STORY
Eight years ago, Janet Bearden began talking about an idea. It was an old concept, a classic cannery, for the local community to help preserve their harvests. Where had they gone? She needed one. Didn’t others?
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The idea caught on. Becky Gartner and Carl Stafford both felt the need in their bones. Through their work with Cooperative Extension, they knew the Rappahannock Rapidan region wasn’t keeping most of the food it grew. Small farmers struggled to compete, and the local food system was disappearing. A cannery wasn’t quite enough. But a commercial kitchen? A commercial kitchen shared by the community, able to help process and create, filled with needed equipment, and staffed with folks who could help with the regulations and licensing?
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Yep. That’ll work.
It took eight years to build enough momentum to make that idea a reality; eight years, one pandemic, dozens of empty grocery store shelves, and tons of community support later- here we are.
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The Carver Food Enterprise Center is a 6,200-square-foot, fully equipped facility that is being built in three phases. The first phase is complete, and the kitchen opened September 1st, 2023.
MISSION
The Carver Food Enterprise Center (CFEC) is a shared-use commercial kitchen and food business incubator operated by the George Washington Carver Agriculture Research Center, in partnership with Virginia Cooperative Extension and Culpeper County - sustains and strengthens local agriculture across Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Orange, and Rappahannock Counties by offering affordable, certified kitchen space, job skills training, and food processing support.
Our services focus on strengthening the local food value chain in the following ways:
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Supporting food entrepreneurs by helping new and growing businesses access space, equipment, technical assistance, and market opportunities.
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Addressing food insecurity by producing healthy meals from rescued produce for food pantries and hunger relief partners.
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Building a resilient food system through job training, workforce development, and farmer support for value-added processing.
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The Carver Center, where the kitchen is located, is owned and managed by the County of Culpeper and is also home to the Carver 4-County Alumni Museum; the George Washington Carver Agriculture Research Center; the Minority and Veteran Farmers of the Piedmont; VSU Small Farmers Program; Rapidan Master Gardeners; 4-H; and other job skills training programs.
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