Take Your Family Recipe To A Store Shelf With VT Food Venture Center

VT Food Venture Center..Published in The Message For The Week
Have you ever tasted one of your family recipes and thought, “Ya know, I should market this stuff?” Well guess what, that notion is not as far–fetched as you might think. In fact, many Vermont residents have been doing just that at the Vermont Food Venture Center (VFVC) for nearly 15 years.
Established in 1995 by the Economic Development Council of Northern Vermont, Inc., (EDCNV) an EDA funded organization, the VFVC was created under a “Rural Business Enterprise” grant to provide the needed resources to help these types of businesses grow, and to strengthen the Vermont agricultural industry. Since then the VFVC has helped not only Vermont entrepreneurs just starting out, but also existing companies to expand their specialty food products.
The center provides specialized assistance to help Vermonter's turn their food ideas and those “old family recipes” into quality, marketable products. Originally located in a hundred year old building that was once a general store in rural Fairfax, but soon relocating to Hardwick later this year, the VFVC kitchen incubator allows for recipes that were originally created to produce only a dozen or so jars of say jam or sauce, and convert them into a professional enterprise.
For very reasonable rates, both entrepreneurs and existing specialty food companies have access to commercial ovens, freezers and mixers, giant cooking vats and vacuum pack machines. In fact, cases of your said old family recipe can be processed, labeled, packed, and shipped all over Vermont, New England and nationwide.
A modest annual membership fee entitles entrepreneurs to a wide range of services including product development and marketing assistance, recipe scale–up and label and packaging consultation. Knowledgeable VFVC staff members can also help convert their recipes for use in commercial equipment. Food safety training and analysis is also available. The VFVC share–use and processing kitchen, production is charged on an hourly or by–piece basis and training is provided for the use of all equipment in the kitchen. The facility also offers both refrigerated and frozen food storage space for rent.
Types of food businesses that can benefit from the VFVC services include the production of shelf stable foods (food packed in glass jars that do not need refrigeration prior to opening) such as preserves, salad dressings, mustards and cooking sauces. Baked goods are another concentration, with a licensed bakery and equipment capable of creating breads, cakes and pies, cookies, pizza, dry mixes and confections. VFVC members also have the availability to freeze soups, entrees, vegetables and seafood in a 25–foot blast freezer that locks in product freshness.
VT Food Venture CenterThe VFVC also offers equipment for commercial caterers as either a main base facility for business, or available space for larger catered assignments. Other specialty food business development services at VFVC include food–related planning, marketing, and management. There is also financing assistance available.
They also teams up with other Vermont organizations to sponsor various food–related programs and workshops such as the Vermont Micro Business Development Program, the University of Vermont Center For Rural Studies and the Center For An Agricultural Economy, which brings together community resources and programs needed to develop a locally–based, healthy food system. One upcoming, two–part workshop titled “Recipe To Market” and “Selling Skills For Food Entrepreneurs,” will cover all aspects of starting or expanding a specialty food business, as well as focusing on
bringing your product to market – talking about everything from pricing, to making sales calls to attending trade shows.
The growing list of Vermont specialty food businesses that have taken advantage of the VFVC services to start their own company or expand an existing one is not only impressive but diverse; Tektonic Palates', Ethiopian Hot Pastes, Outback Huntington's Kitchen and the Vermont Pepper Works Company, just to name a few. “Here, I was given the chance to hand make my pepper sauces under safe, clean, friendly conditions,” Pepper Works owner Chris Goss said. “With the help of the Vermont Food Venture Center and other local Vermont organizations, I was set on the path I now lead.” To learn more about the Vermont Food Venture Center and its services, you can contact project director Brian Norder at 849–2000, or visit them online at www. edcnv.org