Kendall/MIT Open Space

Launchpad Food Court Opens at MIT, Featuring BIPOC- and Immigrant-Owned Restaurants | Eater Boston

"Inside MIT's Stratton Student Center I learned that the newly opened food court called the Launchpad, created in partnership with CommonWealth Kitchen, offers three turnkey kiosks staffed by BIPOC- and immigrant-owned operators — a move that replaces several pandemic-era departures and gives hungry MIT students many more lunchtime choices. Each business gets a fully operational kiosk and signs a lease that takes a percentage of sales instead of fixed rent, with MIT licensing the space to CommonWealth Kitchen, which then licenses vetted incubator graduates; if the first year goes well, CommonWealth plans to rotate new businesses into the space and hopes to replicate the model at other colleges and institutions." - Terrence Doyle