Cheers! This non-profit organization undoes the wine industry for people of color

Ikimi Dubose-Woodson has come a long way in her career since polishing silverware at age 15. But the 41-year-old wouldn’t be where she is now — and so committed to community service — if it weren’t for that low-key gig at the New York Marriott World Trade Center in 1997.

It was there that she met her lifelong mentor, award-winning chef Walter Plender, who continued to support her through college at Johnson & Wales, where she received a scholarship through the nonprofit Careers Through Culinary Arts program.

Now, she is the CEO and co-founder of Roots Fund, a nonprofit organization created to empower communities of color in the wine industry, based in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

“Along with my mother’s giving heart, I have always been connected to giving back in my community,” Dubose-Woodson said.

After completing two degrees, Dubose-Woodson embarked on a whirlwind adventure in Singapore, South Asia and Europe, “studying food through people and culture.” After returning home, she realized that while she liked the restaurants, they didn’t pay that well.

So, she decided to forge a career in hotels, and Dubose-Woodson began her career with Marriott and Ritz-Carlton. Over the next 15 years, she opened hotel restaurants, training chefs around the country in international cuisine. In 2010, the versatile chef decided to leave and enter corporate restaurant groups.

Another career pivot was planned in 2020, when Dubose-Woodson decided to build her own consulting firm, which thrived in the early pandemic by teaching great food establishments how to become sustainable food delivery operations. Simultaneously, Dubose-Woodson was attending Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, working through the nonprofit executive certificate program, when she decided it was time to “put all my energy into helping others” in the food and beverage industry.

The inspiration?

“When Carlton McCoy Jr., one of only four black master sommeliers in the world, managed to build a beverage scholarship for communities of color in summer, I was eager to help,” Dubose-Woodson recalls. She started the nonprofit Roots Fund two months later, and it quickly became her life’s work.

Since its inception, Roots Fund, which is based in Stamford, Conn. with a physical office in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has worked tirelessly “to make way for colored people in wine and spirits.” To date, the organization has raised over $2.5 million and established more than 200 scholarships, “to bring years of change and equity to the wine industry” through financial support for education, mentoring and employment opportunities.

“The Roots Fund is ‘doing the work,’ to create inclusion for communities of color in the beverage industry,” said Dubose-Woodson.

Unfortunately, Dubose-Woodson knows the lack of diversity in the food and beverage industry firsthand.
“As I’ve moved up in my career, I don’t recall seeing many women or people of color leading the beverage industry,” she said. “As I look at the power of drinks, being a Top 10 revenue industry in this country, it has to reflect all people. This cause is personal because my career would not have been as great without scholarships, mentors or support. I want to give to others what was given to me.”

Giving back to the New York City community is especially important to the Brooklyn native. New York is a food and wine mecca, a “perfect market,” complete with countless wine and spirits events and endless connections.

Consequently, Dubose-Woodson has found it helpful to see that people who have benefited from the Roots Fund also pay it back.

Amy Wright, a wine buyer at Le Dû Wines in the West Village, is an alum — or “vintage scholar” as they’re known — of the Roots Fund and is paying that generosity forward by being a wine educator for the nonprofit.

“We supported her degree with the Wine Spirits Education Trust,” said Dubose-Woodson, adding that Wright is one of the smartest people in wine.

“It’s not just through financial support, but mentorship and guidance to make sure she’s successful,” Dubose-Woods said. “Our program is not about hand-holding, but giving industry professionals a level of responsibility that breeds success.”

Roots Fund has supported the careers of over 200 people of color in the beverage industry to date. Dubose-Woodson often finds herself reflecting on the program’s first scholar, Daren Clark, an aspiring winemaker.

Thanks to the Roots Fund, Clark has lived in France, Italy and New Zealand, studied with the best winemakers around the world and learned French, and is now working for one of the most prestigious wine families in Burgundy. For Dubose-Woodson, it’s a beautiful display “of what support can do to change mindsets and cultivate careers.”

But Clark, Wright and other program participants aren’t the only testament to the movement’s success. From the high school students they mentor in a “fermenting the future” enrichment program to the “savvy restaurant professionals,” they are testaments to the power of a strong support system beyond financial aid.

“You don’t just get money with our organization,” Dubose-Woodson said. “You can get a special support system designed just for you. We offer education, mentoring, mental health services, career placement and a chance to have a community around you.”