Feeding the neighborhood through small businesses

Marco Senghor stands with a microphone in a corner of his restaurant, Bissap Baobab. It's one of two spaces he owns in San Francisco's Mission District and embodies community with what Senghor calls the "flavor of San Francisco." That flavor includes the cuisine of immigrants like himself.

"Welcome," he says, greeting a group of NeighborWorks network organizations, there for a tour as part of the NeighborWorks Training Institute. It's like he's inviting people into his home, and in a way, he is.

Born in Dakar, Senegal, Senghor opened his first restaurant in the Mission District in 1998. He did it, he says, with the help of Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA). "When I first arrived, there weren't many restaurants around 19th Street," he says. He was still learning how things worked in the United States – how to set up a business, get licensed and find capital. But he wanted to share food from home. A friend sent him to MEDA. "I came and talked about my dream."

One of MEDA's staff members asked him what he thought he needed to make that dream a reality. "I told her I needed $37,000. She said, 'We'll teach you to make a business plan. We'll help you at City Hall.'" And they helped financially, too, with a business loan. 

"I had seven years to pay it back," Senghor says. "I paid it back in one. As an immigrant, it was good to have MEDA around. They were like my mentor. They taught me everything. They were holding my hand. They said, 'Marco, don't worry; we're there for you.'"