Culinary Kitchen

The biggest barrier for most food entrepreneurs in starting out is having access to a commercially licensed kitchen and the necessary equipment to test, refine and produce their product and the second and third are a solid business plan and access to funding. The Teton Valley Kitchen Incubator will provide a shared commercial kitchen space and business support services for startup and small food businesses. The facility is planned to open in December with an operating plan based based on our feasibility study and user survey. The missing ingredient needed to begin cooking up new businesses for Teton Valley is the following short list of commercial grade equipment (and we already have half the funding raised through a USDA grant!):

• Convection Oven = $4,000
• Insulated Dough Proofer = $4,000
• 20qt Mixer = $2,500
• Food Processor = $1,500
• Dehydrator = $1,000
• Utensils, Pots, Pans = $1,000
• Dry Storage Bins = $500
• Immersion Blender = $400
• Pressure Cooker/Canner = $300
• Scales & Label Printer = $800
• Steel Tables = $1,000

A USDA grant has been awarded for half of the anticipated $17,000 equipment cost above. The project is seeking $4,500 towards the required grant match to allow the facility to open with the proper equipment to meet the needs expressed in the survey of Teton Valley food entrepreneurs.

If equipment is purchased for less than the conservative amounts above, then additional match funds raised will be used towards other startup costs including a computer station, training materials, marketing and orientation classes.

Let's get cooking Teton Valley!

SUPPORTING A VIBRANT & RESILIENT COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEM

Teton Valley Kitchen is part of a larger effort to foster collaborative relationships, from food production to consumption and waste recovery, that enhance our social, economic and environmental health.

Vision

The Teton Valley Kitchen Incubator will provide, at affordable rates, licensed kitchen space, commercial grade equipment, training and business support services to enable food entrepreneurs to launch and grow small businesses that otherwise might not succeed without such shared resources. The incubator facility will also provide space for educators to teach classes on relevant topics. A small retail space will be provided for products made in the incubator to be sold or sampled. The facility will be a clean, safe and enjoyable place in which to work, with a manager supervising and supporting users in a collaborative environment. Partnering organizations (Teton Valley Business Development Center, University of Idaho Extension Service, US Small Business Administration and Eastern Idaho Small Business Development Center) will provide small business planning education and other support services (such as education for product development, product marketing, packaging & distribution, inventory and financial management, etc.)

Need

A Kitchen Incubator has been identified as an important strategy for developing food and agricultural businesses in the Teton County Economic Development Plan, Teton View Regional Plan and Driggs Community Review. This is an industry Teton Valley is competitively positioned to grow. A feasibility study completed in March 2016 for the City of Driggs by the Research & Business Development Center in Rexburg concluded that a kitchen incubator was financially feasible in Driggs after reviewing survey data from local respondents along with national data sets on kitchen incubators and operating characteristics at facilities in similar communities.

Learn More and Connect with Us

www.TetonValleyKitchen.com www.facebook.com/TetonValleyKitchen