Agriculture and Natural Resources
Northeast Ohio Shared Commercial Kitchen Survey
Ready to start your own salsa business but need a really big kitchen? A local committee is conducting a needs survey to receive input from any small business owner or agricultural producer who is interested in using a shared commercial kitchen.
A shared teaching kitchen like this could be seen in Northeast Ohio some day.
Ready to start your own salsa business but need a really big kitchen? The City of Geneva is pleased to announce its partnership with David Marrison, Ohio State University Extension, Ashtabula, Maurine Orndorff, Agricultural Programs Technician, Lake County Soil & Water Conservation District, local growers and the Lake Local Food Initiative to create a shared-use commercial kitchen for the region. A shared-use commercial kitchen facility enables small or budding food-product businesses to share production space, machinery and knowledge to develop their products – like salsa, sauces, pickles, vinegars -- for public distribution and consumption.
Though Ashtabula, Lake and Geauga County's strong agricultural underpinnings lend easily to distributable food production, small or new businesses often face overwhelming start-up or operational costs that act as a barrier to growth. The partnership was formed to remove that barrier and open opportunities to new and existing food-product businesses. The partnership believes that a shared-use commercial kitchen could be used to help new food-related businesses in critical functions, including enabling product development and sharing marketing strategies and business plans. Users can include vegetable growers, fruit growers, meat processors, cheese makers, grape growers, caterers, chefs and cooks. Agricultural producers can increase their bottom line by creating and marketing higher value products.
There are currently no licensed commercial or business incubating kitchens in Northeast Ohio. A Shared Commercial Kitchen in Northeast Ohio would help to improve the sustainability of local food producers, develop new entrepreneurship businesses and make locally grown food available year around.
Interested? The partners hope that anyone interested in taking advantage of a shared-use commercial kitchen will participate in a short survey. The survey is designed to understand the interest level and potential uses from producers, entrepreneurs, restaurants, companies and organizations that might be prospective tenants of the proposed facility.
Click here to access the survey.
The completed survey may be mailed to Jennifer Brown at City of Geneva, 44 N. Forest St., Geneva OH 44041 or faxed to Jennifer at 440-466-5027, or emailed: asstcitymgr@genevaohio.com.
