Chilton Food Innovation Center hopes to bring more profits for farmers across Alabama with the help of donated kitchen equipment from Foy Hall.
"We're about providing a place for primarily farmers to bring their excess crops and produce extended shelf life products," said Christy Mendoza, director of Chilton Food Innovation Center.
Farmers have trouble selling fruit and other produce that is not perfect, Mendoza said.
"For example, in Chilton County, we have a lot of peaches, and 30 percent of the peaches on the trees will not make it to the fresh market, which the primary goal of selling it is at the fresh market," Mendoza said. "Some of them will be too small, not ripe enough, too ripe, may have spots or just have a funny shape to them. So if they aren't perfect they won't be sold at the fresh market."
With the help of the old Foy Union cafeteria equipment, the Chilton Food Innovation Center will be able to provide farmers with a place to make products out of their unwanted produce.
"Those peaches can be brought to the facility and the farmers can make things like peach jam, peach salsa or peach syrup," Mendoza said.
Mendoza also mentioned the importance of co-packers in this business.
"Farmers don't have a lot of time to come and make their products while they're in the middle of harvest," Mendoza said. "Many of the farmers would prefer having a co-packer."
The center is looking for people who would like to start their own business as a co-packer, she said.
"They would contact the farmers and purchase their produce, pack the product and could sell it back to them," Mendoza said.
Students are also welcome to share in the wealth, Mendoza said.
"We welcome any students that would like to start their own food business," Mendoza said. "It doesn't require a lot of time, especially in the spring and summer when the crops are out. The students could come up for a few days and process and sell their own branded product."
The Chilton Food Innovation Center also is in collaboration with the agriculture school at Auburn.
"The county extension research centers and the farmers that we work with at the center allow the agricultural department at Auburn to use the land to research and test," Mendoza said. "The students can test new varieties of a fruit or new pesticide."
The Chilton Food Innovation Center will continue to collaborate with Auburn University.
"We're all in the same family," Mendoza said.
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