The Vermont Food Venture Center, an incubator project that provides commercial kitchen equipment and business advice to small food entrepreneurs, has received a big boost.
Senator Patrick Leahy announced yesterday that the center will get a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development program. The center plans to build a new 10-000-square-foot building in Hardwick.
The money, coupled with $1.5 million from the federal Economic Development Administration and another $100,000 secured by Leahy, will go toward the new $3 million food products incubator in the Hardwick Industrial Park. Construction is expected to begin in the spring.
The existing center is in Fairfax.