Lowcountry nonprofit empowers during National Black Business Month

DANIEL ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) – A Lowcountry wife and husband team is working to help entrepreneurs navigate the nuances of business, as August marks “National Black Business Month.”

If you’re hungry for it, odds are Chef Cheryl Owens-Hargrove can make it for you and she serves each dish with a side of smiles.

“I did not know I was supposed to be a caterer. I had been around my grandparents, my parents, aunts, uncles, and the best cooks in Charleston. So that was just a thing. I never looked at it in terms of business, but I just knew I loved feeding people,” Owens-Hargrove said.

She owns her catering company, Serenity Events LLC and online food store, From the Little Farm Tea Lowcountry Gourmet Foods. The Lowcountry native fuses creativity and culture in her cuisine.

“As I got older and moved from place to place with the military, I was like, ‘Okay, they don’t have that here. So let me get the ingredients.’ And I would call back home and say, ‘Y’all, what am I missing? What else is supposed to go with this recipe?’ So I’ve always had our Gullah background in the back of my head and how we prepared things from here and I would make it be that,” she said.

Owens-Hargrove shares space in a Daniel Island commercial kitchen to run her operations. But even without her own brick-and-mortar location, she has had to navigate all that comes with obtaining business licenses, certifications and insurance. That’s why she reached out to Black Charleston Professionals for help.

“The whole idea behind Black Charleston Professionals is just to bring more community, networking and even resources. So at times, we will bring classes to our entrepreneurs, teaching them on subject matters that they may not get elsewhere because most times when people kind of go into doing the things that they really love to do, they may not understand the ins and outs of business,” Miranda Grimmage said.

She is the creator and co-founder of Black Charleston, alongside her husband, Kenyatta Grimmage.

Black Charleston serves as an umbrella organization and online platform to spotlight the services offered by Black-owned businesses across South Carolina and the stories behind them.

“It’s just really just trying to make sure that all businesses, especially businesses here in Charleston and the surrounding areas, are seen, they’re heard and that we can just kind of help elevate,” Miranda said.

The idea came to life during the COVID-19 pandemic when businesses were shutting down and Black entrepreneurs were taking some of the hardest hits.

“My wife and her sister decided that during the time what we saw was that businesses were closing for obvious reasons. But Black businesses here in Charleston were being affected the most. So we figured if we can create a platform for these Black businesses to get notoriety, give them visibility in the city, that we can push business toward these Black-owned businesses in a way to help them thrive,” Kenyatta Grimmage said.

Miranda’s twin sister, Elana Pea, is the founder of Black Charleston Professionals 501c3. It serves as the nonprofit support arm for business owners and a one-stop shop to help members navigate the nuances of entrepreneurship.

“Being a part of Black Charleston Professionals gets you in a network of people and you can call someone else and say, ‘Hey, do you know who I can go to get such-in-such? Have you ever worked with so-and-so?’ It gives you such a broad range. And every time you participate in something, you meet somebody else,” Owens-Hargrove said.

Owens-Hargrove is one of the reported 200 members of Black Charleston Professionals.

“Every time they get a new partner, it’s like we get a new partner. You know every time they get introduced to another idea or another opportunity, it’s like we’re getting that as well. And that’s an awesome thing to have here in Charleston,” she said.

And the Grimmage’s hope to keep supporting more business owners in the future.

“We come from a household with two entrepreneurs. So we always know what that looked like on that end of not having the resources just in our upbringing. So we wanted to create a space that not only provided community networking but also the resources to help those businesses thrive,” Miranda said.

While the number of Black-owned businesses have steadily grown over the years, in 2022 Black entrepreneurs only made up 3.4% of all businesses in the country, according to the Pew Research Center.

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