Five community halls are getting funding to install commercial-grade kitchen equipment.
The province is putting nearly $95,000 towards helping groups in Gilbert Plains, Hadashville, Austin, Teulon and Winnipeg purchase products such as convection ovens, refrigerators, dough sheeters and mixers and coolers for hall kitchens.
Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler said the money is an important investment in community infrastructure to support local value-added processing.
“Many people may not realize their community centre can be a hub for food product development, helping entrepreneurs make the leap from a home-based business to a larger-scale commercial enterprise,” said Eichler.
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The investment has a precedent that demonstrates how they can pay off.
MAFRD spent about $80,000 to upgrade a kitchen inside the War Veterans Hall in Swan River in 2012 to serve as a rent-a-kitchen space. Those upgrades also aided the community in feeding nearly 2,000 athletes during the Manitoba Summer Games that year.
Food companies like Smak Dab, producing a line of gourmet mustards, have since taken advantage of the fully equipped small-scale processing plant.
Provincial staff since 2014 have been developing a director of commercial community kitchens and availability to encourage more use of inspected sites for food processing.
The ‘rent-a-kitchen’ concept as a way to spur food product development has been talked about for more than a decade as a way to match small-town kitchens standing idle much of the time with would-be food product developers who can’t afford required upgrades for private sites in order to meet regulations for food sold to the public. The concept has also been touted as a way for facility owners to earn extra revenues from rentals and improve the capacity for serving large events.
Beth Hutchinson, recreation director for Teulon-Rockwood Recreation Commission, which operates the centennial centre that’s purchasing a cooler, freezer and mixer with its $10,000 share of the grant says this will allow them to attract more local bakers and to use the site.
“With the support of the grant, we hope to increase hall rentals and, more importantly, expand the services provided to the community,” she said.
Other grants made include about $12,000 to Gilbert Plains for purchase of a convection oven and two refrigerators, $10,500 to Hadashville Recreation Centre for a convection oven, freezer, dough sheeter and mixer and more than $20,000 to help Austin Community Hall buy a combi-oven and mixer.
Riverview Community Centre (Winnipeg) is getting the largest grant, at nearly $42,000, for refrigerators, freezers, convection oven, food processor, mixer, dehydrator, juicer, vacuum sealer and a pH meter.
All commercial community kitchens listed in the provincial directory are inspected and have a valid food-service establishment permit. The list is found on the Manitoba Agriculture website.
