Kitchens for Good is helping new San Diego culinary entrepreneurs survive their first year of business in the current faltering U.S. economy. The nonprofit organization pays for food-handling permits and catering licenses to cover small business owners as they develop their products and sales. A monthly public marketplace is held at the corner of Hornblend and Cass streets in Pacific Beach. Moderate to low income San Diegans who qualify for the organization’s microenterprise program sell their goods, earn money and learn what it takes to stay in business. The marketplace celebrated its first anniversary Sunday. Kitchens for Good hosts a monthly Sunday market for its first-time small business owners at the corner of Honrblend and Cass Streets in Pacific Beach, August 16, 2026. “I’ve got 600 sausages I’ve made with my original recipe,” said Aleksandar Stojsavljevic, known as ACO The Butcher. He is one of the successes stories. Stojsavljevic is a first-year small business owner who sells his sausages from San Diego to Los Angeles. He has received support funded through Kitchens for Good government grants and donations. “My hope is if I can go fully commercial, I can go beyond Southern California. It’s going to start local, but then go nationwide,” he told NBC 7 at Sunday’s marketplace. Kitchens for Good retail store manager, Mary Scafidi, said money earned by entrepreneurs at the marketplace can have an immediate impact on their lives. “It’s right to their hands,” she said. “This could mean the difference whether they have a roof over their head next month. That’s how the world is now.” Kitchens for Good also provides job training to people who need employment opportunities. Its resale shop in Pacific Beach sells used kitchen items and cooking tools, with proceeds helping fund the organization’s job-training apprenticeship program. The Kitchens for Good Resale Shop in Pacific Beach is open every day. All sales benefit job training and an entrepreneur programs to support people from underserved communities, August 16, 2026. Aracely Leon has worked as a cashier at the resale shop for two years. She said Kitchens for Good helped her enter the workforce after spending time in and out of prison. “I never had a job in my life. Because of them I found a supportive work environment and I am who I am now and not who I used to be,” Leon said. Kitchens for Good recently bought a building in Bankers Hill that is expected to provide a much larger commercial kitchen and a cafe where the public can buy products from its newest culinary small businesse owners.The new location is expected to open by next summer. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication. ...read more read less