E.A.T. w/ Culinary Professional Inc. is a full-service food company that provides various culinary services to its communities, such as catering, banquet services, and food education with menu planning and healthy eating. James Paterson, the current CEO and Beverage Director, has over thirty years of culinary experience. In 2009, James and his team established the E.A.T. Initiative to combat youth obesity and develop healthy eating habits in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.
E.A.T. began its first pilot programs in different high schools, teaching children with culinary interests how to cultivate, prepare, and consume nutritional foods. E.A.T. also developed a curriculum on hospitality and culinary art, which was later used to provide services to the city. Unsurprisingly, the first contract that James and his team received was from the Administration for Children’s Services.
While James was pursuing another city contract with the Department of Corrections, he learned about TruFund Financial Services, Inc, and the lending services it provides for small businesses. E.A.T. successfully received its first funding from TruFund, which helped James expand his company by creating five new jobs and successfully finishing his contract with the Department of Corrections.
During these ten years, James and his team built an expansive network with local city agencies to secure significant contracts within the city that helped his company expand its initiative. Recently, E.A.T. received a massive contract with the New York City Department of Sanitation for $10 million. Working on such big contracts requires initial funding. When James reached out to TruFund to get a loan to cover first-time payments to vendors, as a trusted client, TruFund quickly and smoothly provided James and his team with a $500,000 loan that James could repay in 30 days.
The contract helped him to create 50 new jobs, and the business doubled its profits for the year. James and his team are currently searching for a new building to accommodate his expanded workforce. New opportunities have opened for James and his team—they are about to secure a $34 million contract with the city due to their dedication to serving their community and following their mission.
TruFund is proud to serve community-oriented businesses like E.AT. We also share the same vision and in solidarity with E.A.T.’s mission, “if we educate, train, support, and mentor our youths and their parents in our community, we can change the world...”. James and his team began their mission at the schools and are now serving all five New York City boroughs. They are looking forward to expanding to the federal level.
