Pueblo makes plans for community kitchen

John Knol | For The New Mexican

5/6/2008 - 5/7/08

The Pueblo of Pojoaque has taken initial steps to provide a commercial community kitchen in the Pojoaque Valley.

A commercial community kitchen will help small food-producing businesses (both start-ups and existing firms) be more successful, said Vicente Roybal, Pueblo of Pojoaque director of agricultural resources.

Roybal, a former chairman of the Pojoaque Valley Planning Committee, said he saw the successful Taos and Española commercial community kitchens, and that motivated him to develop a similar model in the Pojoaque Valley.

Currently, the Greenwood Consulting Group of Sanibel Island, Fla., is working with Roybal to ascertain the interest and feasibility of a kitchen in the Pojoaque Valley.

The feasibility study should be completed within the next 90 days.

If the feasibility study gets promising data, the $2.2 million, 10,000-square-foot facility will be built in Pojoaque sometime within the next two years, Roybal said.

Roybal said planning capital has been granted by the Legislature and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A location has yet to be established. Initially, the pueblo planned to build the kitchen next to Jake's Dirty Shorts Laundromat, but now the Pueblo of Pojoaque Industrial Park looks like the most likely site.

The kitchen will be open to the general public. Food producers will be able to rent time and space in a fully-equipped commercial kitchen with ranges, freezers, ovens, juicers and a walk-in cooler.

Rental costs haven't been established for the facility, which will be open 24/7, but Roybal said he expects the rent to range from $12 to $20 an hour.

The project will also give food-processing businesses access to business assistance through workshops and one-on-one help.

"It will be a business incubator," Roybal said. "We'll help small businesses in a variety of ways, like drawing up business plans, designing labels and marketing their product."

If everything works according to plan, the facility will include a storefront for product sales.

Roybal said several small business start-ups at the Taos facility have developed into successful regional businesses.

Heidi's Jams and Geronimo's Wild Fire Salsa developed their business at the Taos kitchen and business incubator.

In Taos, there have been major business ventures, but more than that a few single-parent families have been raised on revenue streams from their small businesses, Roybal said.

"It will help the economy of the area," Roybal said. "Local people will be able to prepare and market things like salsas, jams and various kinds of frozen foods."

But Roybal's concerns extend beyond economic development.

"We're also involved in a community farm project," Roybal said. "It's our way of addressing food security for the pueblo. Right now, we have
12 acres where we're revitalizing the soil with cover crops like alfalfa and buckwheat."

He also wants to keep local cuisine and culture alive and flourishing.

"The kitchen will give people the opportunity to practice and cultivate the practice of creating foods that are indigenous to Northern New Mexico," he said. "It's a pueblo enterprise, but it will benefit everyone in Pojoaque Valley."