MRC’s AgriSaveur project moves forward

MRC’s AgriSaveur project moves forward

At the MRC Pontiac council of mayors meeting on February 19, council passed several resolutions relating to their AgriSaveur project, which aims to help local agricultural producers to process and market their products. The three pillars of the project are the abattoir in Shawville, a retail space that will be housed at the abattoir building and also a commercial kitchen at a separate location.

Two of the resolutions were to allocate roughly $45,000 for the purchase of commercial kitchen equipment, and also to lease the kitchen space, located on West Street in Shawville, for $2,500 per month from owner Bill Telford. The lease begins April 1, but the space will take some time to get up and running.

Shanna Armstrong, economic development commissioner for agriculture, explained that the project had originally focused on a commercial space for food transformations and marketing, but when the abattoir came up for sale last year they decided to use some of the money already allocated for the AgriSaveur project to purchase the facility to be run by a cooperative of local producers.

Armstrong said that while there is a kitchen space at the abattoir, it didn’t suit their needs and said that Telford approached them about the use of his facility. She said that they were still working out the details of rental rates and the reservation system.

Armstrong was also recently appointed as the MRC’s representative on the abattoir’s co-operative board, and she said that they had just issued a job posting for a general manager (which can be found here). She noted that they already secured several needed certifications in the fall and once they have staff hired they will be able to move forward with the next set of approvals for re-opening the facility.