Welcome Neighbor STL Tours North City Food Hub
More than 20 Syrian refugee cooks joined Dr. Millie Mattfeldt-Berman, Professor Emerita of Nutrition and Dietetics of Saint Louis University on Thursday morning for a one-hour program to learn about food entrepreneurship mentoring provided through North City Food Hub. The new facility will include a shared-use kitchen, a classroom area for nutrition and cooking classes, business planning support, urban agriculture training, and a variety of other resources for those who enroll in their educational programs.
In fall 2016, the USDA awarded Northside Community Housing, Inc. nearly $500,000 to develop a food hub in North St. Louis and the new facilities are expected to open in the fall of 2018.
North City Food Hub has partnered with St. Louis University and local nonprofits such as the Ville Collaborative, Hosco Foods, Good Life Growing, LLC., Annie Malone Children & Family Service Center and the Sweet Potato Project.
“Our students and other North St. Louis residents now have a one-stop shop that will help them gain education in accessing land, growing food, getting legal advice and small business assistance, making food products and professionally bring all this to market in and outside their own neighborhoods,” said Sylvester Brown Jr., director of the Sweet Potato Project.
In addition to the new state of the art 3,000 square foot shared-use kitchen, North City Food Hub also has plans to open a grocery store adjacent to the kitchen. Sourcing locally is one of the food hub’s top priorities which also provides a fantastic opportunity for Welcome Neighbor STL cooks who want to market and sell their food products, but just aren’t sure where to start.
“We’re looking at ways to address food insecurity while simultaneously improving personal incomes through the growing of fresh food and food production,” said Dr. Mattfeldt- Beman.
North City Food Hub is a grassroots collaboration that has a goal of bringing together community organizations, business, nonprofits, and university to make a difference in the St. Louis area. The hub hopes to create culinary and food-related jobs, stimulate small business growth, use vacant land to grow food, and bring food to market in North St. Louis.
Welcome Neighbor STL cooks toured the facilities and have all been encouraged to enroll in North City Food Hub’s classes beginning fall of 2018. Classes will take place 3 days per week for 10 weeks for a total of 30 classes. As soon as the class schedule is announced, it will be shared on the Welcome Neighbor STL website.
Breaking bread together bring people together! Join us for our next supper event on 9/21/18 at 6pm.
