Common Wealth Kitchen Incubator

Mission: The Kitchen Incubator promotes economic development and food security in Youngstown, OH and the surrounding region. We do this by providing local food entrepreneurs with a facility where they can launch their food enterprise or expand their current business. Partnerships in the community will be key in this effort as well as rebuilding our local food chain.

The kitchen incubator is an ongoing project started by Common Wealth Inc. in 2009. Common Wealth is a non-profit community development organization that got its start in the housing market over 25 years ago. Today, the focus has shifted to include rebuilding the local food economy through farmers' markets, a food co-op, healthy food kiosks and now the kitchen incubator. All of these elements are part of the Lake-to-River Food Hub and will be tied together through a new branding campaign called the 30 Mile Meal, a program adopted from Athens, OH, aimed at increasing awareness of the availability of local food and creating a network between local growers and buyers.

After purchasing the incubator property in 2009, remodeling is underway to convert the building into a commercial-grade production kitchen. The facilities will include a certified shared-use kitchen and processing areas, convection ovens, cold, frozen and dry storage, a thermal processing line and a training area. Commercial-grade equipment will be available. Rental rates vary depending on how often an individual wishes to use the kitchen and storage space is also available to rent at affordable prices. The kitchen incubator will also provide consultants to assist clients with business planning and marketing efforts.

The incubator will also house a retail and cafe space. The retail store will stock products from the incubator for sale to the public. The cafe will offer light menu items, smoothies and coffee, all from local ingredients!

The incubator is open to producers interested in baked goods, catering, sauces and salsa, jams and jellies, canned goods, condiments, value-added produce, pasta, dry mixes, fruits and berries, beverages and other specialty or gourmet goods and other items of choice.