Caribbean American Entrepreneurs Brighten the Fabric of American Society
By Duane Coombs
Caribbean immigrants, a disparate group scattered across the breadth of the United States of America, have made an indelible mark on the fabric of the United States.
The Presidential Proclamation designating June as Caribbean American Heritage Month has officially--some say, belatedly--acknowledged the enormous contribution that immigrants from the Caribbean have made in practically all spheres of American life.
Dr. Claire Nelson is regarded in many circles as the spiritual mother of the movement to have an officially designated Caribbean American Heritage Month.
“Caribbean Immigrants have played an intimate role in the fabric of America and we have contributed to its growth and development” Dr. Nelson said.
The germ of the idea for a Caribbean American Heritage Month had existed for some time but in 2004, in what Dr. Nelson describes as a “convergence of ideas” she was approached by the staff of Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Independent of each other, they had been working on the same initiative, so they decided to join forces when they learned of each other’s efforts.
Years of intense lobbying followed and after a bill-- “which was drafted on my dining table,” Dr Nelson noted-- was passed, President George Bush in 2006 formally proclaimed June as Caribbean American Heritage month.
From the St. Kitts-born Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers and the first Secretary of the Treasury, to the Jamaican-descended Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State, individuals with Caribbean heritage have functioned at the highest echelon of the American government.
Somewhat less well known though, is the contribution of Caribbean entrepreneurs who have been among the unsung heroes, whose contributions have been instrumental in helping to transform the face of the American society.
Theirs is an intriguing story of sacrifice, perseverance, enterprise and hard work. Vincent HoSang, Prakash Persaud and Lowell Hawthorne-- whose backgrounds are as diverse as the Caribbean itself-- are three Caribbean nationals who are at the center of this unfolding narrative of success.
Caribbean Food Delight
Vincent HoSang of Chinese-Jamaican extract, Prakash Persaud of Indo-Guyanese background and Lowell Hawthorne of Afro-Jamaican heritage are linked by one common thread: they have chosen the food service industry as their means of contribution.
Entrepreneur HoSang, the owner of Caribbean Food Delight, one of the premier frozen food distributors on the eastern seaboard, recalls his meandering path to success which is underscored by faith and hard work.
Vincent HoSang (3rd from left) surrounded by wife and children
Vincent HoSang’s father emigrated from China to Jamaica in the 1930s. The family settled in Springfield, St James on the northwest section of the island, where he and his siblings were born. After completing his secondary education at Cornwall College in his native parish, the young HoSang decided to join the mushrooming group of Caribbean nationals seeking a better life in the United States.
“I came to this country more than 40 years ago with very little except a belief in myself” he recalls. “It wasn’t easy because I remember my first job was putting hinges on attaché cases from which I earned $1.60 per hour”
From his princely wage of $60 dollars per week, he was faced with a monthly rent of $110.00, yet he still never neglected trying to put a little money aside, because he nurtured bigger dreams.
He persevered, and in 1979 finally realized his dream of owning his own business when, with the help of his wife and the encouragement of his brother, he purchased the Kingsbridge Delight Fried Chicken outlet.
“I had no experience in starting a business but my parents had been involved in the bakery business in Jamaica so I decided to give it a try”
With help with some financial help from his brother, and with his entire family--comprising his wife and four children-- pitching in to work long hours, he was eventually able to make a success of his modest investment.
He decided to rename Kingsbridge Food Delight the Caribbean Food Delight and to diversify his operation. Today, from his Tappan, NY headquarters, HoSang has parlayed his initiative into an imposing presence in the food distribution business.
“We fill requests throughout the country,” HoSang proudly recounts, “We supply 400 Wal-Mart stores, 170 BJ megastores and also Costco stores and supermarkets from Connecticut to Georgia”
Yet, despite his success in the business world, he is particularly proud of his philanthropic efforts, which he regards as almost a moral responsibility. He reasons that his success was built on the support he has garnered over the years from the community, so he has a duty to give something back.
Of all his charitable efforts, he is most intimately identified with the Team Jamaica Bickle initiative through which he and his group accommodate and feed scores of Jamaican high school athletes attending the annual Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia. He has done this for the past 14 years at tremendous at personal expense.
Although Vincent HoSang insists he is in semi-retirement and has ceded much of the day-to-day operation to his daughter Sabrina HoSang and her three siblings, he confesses to still maintaining a grueling 60-hour work week.
De Islands
Prakash Persaud’s immigrant story is somewhat more recent but is no less inspiring. He came to America to join the rest of his Guyanese family around 1990 and, after doing a number of jobs, he decided to start his own restaurant business.
(Left) Vibrant Caribbean colors of De Islands
(Right) De Islands’ Prakash Persaud (center) and staff
With its vibrant Caribbean accented color and its distinctive signage, De Islands restaurant is hard to miss. Since Persaud opened his restaurant in the teeming Caribbean enclaves of Flatbush and Canarsie in Brooklyn, NY five years ago, it has created its own niche in the growing Caribbean fast food restaurant market.
Brooklyn, with its more than 1 million people of Caribbean background, was a prime location for Persaud’s open kitchen concept which was popularized by a number of American fast food outlets.
“My business is growing and I am encouraged that I am in the best possible location for future growth” Persaud said. Since opening his flagship store in Canarsie Brooklyn, he has opened a second De Islands restaurant in Flatbush junction in the heart of the Caribbean community.
Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery Inc.
With 34 stores in Brooklyn alone, Golden Krust restaurant chain is perhaps the best known of the Caribbean Restaurant franchises. Lowell Hawthorne and his siblings decided to start the restaurant chain in 1989 in a determined bid to return to the restaurant business in which their family was engaged since 1949 in their native Jamaica, West Indies.
Golden Krust - Lowell Hawthorne (extreme left) with franchisee
Veda Allen-Barnes (at centre, in red shirt) along with members of her team at the franchise located in the Newport Centre Mall, Jersey City, NJ
Based in the Bronx, NY, the Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery Inc., operates a chain of company-owned and franchised Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery restaurants. Founded by CEO Lowell Hawthorne, who had arrived in New York in 1981 determined to start his own business, the sprawling Golden Krust business now comprises some 75 units located in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Florida.
“We are the largest Caribbean owned business in the United States” Hawthorne explained “and as part of our strategic business, we hope to expand to all the large areas in the Diaspora with strong Caribbean populations”
Having dominated the Caribbean American restaurant business, Hawthorne has set his sight on even bigger things, some of which have already begun to come on stream. These include establishing a foothold in the wider community beyond his Caribbean base.
And things are already looking up as Golden Krust has secured a 4-year contract to supply 24 million patties to the New York School system and, in addition, the company has also been contracted to supply the New York penal system.
Contracting prominent New York Giants professional football player Tikki Barber to endorse Golden Krust was a turning point in the company’s quest to go mainstream.
Golden Krust Team Members at 1787 Central Park Ave,
Highridge Plaza, Yonkers, NY
“Our exclusive contract with Tikki created tremendous credibility for our organization and brought a lot of mainstream consumers to Golden Krust. We have done extremely well, to such an extent that now Caucasians make up about 20% of our clientele”
As soon as the summer of 2008, he expects to open the first Golden Krust store in Toronto on the Eglinton strip which is located in the heart of Toronto’s Caribbean community
The secret of Golden Krust’s success, and a recurring theme with the entrepreneurs profiled in this story, is their personal touch and their policy of engaging their customers.
Little wonder then that Lowell Hawthorne, for one, was front and center at the recent Penn Relays carnival in Philadelphia, PA, personally serving patties and other Golden Krust products to hungry consumers while engaging them in small talk.
“I have always believed that if one wants to succeed one must make ones self accessible. If I have one philosophy for success it is to go for your dream and make sure you are well informed and inspired to support your community”.
Vincent HoSang, Lowell Hawthorne and Prakash Persaud belong to a burgeoning group of Caribbean-America businessmen whose success stories are finally being told, and have taken their rightful place in the pantheon of successful businessmen.
Caribbean expatriates have made an undeniable contribution to our society. And what a contribution it has been for more than four centuries.
That they are now being officially recognized by the US government is due in no small measure to the advocacy of people like Dr. Claire Nelson who have shepherded the idea of an official Caribbean American Heritage Month to reality.
Coombs is a freelance writer living in New York