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By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

Taking a closer look at notable city data—and interesting numbers.  This week’s focus is the City’s Nibble program run by the Arts Council.

More than 6,000 attendees: The Arts Council’s Nibble program started in 2012 with a mission to facilitate cultural exchange, encourage cultural economic development, and support immigrant culinary entrepreneurs with opportunities and training and immigrant communities overall through food. It started with just a few small programs. Now, more than 6,000 people attend Nibble’s annual Ignite Street Food and Fire Fest each year in Union Square. More than 800 people have taken one of Nibble’s international market tours, and more than 400 people have taken a Nibble-sponsored cooking class – and counting. Most recently, attendees learned how to make a full vegetarian Ethiopian meal. You could say Nibble is opening doors and minds one dish at a time.

Twice as likely: Immigrants are twice as likely to start businesses as persons born in the United States, and those businesses are often culinary. To support these burgeoning business owners, Nibble offers the Nibble Entrepreneur Program, which provides business and culinary training to immigrants working to start a business. So far, 18 entrepreneurs have gone through the program with 75% earning their ServSafe certification – a must for working in the culinary world.

13 countries: Nibble entrepreneurs represent 13 countries (so far), including Venezuela, India, Mexico, Colombia, Somalia, Panama, and Ethiopia. With so much culinary diversity and connections to the food industry, the Nibble program has also put on more than 40 cooking classes. Attendees have learned how to make dishes from around the world like Mexican cactus dishes, Syrian banadora soup, and Salvadorian pupusas.

75 vending events: Over the years, Nibble has helped entrepreneurs sell their food at 75 events, which include 30 pop-up restaurants and 45 Arts Council and Union Square Main Streets events. Vending at a variety of events helped entrepreneurs and Arts Council staff figure out what works best. For example, after crunching the numbers, they figured out that serving food to go at events and pop-ups netted more profit than hosting sit-down meals. In May, Nibble hosted a Cinco de Mayo pop-up event at Bow Market featuring Mexican cuisine. To know what’s popping up next subscribe to the Arts Council newsletter at www.somervilleartscouncil.org/nibble.

400-square-foot kitchen: This summer, the Nibble program will be opening a permanent home in Bow Market with a 400-square-foot commercial kitchen. Nibble entrepreneurs will be able to make and sell food at the Bow Market space and the Nibble program’s cooking and entrepreneur development classes will continue there. If you’re interested in learning more about the Nibble program in person or are interested in being a future Nibble entrepreneur, stop by the Nibble Open House on Tuesday, May 28, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Bow Market. Or check out the Nibble website at www.somervilleartscouncil.org/nibble/.

Data-based decision making is at the core of how the City of Somerville develops policy and sets priorities. Every day we check the latest 311 stats, and throughout the week we meet for in-depth review of departmental data and city trends. The Data Download column shares some of the data we’ve been reviewing recently, as well as interesting updates. To see more Somerville Data, visit the online Somerville Data Farm at www.somervillema