Salmon Valley Stewardship

Salmon Valley Stewardship: Cultivating Rural Resilience and Food Sovereignty Through a Shared Commercial Kitchen

Salmon Valley Stewardship (SVS), in collaboration with multiple community partners, is creating a centralized, shared commercial kitchen where local producers and food entrepreneurs can process, add value to, and distribute their products. This kitchen will support connection to regional markets, support local food production, improve access to healthy local food, and strengthen food sovereignty in our rural community.

Years in the making, this project is rooted in the priorities and greatest needs of our local food producers that were identified in the 2022 Salmon/Challis Regional Community Food Assessment. You can read this towards the bottom of SVS's food systems program page here: https://www.salmonvalley.org/sustainablefoodsystems

This effort is particularly vital in our historically under-resourced region, where food insecurity and poverty are significant challenges. By investing in this kitchen, we can empower small producers, stimulate local economies, and increase the availability of fresh, locally processed food.

The Kitchen Space:

A custom-built 8.5' x 24’ mobile trailer will house the commercial kitchen. The mobile kitchen will be parked in Salmon, Idaho but has potential to be moved to a different location for a specific event or community need, making it accessible to communities throughout the region. In addition to the trailer, there will be a self-contained 8’x10’ walk-in cooler installed on site.

The trailer will be fully outfitted with:

Funding for the mobile unit itself has been secured through a USDA Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grant. The kitchen is set to be fully operational by December 2025.

We will be partnering with Quality Food Trailers based out of Portland, OR to design and build our custom commercial kitchen. Check out a video of their company at this link.

Community Use & Oversight:

The group of potential kitchen users is composed of local food producers, caterers, and other food businesses who primarily use or produce local food. These businesses all need access to a commercial kitchen to start or grow their business into new markets. All users will need to carry business insurance, have current health department food licensing, and agree to follow community kitchen guidelines.

Sustainability:

A 5-year operating budget ensures the kitchen will be financially self-sustaining, covering maintenance, utilities, and routine repairs. The goal for this shared space is not to be a source of income for Salmon Valley Stewardship, but instead will remain self-balancing. Any funds collected through use of the kitchen will fund repair and replacement of existing equipment, go towards kitchen management and food education, as well as pieces of specialized equipment for specialty food businesses.

Our Ask: Help Us Bring the Community Kitchen to Life

While funding for the basics of the mobile kitchen unit and walk-in cooler has been secured through a USDA Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grant, we need your support to make the space fully functional and ready to serve local food businesses.

Your donation towards the $25,000 we are seeking will help us:

Every contribution—big or small—brings us closer to opening the doors of this shared kitchen and empowering our rural food producers.

Donations for the Community Commercial Kitchen can be made to Salmon Valley Stewardship through this Go Fund Me page, and are tax-deductible. If you are having trouble obtaining a tax-deductible receipt or have questions about donating to this project, please contact us through our website, https://www.salmonvalley.org

Thank you for helping us grow a stronger, more resilient local food system!

Community Testimonials:

“To have a strong, sustainable food system, you don't only need the growers, you need the distribution, you need the community kitchens, you need to have the processing centers. So when we work as a community to have this infrastructure in place and make it a priority, then we are coming together as a community to say, "Hey, this is important to us, we want local food, we want it to be accessible, we want it to be affordable." The infrastructure piece is absolutely critical for having a thriving farm business in this valley.

-Jessica McAleese and Swift River Farm

“Sweet Belly Farm makes jams and fruit preserves with local fruit, as well as herbal teas and body products from herbs we grow and source locally. It would be amazing to have access to a rentable commercial kitchen to be able to legally sell my farm products wholesale to our small natural foods stores and at markets in other states. I would very much like to see the innovations in products, processing, and interconnectivity that a centralized community kitchen would provide! My dream is to become fully self-supportive in my small business, hire others if possible, and contribute more local food and farm products to my community.”

-Cameron Rolle, Sweet Belly Farm

“There are several of us bakers in town that could really benefit from it. There are so many needs for cakes/cupcakes/baked goods for events in salmon: weddings, birthdays, etc. and we only really have Saveway to get these things. I have to turn down people all the time due to not having enough space, or what they ask for I don’t have enough equipment! Even on a different note, community dinners could benefit, or classes could be held, the possibilities are endless! I would be absolutely thrilled to see this go through.”

-Emmy King, Salmon baker

-Jo Philpot, local caterer

-Local produce, an integral part of the Community Kitchen