Pennsylvania Keystone Kitchens incubator project

Pennsylvania Keystone Kitchens incubator project

Summary

In recent years farmers on small, traditional farms have been encouraged to add value to agricultural products in order to keep a greater percentage of the food dollar on the farm. In many cases the product must be made in a commercial kitchen to be legally sold to the public, and setting up a special facility for an untried product is cost prohibitive. In many states this challenge has been met by developing a community-sponsored shared kitchen incubator.

This project endeavors to assist farmer groups that wish to pursue adding value by making them aware of (1) the feasibility of setting up a shared kitchen in their community, (2) best management practices (BMPs) that long-lived shared kitchens in neighboring states have adopted for sustainability, and (3) the steps to be taken to create a shared kitchen (operational, managerial and fiscal). The Penn State Keystone Kitchens Team provided this initial information through a series of community meetings, held in Wilkes-Barre, Republic, Mercer and Coudersport in September 2007. At these meetings, Dr. Cameron Wold, a nationally recognized expert in shared kitchen development provided a detailed presentation during an open meeting, followed by a consultation session with the community core group.

After being made aware of the potential of a shared community kitchen, the farmer groups expressing an interest in pursuing the idea in their community have been provided continuing support in developing a plan, seeking initial funding, and setting up the physical operations to bring the idea to fruition.

This SARE Appalachian Initiative funding was matched with a Pennsylvania First Industries Grant to do the preliminary research in BMPs, identify specific farmer/grower groups, and provide ongoing support for their exploration of the feasibility of a local shared kitchen facility.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The Penn State team will:

Contact farmer groups and potential food entrepreneurs who have already expressed interest in opening a shared kitchen facility and arrange an initial meeting with their members to ensure members understand about the shared kitchen concept.

Lead a group discussion to enable participants to voice their level of commitment to proceeding with a feasibility study for their community.

Assist the community in forming a vision for the type of shared kitchen that would be most desired.

Schedule a second meeting, with groups who are ready to proceed with the project will be at which the shared kitchen expert provide direction for the feasibility study and business plan.

Remain in contact with the group while a plan is developed to maintain momentum and to identify opportunities for the group to apply their plan to grant opportunities for initial start-up capital.
The success of the project will not be exclusively measured by the start-up of a kitchen. There are some communities that do not have the infrastructure or support for this idea to be feasible; therefore, completion of any number of the above milestones, which progressively enable the group to make an informed decision, will be considered a positive result.

In addition to observation of benchmarks, surveys of all participants will be conducted at specific points in the process:

After the initial meetings take place to assess the level of learning about the shared kitchen concept and comfort level of each farmer in pursuing a shared kitchen, based on what he or she has learned.

After communities meet with the expert to gain a consensus on whether the project will continue or terminate.

In those locations where the process moves forward, impacts would include:

The creation of a plan

The group’s use of the plan to access grant funding for start-up costs

The creation of kitchen policies and procedures

The actual start-up of a kitchen

Accomplishments/Milestones

From September 10th to 15th, 2007, a series of meetings was held throughout Pennsylvania, facilitated by the Penn State team and supported by nationally recognized authority on shared kitchen development, Dr. Cameron Wold. These meetings were held in Philadelphia, York, Wilkes-Barre, Republic, Mercer and Coudersport.

All open community meetings had non-farming, economic development professionals, and community residents, as well as agricultural producers, in attendance. Each session started out with a standard shared kitchen overview delivered by Dr. Larry Grunden (Pennsylvania Technology Assistance Program (PENNTAP), Winifred McGee (extension educator) and Alan McConnell (PENNTAP) who form the Penn State Team, followed by a detailed presentation on potential and assessing feasibility of shared kitchens by Dr. Wold.

For the purposes of this report, Philadelphia and York outcomes/impacts will not be included (although farmers did participate in the York meeting and continue to be considered as potential tenants at this location). Discussion will be limited to the specific needs addressed by the farmers in attendance which have been used at that location in the decision making process about shared kitchen feasibility.

The attendance in the meeting series was as follows:

September 12th Wilkes-Barre Session had 48 attendees (25M/23F)– 12 of whom were farmers.

September 13th Republic Session had 12 attendees (6M/6F) – 3 of whom were farmers.

September 14th Mercer Session had 45 attendees (27M/18F) – 21 of whom were farmers.

September 15th Food Matrix (Coudersport) Session had 15 attendees (7M/8F) – 3 of whom were farmers.

Farmers came to the meeting expressing an interest in milk products at Wilkes-Barre, Republic and Mercer, largely because it is extremely expensive to set up a cheese, yogurt, jug milk or ice cream operation on a single farm without already having tested this product in the marketplace, to justify spending money or going into debt. The largest challenge related to this type of product is that USDA standards must be in place right from the start, and this high level of oversight is usually a goal, rather than a starting place, for shared kitchens.

Questions about milk items in a shared kitchen also led to an in-depth discussion of the problems of cross-contamination when multiple producers use the same kitchen (because of the frequent use of raw milk). Most artisan cheese makers want non-pasteurized (raw) milk as a base, and raw milk is more fragile than pasteurized milk. By combining the milk prior to making cheese or other products, the co-op would be able to avoid challenges of multiple producers’ items being aged or stored in a common facility. Dr. Wold encouraged the producers to form a cooperative that would jointly own and operate the kitchen to overcome the complications of multiple operators accessing the same facility. The alternative would be to mirror the Morrisville, NY, shared dairy operation, in which all milk that is received is immediately pasteurized upon entering the facility.

A second major interest among farmer participants was in creating meat products, because of a marked decrease in small-scale butchering facilities in rural communities. This type of product was mentioned in Wilkes-Barre (freezer beef), Mercer (pork products), and Coudersport (freezer beef). As with milk item production, the creation of meat products with a shelf life affects economical shared kitchen use, since USDA regulations require that the individual processing meat can be the only person using the kitchen during that work period. Shared kitchens can cash flow best when several tenants are in the kitchen simultaneously, sharing the per-hour operating expenses, and when their finished products can be safely stored in close proximity without the potential of cross-contaminating each other, so the desire to make and store meat products with shelf life in a shared kitchen presents a major challenge.

Additional farmers attending the meetings wanted to produce and process mushrooms, freeze corn, and process other farm produce for off-season sales to restaurants. They also wanted to process certified organic meats and vegetables and make pies and cakes. Because of the proximity of Mercer to Erie/NY, that group addressed wine making in a shared facility (although wine, like cheese, must age; there is a challenge of cross-contamination of product in a shared facility). At Coudersport, a local farmer who produces maple syrup and related items discussed his interest in a shared kitchen because it would provide him with a larger space to make candy and bottle syrup products.

Only Republic had a shared kitchen that was in operation at the time of these information sessions; the team assisted them by suggesting additional marketing methods to gain tenants such as contacting farmers participating in farmers’ markets or school lunch programs, as well as arranging for a Women’s Agricultural Network tour of the facility.

The next steps to be taken in Wilkes-Barre, Mercer and Coudersport were the formation of a local steering committee that would prepare and send out a survey to stakeholders to get a clear picture of whether the opinions in the meeting expressed by a few farmers were representative of the regional needs, or whether there were farmers who could use a kitchen to produce not-potentially-hazardous foods (jellies, sauces, baked goods, etc.) in a large enough population to warrant moving forward with the kitchen in their communities.

Project actions since the September 2007 tour:

PSU team support in Republic since September 2007 has included (non-farmer) client assistance to make coated pecans (10/07), produce a salad dressing (11/07), and make cheesecakes (2/08).

Support to the Mercer Co. Munnell Run Farm Kitchen Interest Team included helping them establish monthly steering committee organizational meetings (starting in October 2007). The team also reviewed a Northeast SARE grant proposal, sent a support letter for the proposal, and helped the group gain support from the deputy director of marketing for PDA. By attending the regularly scheduled meetings, the team helped this group to develop a business plan, create a name, and find funding to support a feasibility study that includes a marketing study, management and operations plan, finance plan, marketing plan.

In February and March, the team proposed and facilitated a conference call with shared kitchen expert Cameron Wold regarding his feasibility study proposal, and a meeting with Leslie Schaller (ACEnet) and Rich Stull (Foodservice Rentals) regarding their kitchen experiences. A project team member also assisted the committee in preparing RFPs for a PA DCED First Industries Planning Grant, an Ag Marketing Service Grant, and a USDA RBOG.

Since September 2007, additional clients have been assisted by the project team; all of these community groups incorporated the idea of offering shared kitchen access to farmers, as well as other food entrepreneurs:

Blair/Cambria Counties – Altoona 11th Street Project

Bradford County – Sayre Enterprise Center

Erie County – Community group to support local foods (interest in setting up shared kitchen for many fruit growers and other farmers on PA/NY border)

McKean County Biodynamics, Inc. (shared kitchen licensed in December 2007)

Lackawanna County – Carbondale Technology Transfer Center

Susquehanna County – Greater Susquehanna Keystone Innovation Zone

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Since receiving the grant, the Penn State team has, as described above, made contact with eleven community groups who were exploring ways to take agricultural products (both farm products grown specifically for processing and surplus items) and add value to them in a shared kitchen incubator.

Using funding supplied by the Pennsylvania First Industries program and Northeast SARE, the project team arranged for a series of six meetings (four within the Appalachian region) briefly described above to introduce farmers and other rural entrepreneurs to the shared kitchen incubator concept. A nationally recognized expert in shared kitchen development, Dr. Cameron Wold, made presentations at these sessions, tailoring the information to the types of agriculture and the interests of the community.

One site, at Republic, PA, had already opened a shared kitchen incubator in 2006; their Penn State/PA Department of Agriculture/Incubator collaboration was demonstrated at the meeting and allowed the farmers attending to get a better sense of the types of opportunities to be found in the shared kitchen. The Penn State Team has continued to work one-to-one with kitchen tenants at Republic.

The Mercer, PA group, which included over 20 farmers, spoke about their need for meat and milk processing facilities (for small-scale farms), and asked questions about mushroom and wine processing/ production. Since the September 14, 2007 meeting, this group’s steering committee held an organizational meeting (attended by 15) and wrote a proposal for a Northeast SARE grant. The steering committee began having regularly scheduled meetings which allowed them to develop a business plan, create a name, and find funding to support a feasibility study that includes a marketing study, management and operations plan, finance plan, marketing plan. The group also took a formal name–Munnell Run Farms Regional Food Venture [MRFRFV].

The project team arranged for them to hold a conference call with shared kitchen expert Cameron Wold (regarding his feasibility study proposal) and to meet with Leslie Schaller (ACEnet) and Rich Stull (Foodservice Rentals) regarding their kitchen experiences (this meeting held in March 2008). The project team also assisted the committee in preparing proposals for funding from PA DCED First Industries Planning Grant Program, Ag Marketing Service Grant, and USDA RBOG.

The Food Matrix (Coudersport) group, which includes local farmers from Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier, had formalized their association before the September 15, 2007 meeting. As a result of the meeting, this group was able to evaluate whether setting up one multiuse shared kitchen (servicing a wide geographic area) or chain of several specialized community kitchens (each centering on one type of food product – bottle/jar items, baked goods, dried mixtures, etc) would be a better fit for the needs of their potential tenants. At this time, our team is not aware that the project has moved beyond this stage. The distance between communities and the lack of a substantial road to transport tenants (and their products) is a formidable challenge.

Other support provided to community groups through the past year included:

In fall of 2006, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) referred a Centre County organization (which has matured into the Old Gregg School Community Center project group) to the project team because of their interest in establishing a licensed a shared-use kitchen; the idea was not just to provide a facility to create value-added produce products and make baked good, but also to have storage space for farmers to stock their processed items in until they had time to market these items. In December 2007, the project moved forward as their kitchen received its commercial license; in January 2008, they were provided sample fee schedules and tenant initiation forms by the project team; in April 2008, a team member visited the community center and followed up the visit with kitchen operation forms, information about Food for Profit workshops that could be offered to recruit tenants, the URL of a Penn State Food Ventures website, and a copy of the kitchen start-up workbook.

October 2007 – The project team provided information about shared kitchens to the Greater Susquehanna Keystone Innovation Zone (Susquehanna County); this was followed up by a presentation about the shared kitchen project and potential of this type of facility to enhance the value-added agricultural efforts in their community.

February 2008 – Blair/Cambria group was provided with basic information via e-mail and face-to-face session to assist them in determining the feasibility of setting up a shared kitchen in a community building in Altoona; if this venture is successful, a number of farmers who previously shipped their vegetables and fruit to a shared kitchen in Romney, WV, will have a local facility at which value can be added to their products.

March 2008 – A McKean County group that had a kitchen licensed in December 2007 was given marketing assistance and support in preparing their operational paperwork (agreements with renters, fee schedules, kitchen use guides, etc.) prior to opening their doors. A team member visited the community group in April to provide kitchen sample operating forms, tour the facility, and answer specific questions. This support will ensure that the best management practices that were developed from primary research of successful shared kitchens will be in place in this new facility.

April 2008 – A team member visited the Carbondale Technology Transfer Center (Lackawanna County) to discuss the setup of a shared kitchen and followed up by providing sample fees structures, linkages to the PA Preferred marketing program, information about the PSU Food for Profit Workshops, and offering several handouts containing sample operational forms, and the URL of the PA Food Ventures site.

Collaborators: