BEACON Project to open fully-equipped, shared-use commercial kitchen in Charlottesville

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - In Charlottesville, a commercial kitchen that will be open to the public is in the works.

The BEACON Project will be a fully-equipped, shared-use kitchen. Its goal is expand economic opportunities in the Charlottesville food economy for the Black community.

“This would be a place where up to 70 food businesses can be supported. If you’ve got a product that you want to get to market, or that you’re already producing, but now you want to scale that product up, our goal is to be able to help you with that,” CEO and Co-Founder of New Hill Yolunda Harrell said.

The project will cost $2.3 million, and the bulk of the funding is coming from state grants, fundraising, and city support.

“This is like one of those things that really can seed opportunity for not only business growth, but for job growth,” Harrell said.

While New Hill waits for all of its permits to go through, it has a temporary pilot kitchen available.

“We have also a pilot kitchen that we have in place that again, helps businesses to get started while we’re waiting for the bigger space that will offer them all the pieces that they need,” Harrell said.

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