Carver kitchen tripling in size with $1.2M USDA grant
- Gretchen Ledmor
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
Focused work rooted in making the community healthier just got a super-sized boost. The Carver Food Enterprise Center is preparing to triple in size, greatly expanding its reach as a processing and co-packing facility for local farms—thanks to support from the state and the feds.
Governor Abigail Spanberger last week announced nearly $5 million in support for 12 “Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure” programs across Virginia. The USDA funding through the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services includes $1.2 million for the buildout of the Carver community kitchen.
The expansion will increase the facility's production capacity from its current 30 gallons to over 200 gallons of healthy food at a time, according to kitchen organizers, while greatly expanding freezer space. The project is slated for completion by spring of 2027 in the facility located at the back of the historic Black high school in Rapidan. Culpeper County owns the multi-use building.
The nonprofit kitchen, a keystone project of George Washington Carver Agriculture Research Center, has been operating for over two years in a portion of the refurbished school that educated students from four counties from 1948 to 1968, during segregation.
CFEC staff and volunteers process produce from local farms to make healthy soups, salsas and other yummy fare for the local food banks. The kitchen has also facilitated Farm to School menus and rents its space to caterers, food truck owners and other local food entrepreneurs.
Spanberger, in a statement, said the infrastructure grants would build resilience across the middle of the Commonwealth’s food supply chain by strengthening local and regional food systems.
“Agriculture is Virginia’s number one private industry and a foundational pillar of our economy,” she said. “Supporting economic development opportunities in the industry means supporting Virginia’s farmers, processors, retailers — and helping Virginians put food on their tables.”
'Our community is really eager for this'
The Carver kitchen has been doing just that, especially through its Feeding 500 efforts, where volunteers work with staff to prepare 500 portions of healthy food using local ingredients. The packaged offerings are then distributed to low-income citizens, often without access to fresh fare.
Carver Food Enterprise Center Executive Director Gretchen Ledmor announced the $1.2 million kitchen expansion grant at the Feb. 10 Board of Supervisors Rules Committee meeting. The grant will renovate the kitchen balance with no financial impact on the county, she said.
“You don’t have to spend money on this,” she told the board. The expansion will strengthen and sustain the local food system, Ledmor said, reporting 36 local food businesses currently use the kitchen. Last year, the kitchen held its inaugural ticketed event, the Local Flavor Fest, highlighting the food made by kitchen users.
Another 18 local farms are interested in expanded services provided through the kitchen, particularly co-packing—taking agricultural products, adding fresh ingredients and turning them into shelf-stable food with ingredients people can pronounce.
“We can’t expand that service until we expand,” Gredmor said. “Our community is really eager for this.”
PATH Foundation and Northern Piedmont Community Foundation are donating another $245K for the kitchen expansion. Gredmor said at the recent meeting she was meeting with contractors all week.
“We can finish the full scope of the work within that budget,” she said, adding, “The last two years have been incredible understanding the needs of our community, in the schools.”
Lenah Nguyen, Senior Extension Agent for Culpeper County, wrote the grant that resulted in the funding award, saying she is thrilled it will allow complete renovations at the Carver Food Enterprise Center.
"We have received many requests for co-packing services—turning raw farm products, like beef bones, into value-added items such as bone broth. Once the renovation is finished, we will have the capacity to offer co-packing at a meaningful scale," she said.
"That means farmers can expand their product lines, and consumers will have greater access to locally produced foods. These consumers also include students as we these renovations will also allow us to expand our farm to school program," Nguyen said.
Multiplying the community impact
The expansion will multiply their ability to produce the end product 20-fold in large batches, Ledmor said, with many hands on deck from around the area. She estimated $550 million in potential additional revenue for farmers, calling the impact “astronomical” for agricultural producers.
Used set recipes, Carver kitchen copackers take the raw product, transform it into food and put a farmers’ label on it, Ledmor said. Demand for bone broth will be their main co-packing venture, she said.
The kitchen has been testing bone broth batches, and staff handle navigating complex food safety regulations, staffing, packaging, labeling, and compliance, according to a recent CFEC post.
"Copacking isn’t just about making broth. It’s about building a local food economy where farmers can focus on farming, and still benefit from the added value their products deserve. We’re testing, refining, and building the model now so we are ready when our kettles come (AND THEY ARE COMING SOON!). The goal is simple: create pathways for small producers to grow income sustainably without taking on unsustainable risk." Cedar Mountain District Supervisor Mandy Brown commended the kitchen director for their important work.
“They do an absolutely fabulous job with so many programs that touch so many different people," Brown said at the committee meeting.
The kitchen will host an open house on March 21 to view expansion plans and other information about the project.
USDA invests in growing business for farmers
“By renovating and purchasing specialized equipment, the CFEC's 6,883-square-foot multi-use food business incubator and community commercial kitchen will be better equipped to serve Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Orange, and Rappahannock counties,” according to Spanberger’s grant announcement.
“The CFEC will provide value-added processing and market access to a minimum of 60 local and regional agricultural producers, develop at least 20 new local and regional value-added products, reduce food waste, and create jobs.”
Former 7th District Congresswoman Spanberger visited the Carver Center several times during her term in office and helped secure grants for the 75-year-old building's continued revitalization.
Agriculture and Forestry Secretary Katie Frazier thanked the USDA for the investment in Virginia agriculture.
“This funding helps reduce dependence on the external food supply chain as we strengthen the Commonwealth’s local and regional infrastructure,” she said in a statement. “These grant awards will help improve food access, grow and fortify business for farmers, and encourage new investment in urban and rural areas.”
USDA funding supports expanded capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products. Eligible products include specialty crops, dairy, grains for human consumption, aquaculture, and other food products, excluding meat and poultry. Other local, statewide projects benefit
Other Virginia projects receiving the USDA funding are:
Capital Area Food Bank in Lorton — $100,000 for forklifts; Deep Roots Milling in Roseland—$99,616 for updating conveyance and flour sifting systems; Jon Henry General Store in New Market—$68,644 for a new van; Southside Virginia Fruit and Vegetable Producers Association in Charlotte Courthouse — $74,539 for a cold storage unit, ice machine and forklift;
4P Foods Inc. in Warrenton — $198,687 for a cooler at its warehouse in Vint Hill; Appalachian Sustainable Development in Duffield — $690,000 to build a satellite food hub on their new 17-acre agriculture campus in Southwest; Browntown Farms in Brunswick County — $253,312 to upgrade its cold storage and warehouse infrastructure; Central Virginia Poultry Cooperative in Burkesville — $538,083 to purchase 2,925 egg flat shuttles to store and transport 10,800 eggs per shuttle to various locations;
Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative in Newport News, Virginia — $731,607 for five refrigerated trailers and two larger-capacity silos equipped with advanced refrigeration technology and insulated lines; New Hill Development Corporation in Charlottesville — $962,958 to construct a shared-use commercial kitchen and Riverstone Produce in Floyd, Virginia — $72,722 to upgrade existing facilities and equipment to expand capacity for washing, packaging, and storage.
Allison Brophy Champion: 540/825-4315
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