steady income, no small feat in this economy. Vicente's success is a testament to how communities can bolster businesses which in turn bolster more businesses and strengthen and stabilize communities in return.

CAMEO comprises about 100 community organizations in California who provide entrepreneurs with small business training, business financing, and technical assistance - coaching, capital, and connection. The 2016 annual member meeting takes place at the Sacramento Grand Sheraton on June 7. To learn more about the meeting and CAMEO, please visit http://www.microbiz.org/,

About El Pájaro CDC

El Pájaro CDC, a 501 (c) 3 organization, was formed in 1979 to improve economic opportunities for Central Coast residents. Its mission is to promote equal access to economic opportunity and job creation for small, underserved, low-income and Latino-owned business in the region. It has assisted hundreds of emerging entrepreneurs through its bilingual, multicultural business training, education and technical assistance programs. To learn more about El Pájaro CDC, please visit http://www.elpajarocdc.org/.