BOISE, Idaho — Trish Walker founded the Idaho Black Community Alliance (IBCA) in 2021 to pass offer support for other Black-owned Idaho businesses.
"I'm a fifth generation Idaho and I lived In the redlined district, but I didn't know that I was considered a poor individual or I lived on the wrong side of the tracks or anything," Walker said. "Because I had so much support. I had my great grandparents, I had my grandparents, and there was nobody in our community that ever went hungry. We never went without."
IBCA offers training, business plans, exposure, and others resources for a business to be successful. Walker origionally expected 30 or 40 businesses to sign on to a partnership; today, she's working with 200 businesses across the Gem State.
"I wanted to do more for my community and more for the Black community in Idaho. Businesses just made sense," Walker said. "You're just doing what you need to do to make sure that your family survives. And so you turn that into a business. And so we're just trying to be that resource to help them to get their business to that next level."
One of those businesses is Timberlake's Cuisine. Brandon Timberlake started the catering company in Las Vegas; he made it his full-time work after moving to Boise in 2020.
"Ohh man, I love Idaho," Timberlake said. "Let me tell you. I feel like sometimes I was born in the wrong state."
Timberlake's cultural upbringing surrounded food. The experience and memories he received in the kitchen growing up is the same feeling he wants to pass on to his customers.
That's a common thread among several of the businesses IBCA supports.
"I would say that there are some Black businesses that just do what they do, because it's what they've always been taught. It's something that's been handed down to them from tradition to tradition - or culturally," Walker said. "A lot of it is we don't have the formal training."
Timberlake credits the support offered through IBCA for allowing his business to be successful and stay successful. Timberlake is pushing to expand his business into a larger operation.
"You can be the next person to help somebody else up. So I think that's pretty cool," Timberlake said.
A 2020 Pew Research Center study reported 3% of businesses in America are owned by Black people; Black people make up 12.4% of the population, according to 2020 U.S. Census.
The Pew study did not report any numbers from Idaho.
"We need support. Not just during Black History month, but all year," Walker said.
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