A Charlottesville nonprofit created to increase wealth building opportunities for Black community members has been awarded a state grant to develop a place for culinary entrepreneurs to grow businesses.
“The New Hill Development Corporation will stabilize and grow food and beverage manufacturing activity in the region by opening an 11,500-square-foot shared commercial kitchen incubator in order to provide food entrepreneurs with a cost-effective space to produce, package, store and distribute tradable manufactured products,” reads a press release for the latest Growing Opportunities grants from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.
The BEACON’s Kitchen project is the only recipient in this area. According to the release, the project will create 90 new jobs, 28 new businesses, and at least 30 new tradeable food products. New Hill is offering a Food Business Boot Camp on August 3 and August 4. (learn more)
The New Hill Development Corporation was created in 2018 and received $500,000 from City Council late that year to create a small area plan for the Starr Hill neighborhood, the site of the razed Vinegar Hill neighborhood. The plan envisioned what a redeveloped City Yard might look like, but was converted into a “vision plan” by the city’s Neighborhood Development Services Department.
Other GO Virginia grant recipients in June include:
- Accelerating Advanced Manufacturing Workforce – $530,000 for Laurel Ridge Community College “to build a strong workforce pipeline for Region 8 manufacturers by offering an advanced manufacturing sector-focused career pathway training program.”
- Technology Academies for Fauquier and Rappahannock Counties – $402,075 for school systems in those two localities to “develop college-level courses in robotics and drones to high school students and adult learners through a workforce development program.”
- Talent Supply Connector – $391,528 for Virginia Career Works Piedmont Region to create “a Career Pathway Guide for employers and developing a region-wide database of relevant training offerings” in an area that includes Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties.
- Workforce and Entrepreneurship Initiatives in a Regional Makerspace – $324,000 for a company called Vector Space to “facilitate the implementation of expanded programming and equipment centered around workforce development and entrepreneurship for underserved populations” in Bedford and Campbell counties as well as the city of Lynchburg.
Read the press release for more.
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