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The History of Battenkill Kitchen, Inc. Battenkill Kitchen, Inc. (BKI) was conceived when the county jail, in the small, upstate town of Salem, New York, was leaving its old facility behind and relocating to another part of the county. The vacated structure, owned by the town of Salem, now houses the Historic Salem Courthouse Preservation Association, and the former jail kitchen became Battenkill Kitchen, a not-for-profit, shared-use commercial kitchen facility. BKI pays rent to the Courthouse Complex. This money helps to maintain the grounds and building exteriors. When BKI first began, the board members all put money into the kitty to pay the fees to become incorporated. The organization was granted 501(C) 3 charitable not-for-profit status in 2004. Our primary mission is to function as a teaching platform for cooks of all ages to adapt healthier eating habits and to foster habits that help to support the agricultural way of life in our community. It took several years and hundreds of volunteer hours before BKI was able to open its doors. A great deal of cleaning, painting and repairs were needed in the run-down kitchen. We were able to salvage several pieces of equipment: walk-in cooler, convection oven, commercial dishwasher, six-burner range and two conventional ovens. With the help of many generous donations and approximately $45,000.00 in grants, we were able to transform the space into modern culinary workspace filled with the latest food preparation tools. The bulk of the money was used to replace the flooring, install stainless steel tables, purchase a 40-gallon steam kettle, 40-quart stand mixer and acquire necessary utensils and cooking implements. This organization has provided many programs to the community. BKI hosted a group of Head Start food workers, as part of a "Farm to Table" grant providing a hands-on workshop creating meals from local, nutritious products. We have had exchange students from Afghanistan share the food of their cultures with other students from around the area. The BKI Kids program was introduced to encourage local children in the creation of fresh, healthy meals and snacks. These classes service 60-75 students weekly, ranging from grades Kindergarten through sixth. The children are able to glean many of the ingredients from the Courthouse Community Garden that is also part of the complex. This facility is also provided at a reduced rate or free of charge for other organizations or community groups: HSCPA, SACC, Salem Food Pantry, Salem's Lunch, Learn & Play Program… BKI also hosts biannual workshops conducted by NECFE, Northeast Center for Food Entrepreneurship in partnership with Cornell Cooperative extension of Saratoga and Washington Counties. These workshops assist in the creation of local, small-scale food businesses: Recipe to Market, Jams& Jellies and Acidified foods. Volunteers have helped our organization by providing a series of classes, Harvest Bounty, demonstrating how to safely preserve the region's bounty of corn, raspberries and tomatoes to have on hand throughout the year. BKI continues to operate almost exclusively with volunteer assistance and donations. Until this past year, volunteers were responsible to do weekly cleaning, laundry, trash removal, phone and email contacts, scheduling as well as all the other tasks associated with running a not-for-profit and a commercial kitchen facility. After many years, we were finally able to contract a cleaning service, trash pick up and an individual to oversee contacts and scheduling. Most of our financial obligations are still met through fund-raising events, allowing for needed repairs and upgrading when possible. We have been extremely fortunate to have many celebrity chefs provide exciting cooking classes at our facility, donating all of the proceeds to our organization. Some of the generous culinary greats include Suvir Saran, Kim Sunée, Hiroko Shimbo, Zoë François, Joyce Goldstein and Rose Levy Beranbaum. Some money is also raised by BKI opening its doors to small-scale food producers. Our 800 square-foot kitchen facility has been inspected and approved by New York State Department of Ag and Markets and is the perfect place to launch a food business without a large capital investment. We offer the kitchen for use at hourly rates to farmers, individuals, businesses and community organizations to process their products for individual use or for retail sale. To those who are in the beginning stages of creating your own community kitchen, we hope this helps, and we are sorry that we are not able to personally answer all of the numerous inquiries that we receive. We wish you great success. To all of you who have helped to get BKI to this remarkable place, we send out a very special Thank You!
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