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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | MARCH 27, 2022
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Book calls Chandler businesswoman ‘intriguing’ BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
Kris Mill says people come up to her all the time surprised and happy to see her and her food truck at events around the Valley. “When we’re at events, I get a lot of feedback from customers, like, ‘Thank goodness you’re here, because we’re tired of the greasy food,’” Mill said. “People are trying to eat healthier. There are more people now who are vegetarians and vegans than when I … started this about six years ago.” Mill serves vegetarian and vegan food from her truck, Wok This Way. She is co-owner with a young man she calls her nephew, Jake Lipovitch. They aren’t actually related: he’s the first-born son of her best friend from sixth grade. Still, they might as well be related with how close they’ve become. Mill said they both share a passion
Kris Mill operates a food truck called Wok This Way, which serves healthy options. (David Minton/Staff Photograpehr)
for cooking. Jake, who will soon be 16, has Down syndrome and that has motivated Mill to help. She said teaching people with Down syndrome how to cook healthy meals and providing them those meals is one thing she can do, because people with that condition often tend to be overweight. “He loves to cook with auntie,” Mill said. “He’s one of the many reasons, he’s the largest reason, why I have this food truck.” Another thing she can do is give them jobs. She said they make excellent workers and half of her staff have Down syndrome. “It’s a way for them to feel empowered,” she said. Mill says she is working to make her food truck business fully sustainable, including zero waste. She hopes to get a second food truck in the coming years, See
48WOMAN on page 31
Chandler group aims to help Black-owned businesses BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
There may have been some progress in efforts to improve opportunities for Black business owners, but that doesn’t mean there still remains a lot to do. Just ask Keasha Beach of Chandler, who started BASE Arizona, an acronym for Black Alliance & Social Empowerment. Beach recalled a woman telling her how she walked into a bank 10 years aho to secure a loan. “She said, ‘You know, about 10 years ago when I had just started my business, she goes, ‘I walked into the bank and I had everything all put together. Everything sounded good on the phone, but the moment I walked into the bank, they just denied it. They didn’t even ask me any questions about it.’” Experiences like that strike close to home for Beach. “My dad has had issues with that,” she said. “I remember sitting with him, kind of talking to him about that, and he said, ‘Look, I just try not to walk into the bank. I don’t even give them my full name. I give them like an initial. I don’t want them to be able to recognize as being a Black applicant … because I know right away it’s going to be denied.” Beach started BASE Arizona after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. She was on a video conference with other Black activists who were detailing many of the problems they face. “I remember getting off of that call and going, ‘Man, there was nothing to really take away from the call besides we have all these issues, we have all these problems,’” Beach said. “I felt like we didn’t do anything and I wanted to do something with this call.” Her brother started BASE of South-
continues. “It updates this legacy and honors the current collective of change makers and activists who strive for inclusion and equity that is real.” It adds that it “serves to create a welcoming and supportive community where Black people in Arizona feel safe, respected, and comfortable being themselves when expressing any aspect of our many cultural ethnicities.” Since Beach grew up in Chandler, graduating from Dobson High School, her initial focus is this city. However, her goal is to grow beyond it. The funding for BASE Arizona has come from Keasha Beach started BASE Arizona, an acronym for Black three individuals, but Alliance & Social Empowerment, to help Black business Beach says they are owners. (David Minton/Staff Photographer) growing fast and need corporate funding going ern Oregon and the two of them forward. worked out what they wanted this orThat money goes to a variety of ganization to be. Beach reached out to events and programs. For example, others in Arizona to form BASE Arizona. BASE started offering $1,000 scholarShe said its mission is to empower ships to high school seniors. the Black community. It runs several other programs as well. As its website, basearizona.org, Afro Skoutz helps youngsters ages explains, it aims to “provide a space to 5 to 13, to become “culturally knowlpromote solidarity, empowerment, and edgeable, empowered and respected economic development that might be members of the community.” imagined for this generation and the BASE Worx is an incubator program next, given the realities of the history of for Black-owned businesses that “emArizona. phasizes strategic planning, operational “BASE respects the past by drawing efficiency, and maximum profitability from the wisdom of the Civil Rights with a heavy emphasis on business Movement and acknowledging the strategy and planning. organizational genius that resulted in Additionally, each month BASE equality for Black people nationally,” it Arizona sponsors events to celebrate
the community. It started as Food Truck Friday. Beach said hundreds of people turned out and it has become one of their more popular events. “We don’t see ourselves as the whole pie, but we see ourselves as a piece of the pie,” Beach said. “We collaborate a lot, that’s huge for BASE.” She estimated there are about 50 Black-owned businesses in Chandler. Beach said BASE helped 25 of them acquire paycheck protection program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. All of them are still open today. Beach attended Mesa Community College and then graduated from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State. She also serves on a committee with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. Even though she set out to help the Black community in Chandler, Beach said others have reached out to her and their events are drawing even more people. That’s why she’s looking for corporate sponsors. In the meantime, it is doing what it can to support Black-owned small businesses. “Access to capital, that’s the biggest issue,” Beach said, recalling how one Black business owner couldn’t get funding to fix a company truck that had been vandalized. “This company has been in business, they’ve gotten through COVID, you know they’ve been around for the last four years, and here they are asking for some capital to get their truck taken care of so they can continue their business, and they haven’t been able to do that,” Beach said. “They set up a GoFundMe. So, yeah, it’s something that’s still happening.” Information: BASEArizona.org.
