Common Wealth Kitchen Incubator Opens Oct. 10
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Common Wealth Inc. will celebrate the grand opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 10 of the Common Wealth Kitchen Incubator, 907 Elm St., incubator manager Ben Shapiro announces. Admission is $30 per person.
The celebration will offer food and drink from local food vendors, bakers, wineries and breweries plus live music. Shapiro will lead e tours and make pizzas in the incubator pizza oven. A cash bar will be available in the bar space soon to be called the Elm Street Café, which will serve coffee, smoothies and lunch.
Common Wealth will host a corn hole tournament for which 10 teams may enter. Entry fee is of $10 per team. All proceeds will benefit the café, to be developed within the building that houses the kitchen incubator.
To complement the opening, Common Wealth has launched a campaign on Indiegogo.com to obtain additional funds for the café.
The Common Wealth Kitchen Incubator is a shared-use commercial kitchen that aims to lower the cost of starting or expanding local food businesses, Shapiro said. The incubator is a commercial-grade production kitchen. The facilities include a certified shared-use kitchen and processing area, convection ovens and cold, frozen and dry storage. The kitchen will be equipped with a thermal processing (canning) line in its second phase. The kitchen incubator also helps clients develop business planning and marketing efforts.
Common Wealth initiated the kitchen incubator in 2010 by purchasing the Stuart Place property; more than 20 food entrepreneurs stand ready to begin using the kitchen. The incubator is open to producers interested in baked goods, catering, sauces and salsa, jams and jellies, canned goods, condiments, value-added produce, pasta, dry mixes, fruits and berries, beverages and other specialty or gourmet goods.
It builds on other projects such as the Northside Farmers Market, 30-Mile Meal and Lake-To-River Food Cooperative and Buying Club, all of which enable farmers and buyers to revitalize the local food economy.
Common Wealth secured financing for this project from Huntington National Bank, a challenge grant of $12,500 from The Youngstown Foundation, a predevelopment grant of $20,000 from Finance Fund, $40,000 from Community Development Block Grant funds awarded the city of Youngstown, an economic development grant of $100,000 from Finance Fund and a grant of $75,845 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, officials said.
For tickets, call Christina Perry at 330 718 8659.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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