To help ease the immense up-front costs that come with so much advanced preparation, PepsiCo Beverages North America and Frito-Lay have teamed up to give $10,000 each to five Phoenix-based Hispanic-owned businesses to support operations ahead of the Super Bowl.
This year, the restaurants and businesses selected for the program are Carnicería México, a market that offers traditional Mexican ingredients and food, Imelda Happy Tamales which is famous for selling a wide variety of handmade tamales, long-standing Mexican restaurant Rosita’s Place, Tacos Tijuana, home of some of Phoenix's tastiest tacos, and Phoenix Coqui, one of the most popular Puerto Rican restaurants in the Valley.
The owners of Phoenix Coqui, Alexis Carbajal and Juan Ayala, received the funds from some unexpected visitors. PepsiCo executives along with actor Wilmer Valderrama, best known for his role as Fez in That '70s Show and the voice of Agustin in Encanto, showed up at the small 15th Avenue restaurant with a giant check.
“We are going to be investing that money in preparing for the Super Bowl by stocking up on our product as well as getting some additional help to have our inventory ready. We want to be ready for that incoming foot traffic,” Carbajal says.
Wilmer Valderrama, Alexis Carbajal, and Antonio Escalona inside the popular Puerto Rican restaurant Phoenix Coqui.
Tiffany Acosta
Valderrama says he's excited for the opportunity to highlight Latino-owned mom-and-pop businesses as well as young restaurants just getting started.
“It's a really beautiful time to be a Latino. A new frontier for both businesses and entertainment alike. So when we had an opportunity to kind of collide both and raise awareness for not only the culture but their businesses, it's always really special," Valderrama says.
In addition to the financial assistance, the five businesses also received free business-building services through the PepsiCo Juntos Crecemos Hispanic Digital & Delivery Program to strengthen their web capabilities, such as using Grub hub and Uber Eats, to help them access more online customers.
“We designed this program to support Hispanic-owned small businesses, bodegas, carnicerias, tiendas, restaurants, and we're very proud of the support we can give them," says Antonio Escalona, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Hispanic Business Unit with PepsiCo Foods North America. "The support [is] to help them grow, to help them compete, to help them attract more customers in a moment where it's so important, especially during [the] Super Bowl."
