CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – Ten Virginia businesses will split $400,000 in grants just announced by Governor Glenn Youngkin. Albemarle’s Kelly Bronze Turkeys and Charlottesville’s New Hill Development Corporation are two of the recipients in Central Virginia.
Kelly Bronze Turkeys is using the grant to grow its list of products, adding a new option of ground turkey.
“We were just kind of focusing on doing one thing right. And then once we got that done, then move to the next. It’s time to move forward,” Judd Culver with Kelly Bronze Turkeys said.
Kelly Bronze started with 75 birds, now ten years later it sells more than 4,000 a year. Culver says the demand for ground turkey is high.
“People have been asking for at least five years,” Culver said.
With the $24,000 grant, they’re hoping to sell ground turkey by April.
“It’s gonna pay for the actual equipment to do the grinding, and tables and everything that it takes to produce from whole bird to ground,” Culver said.
On the other end of the processing line, Charlottesville’s New Hill Development Corporation received $50,000 to build a shared-use commercial kitchen. This will go towards the estimated total cost of $2.2 million.
“It’s like a gym membership or a WeWork. Essentially you pay to be a member and you use the equipment use the space,” CEO Yolunda Harrell said.
Black Entrepreneurial Advancement and Community Opportunity Network (BEACON) kitchen will have 16 workstations for people to rent in addition to freezers and dry storage space.
“There were a lot of food-based businesses, especially that existed within the black community or people who wanted to start a food-based business. And so we thought, well, if that’s where a lot of energy and momentum is already at, then how do we help this,” Harrell said.
The kitchen aims to give businesses access to a commercial kitchen for less. It’s expected to open halfway through 2023.
“Not everyone has the ability to finance their own dream, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have dreams. And it doesn’t mean that those dreams don’t deserve a space and opportunity to come to life,” Harrell said.
Both grants are matched by the localities.
“If everybody wants local produce food, obviously having the having the state and the county put in, helping us to move products forward. It satisfies what the customers want and it helps us get there quicker,” Culver said.
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