In late 2021, my wife and I sold our house, car, and material possessions to travel full-time. We’re empty-nest entrepreneurs that don’t have to be anywhere. We’ve decided to spend our golden years building our business from locations worldwide.
We were on a Delta Airlines flight from Puerto Rico to Atlanta when something unexpected happened. As you can imagine, we spend a lot of time on airlines. While enjoying the comfortable lay-flat seats in the Delta One cabin, I saw something that changed my perspective and created a clear awareness of what it means to support Black businesses.
I asked the flight attendant for a diet coke and Vodka. When the mini bottle of Vodka came, I randomly checked the back of the label. On it, I saw: “Discover America’s first (legal) Black-owned distillery at DuNordSocialSpirits.com.”
Based out of Minneapolis, Du Nord Craft Spirits is a family-owned distillery started in 2013 by Chris Montana. The Black-owned business is more than an alcohol distillery — it created a foundation to help re-envision the future for the underrepresented.
At the end of 2020, Delta Airlines signed a pledge with Operation Hope to help create one million new Black-owned businesses. That pledge includes bringing in diverse suppliers for Delta’s service offerings on flights.
In addition to Du Nord Craft Spirits, Delta has also served wine from Brown Estate, the first Black-owned estate winery in California’s Napa Valley. Delta uses several other Black-owned businesses in various parts of its operations.
Delta Airlines is a company that does more than pay lip service in its support of Black businesses. They are committed to helping Black businesses grow in markets and ways that tend to be more challenging for Black entrepreneurship to flourish.
Delta’s example is something more organizations, companies, and entrepreneurs should consider adopting. It’s been great to see companies…