BALTIMORE — For the last six years, Brianna Chase has been catering in Baltimore, cooking from inside her home.
Baltimore caterer raises $30K in 48 hours, lands kitchen space
“So originally, it actually started as like selling individual platters back when the pandemic started,” says Brianna Chase, owner of the Chase Space.
On May third she participated in a pop-up, and someone called the health department on her despite her doing nothing wrong.
“That next morning, I got a call from the health department, and he was like, 'Hi, I was just making sure that you had your licensing to operate in a pop-up shop at the listed address of the pop-up shop,' and so he didn’t even mention like the selling platters or anything, but he just mentioned specifically the pop-up shop.”
After the call she decided to shut down her business and make sure she had the proper licensing.
“Everything that I needed to do to be legit, I got it done,” Chase says.
She also felt it was time to leave her home kitchen and expand.
But because it is her only income, she decided to ask for help to get a food truck.
“I had my GoFundMe in my bio for months, like maybe almost over a year, and it’s always said the same thing about me making a food truck and everything, and then I just decided to post it,” Chase says.
Within 48 hours, the GoFundMe had raised over $30,000.
“I never ask for help; everybody sees how hard I work."
"I document everything. I record everything: me serving plates, me helping people I give people free recipes—you name it, I do it. I record it and post it. They got me to 30 thousand dollars in less than 48 hours.”
Within a week she was able to rent a commercial kitchen space inside of La Chow in Baltimore City.
Chase says her goal is still to get the food truck, and she is keeping the GoFundMe active until she is able to reach that goal.
“You just gotta keep going and keep going and may not be the best during, but the reward after is very worth it.”
