New food innovation hub planned for Fayette County

FAYETTEVILLE, WV (WVNS) — The West Virginia Hive and New River Gorge Regional Development Authority have been awarded a large sum in federal funds.

The money is going towards the creation of a food innovation hub in Fayette County.

The West Virginia Hive food innovation hub is the signature project of the Rural Partners Network (RPN). RPN is comprised of government and non-profit leaders from 12 different southern West Virginia counties.

This project is becoming a reality with the awarding of $750,000 from the United State Department of Agriculture Rural Development’s Rural Community Advancement Program.

The hub will feature an enormous commercial grade kitchen and focus heavily on food and agriculture based businesses.

Judy Moore, Executive Director of West Virginia Hive, said this is a great opportunity.

“So, we will work with food businesses to help enrich their knowledge about running a food-based or agriculture-based business, and they can actually experiment within that commercial kitchen,” said Moore.

Ten to twelve businesses will be able to utilize the kitchen to prepare food for restaurants or food trucks.

Experts in the food and agriculture industries will be brought in to assist local businesses with expanding their knowledge and range of products offered.

Ryan Thorn, West Virginia State Director for USDA Rural Development, said this is just the start of the benefits the new hub will offer.

“We hope this will act as a catalyst for additional food, hospitality businesses that support the tourism economy, because in Fayette County with the presence of the New River Gorge Region, the New River Gorge National Park, there’s always gonna be a need for unique restaurants, unique food products that folks coming into our state want to take advantage of, want to consume, want to experience,” said Thorn.

The location for the hub has not been determined yet but it will be in Fayette County for centralization reasons.

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