The funding was made available as part of the Vermont General Assembly Jobs Bill in 2010 that provided implementation funding for the Farm to Plate Strategic Planning process.
The Mad River Food Hub, L3C is a new storage, food processing and distribution facility supporting local food producers in The Valley; the facility is located in the Irasville Business Park.
The new facility will contain two meat processing rooms licensed by the Agency of Agriculture Vermont Meat Inspection Service and one vegetable kitchen constructed to USDA standards, and will be available for rent on an eight-plus-hour-day basis by chefs, farmers and other food entrepreneurs.
“The funding will support critical equipment and infrastructure needs that we identified through our 18-month planning process,” said VSJF director Ellen Kahler.
“Grantees were chosen because of their potential for ripple effect: they will ultimately nurture the growth of many different farms and food-related businesses in Vermont and won’t just benefit a single organization,” she continued.
Senator Vince Illuzzi (R-Orleans), one of the principal authors of the 2010 Jobs Bill, said that the $40,000 secured for the Farm to Plate Initiative will be followed by $300,000 in grant funding in the 2011 Jobs Bill, which will be competitively awarded through the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets over the next several months.
“This is an important investment in Vermont’s food system that will increase our local production capacity and create the jobs of the future,” Illuzzi said.
Kahler said, “In a fiercely competitive global market, value added agricultural practices provide great opportunities for Vermont and that’s what this funding will support.”
In addition, Kahler said the five grant awards will help leverage an additional $647,000 in combined total project costs.
“Before too long, we’ll see tangible evidence that a small amount of state sponsored funding can go a long way towards expanding the infrastructure available to strengthen the local food economy,” she added.
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