The
Allen Neighborhood Center’s Allen Street Food Hub project continues to move forward with the recent announcement of a $7,000 grant by the
Capital Region Community Foundation and a $20,000 grant from the R.E. Olds Foundation. The Hub is being developed in a functionally obsolete warehouse behind ANC. It will house a commercial incubator kitchen, food storage bins and the Allen Street Farmers' Market during the colder six months of the year.
“This builds on the work we’ve been doing for a decade with food,” says Joan Nelson, director of ANC. “Since 2004, we’ve grown every year. We started with four farmers and now we’re a huge market with 16 farmers and several prepared food vendors. But we didn’t want to stop there. Real food security requires that we grow food.”
Once completed, the $400,000 project will seek LEED certification. It will be the first functionally obsolete property in Lansing to achieve such an accreditation. Thus far, the organization has raised about half of the necessary funds to complete the project. A grand opening is currently planned for January of 2013.
“We’ve been amazed,” says Nelson. “People see this as a community investment opportunity. We are developing a sustainable community project and we are confident in what its impact will be.”
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