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Allen Neighborhood Center has big plans in the works to transform the Allen Street Farmers Market into a year-round Food Resource Center including an incubator kitchen and food storage facility. The estimated $300,000 project has recently been helped along by a $75,000 grant from the Capital Region Community Foundation.
"Our mission includes crafting programs that support the health, stability and economic well-being of
Eastside residents and other stakeholders," says Joan Nelson, director of the Allen Neighborhood Center. "The Food Resource Center will further this by supporting year round access to locally grown and nutritious foods while creating varied and extensive economic opportunities for emerging and aspiring food entrepreneurs."
Work on the project is expected to begin this fall with help from Lansing Community College's Design and Construction Technologies Program. Nelson hopes to open the kitchen in late spring or early summer of 2012, install food storage areas by the following September, and bring the market indoors in November.
According to Nelson, the Allen Neighborhood Center is excited for the new facility's potential to enhance their current programming and become the impetus for new initiatives.
"We believe that the Center will catalyze a whole new set of food, energy, entrepreneurial, and health related initiatives to enrich public and private life in the region," she says.
Allen Neighborhood Center intends the center to be located in a 5,000-square foot facility near the current Allen Street Market. Nelson expects to increase staff to accommodate the increase in space and programming.
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