The new Carver Food Enterprise Center in Culpeper County hosted another Feeding 500 event recently, which turned into Feeding 700 as sweet potatoes continue to make headlines in the Virginia Piedmont.
Organizers and volunteers, on Nov. 5, took about 200 pounds of sweet potatoes from Fauquier Education Farm and made loads of soup, according to a center newsletter.
“With the help of 25 community volunteers and head chef Natalie Ortiz, in just under six hours, all the potatoes were processed into healthy, nutritious meals ready to be distributed to local area food pantries.”
PATH Foundation provided funding for the massive soup-making undertaking.
In most harvests, there are some funky leftovers — large, hard to prep, often oddly shaped and unwanted by grocery stores. Usually, they end up as animal feed or in landfills, according to the newsletter — but not in Culpeper County.
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A goal of the George Washington Carver Agriculture Research Center, parent organization of the nonprofit food enterprise center in the historic school, is to help strengthen the sustainability of local food ecosystems.
Virginia Cooperative Extension Culpeper County Extension Office, also located on the Carver campus, is hand in hand with that goal.
“Learning how to prep such harvests into meals not only feeds the local community but teaches us how to offer future co-packing services,” the newsletter stated.
The prepared soup was delivered the next day to homebound senior citizens and area food pantries, such as the Culpeper Food Closet, according to a report on the effort by Mary Hardbarger with Virginia Tech.
“We are so excited to be a beneficiary of this heavy harvest at the Carver Food Enterprise Center,” said Faith Dickerson, director of the Culpeper Food Closet. “We know that this is going to go from the hands that have worked today into our freezer, and it will soon be on people’s tables.”
The Carver Food Enterprise Center opened in September, culminating eight years of planning and fundraising for the community commercial kitchen.
The space features a 10-burner stove and oven, prep tables, cold and dry storage and an extensive equipment library. The kitchen is available to small food businesses, farmers, producers and community partners from Culpeper, Madison, Orange, Rappahannock and Fauquier.
A bakery-focused kitchen is in the works along with a large prep, co-packing and storage space by the end of 2024.
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