Grant Funding and Mentoring Turn A Mobile Kitchen Into A Sustainable Community Business

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When Nicolette Josop received grant funding in 2024 to launch a mobile kitchen, it marked the start of more than just a food business.

Two years on, Ini Hoeki Mobiele Koswa stands as a working example of how structured development support, funding paired with training and mentoring can turn a small, informal idea into a sustainable enterprise that creates jobs and serves its own community.

Ini Hoeki Mobiele Koswa, a female-founded enterprise based in the remote community of Onseepkans, close to Pofadder in the Northern Cape, is a direct beneficiary of Konkoonsies Solar Power’s Enterprise Development Programme.

With this ongoing support, the mobile kitchen, that started with providing freshly prepared meals to local workers, learners, commuters and households, has grown into a multi-service business generating income through catering, transport and since September 2025. They have also ventured into equipment rentals.

Nicolette has received ongoing mentoring and business training through JLK Business Consulting, covering bookkeeping, pricing, quotations, tender costing, food hygiene, gas safety and trailer safety, as well as basic computer training completed in February 2026. It is this combination: capital and capability, that has allowed her to manage her own records, price her services correctly and take on larger contracts with confidence.

“Ini Hoeki started in 2024, when I received funding for the mobile kitchen. Now, we have expanded to do catering for businesses and functions as well as event equipment hire like chairs and a tent. My business is not just a dream anymore. My business is an established business in Onseepkans,” says Nicolette Josop.

“Ini Hoeki Mobiele Koswa’s growth reflects the intent behind our enterprise development programme, which is that grant funding, paired with structured training and mentoring, is what allows emerging community SMMEs to develop into sustainable entities, entities that create local jobs and become lasting assets that serve communitie.

Nicolette’s business is one of a growing number of examples the programme points to in demonstrating that this model works,” said Nonini Makhothe, Economic Development Manager for Konkoonsies Solar Power.

The business has been able to increase its income, with catering now its largest revenue stream, followed by transport and food sales. The new equipment hire service has also added a further turnover.

The business supports one permanent employee and Nicolette regularly brings in casual helpers for larger catering events, rotating these opportunities so that more local households can benefit. Its hire equipment gives residents access to chairs, pots and a tent. Its branded food trailer has become a familiar, trusted presence in Onseepkans.

Challenges remain, particularly around transporting and safely storing equipment, with goals to expand hire stock over the next 12 to 14 months to include more chairs, tables and a larger tent, enabling that can serve functions of up to 150 guests.

Her long-term ambition is to turn away fewer customers and create paid work for local people to help with set-up and pack-down.