Seed Award Spotlight: Pronko Enterprises

This series features recipients from the most recent round of Seed Awards, sharing their paths to entrepreneurship, the values that guide their work, and the ways their businesses contribute to stronger, more resilient communities. Each profile offers insight into the leadership, creativity, and commitment required to build and sustain food businesses that serve both local markets and the broader public good.

In the most recent award cycle, Michigan Good Food Fund distributed nearly $300,000 in seed grants to 18 Michigan-based food and farm businesses. These investments extend beyond capital support, recognizing the essential role these enterprises play in strengthening Michigan’s food system, advancing equity, and supporting long-term economic growth.

Among them is Pronko Enterprises, a food manufacturing and co-packing business built to support micro-batch food entrepreneurs as they scale their products and operations. What began as founder Al Pronko’s house-made salsa at his Hamtramck restaurant, Maria’s Comida, evolved into Maria’s House Made Salsa, developed alongside his daughter, Marie, and produced in response to growing customer demand. Rooted in quality and driven by opportunity, Pronko Enterprises ultimately transformed the restaurant into a food manufacturing facility—expanding its impact by offering co-packing services that help emerging food businesses access production capacity, bring products to market, and strengthen the regional food economy.

Shared by: Marie Groom, Pronko Enterprises, Warren, Michigan

What does being selected as a Seed Award winner mean to you personally, and how does it reflect on the journey of your business so far?

Being selected as a Seed Award winner is incredibly meaningful to me personally. It’s both validation of how far we’ve come and an encouragement to keep growing with purpose. Our business has grown organically from making small 20-gallon batches of our own products to becoming a co-packer for more than 30 local food entrepreneurs. Along the way, we’ve gained so much by meeting people in our community and supporting our food community; it has truly shaped who we are as a company.

This award isn’t just about advancing our operations. The high-shear mixer will allow us to elevate the quality, consistency, and efficiency of what we produce, directly impacting the businesses we support. It means we can help other entrepreneurs scale, strengthen their brands, and move closer to their own goals. That’s why we’re in this business, and this award allows us to deepen that impact even more.

In what ways will the Seed Award funding support your immediate and long-term business goals?

The Seed Award funding directly supports both our immediate needs and our long-term vision as a growing food manufacturing company. In the immediate term, the high-shear mixer will help us increase efficiency, improve texture consistency, and meet the technical requirements of products that rely on this type of processing. This upgrade removes a major bottleneck and allows us to open our doors to more businesses that need this capability.

Long-term, this investment strengthens the foundation of our co-manufacturing operations. With improved capacity and more advanced equipment, we can support a wider range of small food entrepreneurs, help them scale, and take on opportunities they may not have been able to pursue otherwise. This equipment is not just a step forward for our facility; it allows us to expand our impact, grow sustainably, and continue building a stronger, more supportive food community in our region.

Can you share your vision for the positive changes this award will enable you to make in your business and the broader community?

Being awarded this grant is transformative for Pronko Enterprises and the local food community we support. It will allow us to scale our co-packing operations, producing larger volumes of high-quality sauces and condiments while maintaining the small-batch attention to detail that defines our brand. With this increased capacity, we will be able to take on more local food entrepreneurs, helping them grow their businesses by providing reliable production, packaging, and support services.

Beyond business growth, this investment will strengthen our impact on the broader community. By supporting more small food brands, we’ll create jobs, foster local entrepreneurship, and contribute to Detroit’s food ecosystem. It also reinforces our commitment to producing high-quality, locally made products that people can rely on and enjoy.

What led you to start your business? What motivates you to do what you do?

Pronko Enterprises grew organically from a need we experienced firsthand in Detroit: there weren’t enough reliable small- to medium-batch co-packers who could meet the quality, consistency, and care local food entrepreneurs needed. We had this need ourselves, and rather than wait for someone else to fill the gap, we developed our own solutions this is how we started our co-packing business.

What motivates us every day is watching our clients succeed and grow. Seeing the products they bring to store shelves, products that customers are loyal to and genuinely love is incredibly rewarding. We’ve built a trusted name in the industry, relying solely on referrals, and that trust drives us to maintain the highest standards of quality, reliability, and collaboration. Knowing we’ve played a role in supporting our clients success is what keeps us passionate about what we do.

Learn more about Pronko on their website and keep up them on their Instagram page.