Shared Kitchens are a Hot Commodity Farmers, Food Entrepreneurs All Find Room to Work at Share Grounds As communities work to grow their local food scenes, food hubs are a tremendous resource for food entrepreneurs needing commercial kitchen space and farmers needing aggregation space to wash, package, and store their produce before distribution. The question has been where to find that space? The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service (Extension) found an answer at county fairgrounds across the state.
determined by the needs of initial clients. Each site has a local advisory board, and the goal is to have five food businesses and a connection to 15 farms per site in 2020. “We are confident we will meet this goal,” Perez said. Extension received a USDA Local Foods Promotion Program grant for the program and received additional grants, including a $45,000 grant from the Arkansas Community Foundation.
Extension staff hosted introductory workshops at “We realized they had commercial kitchens, each site in the fall for interested entrepreneurs to warehouses, and roads accessible to large trucks - the learn more about the program. basic infrastructure needed for “We want to work with people food hubs,” said Amanda Philyaw “We want to work with interested in using fresh foods to Perez, assistant professor and create value-added products,” extension food systems and people interested in Perez said. safety specialist. Outside of using fresh foods to county fairs and rodeos, some An example might be a grower who create value-added of those fairground facilities uses surplus peppers, onions, and products.” are underutilized, and their tomatoes to make salsa. associations are open to ways of “That’s hard to do at home,” Perez generating more revenue. said. “You can make it and give it away for free, but Thus, the idea for Share Grounds was born. you can't sell that product out of your kitchen due to the food safety risk. Anyone interested in scaling up a “The name is a clever spin on what we intend to do, recipe can use our kitchen to do that.” and that is to work with each of the sites to modify and update their kitchens so they can move from a retail space designed for concessions sales to a food manufacturing kitchen,” Perez said.
Share Grounds is operating in Cleveland, Searcy, and Woodruff counties this year where fairground facilities have been upgraded, equipped, and inspected. New stoves have been installed along with three-compartment sinks, produce-washing sinks, and washable walls. Electrical and plumbing upgrades have been made, and larger floor drains were installed. Future equipment purchases will be ARKANSAS GROWN 84
Each shared kitchen site will have a part-time manager who will assist with recipe testing, product development, regulatory assistance, kitchen rental, and cold and dry storage rental. The centers will be open 20 hours per week initially, and clients will pay an hourly rate of $30 or less for use of the facility, depending on the service used. Share Grounds also will benefit farmers and growers wanting to supply produce locally to farm-to-school programs or mom-and-pop grocery stores. The aggregation centers will provide space for producers
