In 2004, after eight years of operation, it become clear that the Vermont Food Venture Center (VFVC) had serious facility challenges that needed to be addressed in the Center was to remain strong and viable. Wear and tear on the physical plant was resulting in a high repair and maintenance budget. The layout of the old building and lack of an adequate loading dock limited the growth of our clients.

 

We received a grant from USDA Rural Development/Vermont to study the feasibility of renovating, expanding and/or relocating the facility. Cameron Wold, a nationally recognized consultant on food incubation projects was hired to conduct the study, which recommended a new facility located in the I-89 corridor between Burlington and Barre.

 

In 2006, the Vermont legislature appropriated $75,000 to help fund planning and site selection for the new facility and the US Economic Development Administration awarded a $50,000 matching grant to assist with site engineering.

Site selection, planning and fundraising for the new facility will continue through Spring of 2007.

VFVC staff is involved in a number of state, regional and national projects to aid foster rural economic development through food entrepreneurship.

Regulatory Assistance Program- The John Merck Fund provided funding for an 18 month program to help food producers comply with new US FDA regulations. These regulations are designed to protect our nation’s food supply from terrorist attack. As the regulations are the same for small producers and large corporations, compliance will be a challenge for local food companies. The grant was used to develop small entity compliance systems, deliver trainings and provide free help to farmstead cheese producers.

VTFeed (Food Education Every Day)- The Center has worked on this initiative to increase the amount of locally grown products into school meal products. VFVC’s role has focused on developing value-added products using local produce. VFVC developed a frozen, ready to bake cranberry-apple crisp that is being served in the Burlington School System. www.vtfeed.org

Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese (VIAC)- VFVC staff maintains a collaboration with VIAC, a project of the University of Vermont (UVM), that builds off the work of the Northeast Center for Food Entrepreneurship (NECFE.) NECFE brought together the resources of UVM, Cornell and VFVC to provide food business development services throughout the Northeast. NECFE won a USDA Secretary’s Group Award for Excellence in 2004, the agencies highest recognition for quality of grant funded projects. http://www.uvm.edu/~viac/

Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO)- AEO is the trade organization for Micro-business development and is active in rural economic development. AEO received a Kellogg Foundation grant to form learning clusters that brought together professionals in four rural economic development sectors, one being food. VFVC Project Director, Brian Norder, was a member of the food sector cluster and a founding member of AEO’s “Kitchen Cabinet” which conducts regular conference call trainings and list serve discussions. Norder was also a workshop presenter at the last two AEO national conferences. www.microenterpriseworks.org