Building a community asset

janitorial business and my mom’s seamstress business. When I was 12, my father bought a food truck. He was the first African American food truck vendor here in the city and back then the city didn’t just let you just pull up anywhere with a food truck. My dad fought with the city a lot about where he could park his truck and where he could serve his food.

ects, programs, putting together the systems, automation from concept all the way to implementation. Figuring out the administrative problems and issues was kind of my job.

greens store closings. El-Amin plans to re-brand Foundry and use at least 7,000 square-feet for events and as co-working space for other small businesses and vendors. “It just felt like we needed to develop a community asset.”

MSR: Tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up? And what was your life like before you purchased the distillery?

Kamillah El-Amin: I grew up here in North Minneapolis. I’m the middle child of five. My father was a school bus driver for 30 years. So, this is truly my stomping ground.

My family is kind of wellknown in Minneapolis for a couple of different reasons. My father was a Muslim minister and one of the first chaplains to start a ministry program in correctional facilities in Minnesota. Even though my father and mother both worked full-time jobs, I can’t remember a time where they didn’t have their own businesses on the side.

I grew up working in my dad’s

There was a lot of adversity with the city trying to make money with the food truck, so we had to get creative. We traveled the state of Minnesota, going to all kinds of festivals and fairs. They’d be up north, down south, in different counties, and things like that. So, I really got to see Minnesota as a child which broadened my horizons. I wasn’t just confined to the Northside.

For the past 30 years, I worked for my family’s nonprofit, and we were based out of a religious organization. We created a social service entity—then built that social service organization to have multiple for-profits within the nonprofit. Creating those proj-

MSR: What inspired you to buy this business, what stood out to you?

KEA: The first thing that inspired me was the location. It’s in North Minneapolis, a place that I’ve lived all my life. The second thing that inspired me was how big it was, how much I could do in this

■ See BBS on page 8