{"id":251439,"date":"2025-07-01T14:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/?p=251439"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:43:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:43:01","slug":"operation-hope-fuels-these-food-truck-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/operation-hope-fuels-these-food-truck-entrepreneurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation HOPE Fuels These Food Truck Entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Securing a loan can be a major obstacle for entrepreneurs looking to start or grow their business, and that\u2019s where Operation HOPE often steps in to assist. That\u2019s the situation that married couple Maurice and Bridget found themselves in when they needed a loan to retrofit a food truck so they could share family recipes of shrimp and chicken with their community.

The loan officer they initially met with referred the couple to Operation HOPE Small Business Coach, Brooke Ratliff. Together, the three of them strategized about how to secure the $50,000 they were looking for. First, the couple logged onto Zoom for Operation HOPE\u2019s small business education sessions<\/a> where they learned that a business plan is an important tool to help pitch potential lenders. With newly acquired knowledge about what should be included in a business plan, the couple brainstormed and refined the target market for their services. With Brooke\u2019s guidance, they also itemized to the dollar how the $50,000 loan would be used to grow their business and included sales projections for the next two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBrooke kept us confident. She knew I had a decade of experience in the restaurant business and we had assets, which made us strong candidates for a loan. We just needed help presenting all of this in a business plan. She really went above and beyond\u2014meeting with us on a regular basis to refine our pitch and urging us to be as specific as possible when it came to expenses and sales. She\u2019d also check on us to know more about our progress with different lenders,\u201d said Maurice.\u00a0

With a comprehensive business plan now in hand, the couple was ready to approach lenders again, but where should they go first? Operation HOPE could assist here as well, and Brooke was able to refer the couple to several lenders that work with entrepreneurs who were just starting out.

Five months later, the couple was thrilled when CDC Loans approved their loan. Five months after that, the food truck\u2019s retrofitting was complete, it passed the required health inspections, and Maurice and Bridget held their first event at an automotive plant with 500 employees.

\u201cI\u2019m 51, and life has been challenging. I\u2019m finally accomplishing a dream I\u2019ve had to be an entrepreneur\u2014it\u2019s a blessing,\u201d said Bridget. Maurice added, \u201cthe HOPE program is fantastic. Brooke is fantastic, she 100% made this happen. It\u2019s discouraging when you have a dream and you can\u2019t secure a loan\u2014we didn\u2019t know where to turn. Operation HOPE was a breath of fresh air, it literally gave us hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information:\u202fOperationHOPE.org<\/a>. Follow the HOPE conversation on Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> or LinkedIn<\/a>.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Securing a loan can be a major obstacle for entrepreneurs looking to start or grow their business, and that\u2019s where Operation HOPE often steps in to assist. That\u2019s the situation …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":251442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-251439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hope-stories","tag-sbd"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251443,"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251439\/revisions\/251443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationhope.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}