LaunchSpace holds soft opening for new shared-use kitchen in Athol

ATHOL – The Orange-based education center LaunchSpace held a soft opening Friday for a new shared-use kitchen at the Pleasant Street School in Athol.

A grand opening is tentatively planned for October, according to LaunchSpace CEO Brianna Drohen, once the kitchen is fully operational.

According to a press release, the kitchen is “designed to help food entrepreneurs, community members, and small businesses in the Athol region grow, create and thrive.”

According to Drohen, classes and workshops will range from low-cost everyday meal prep to specialty skills like traditional Japanese or Korean cooking and home food preservation.

“Partners like Seven Hills will bring clients to learn to cook with food grown in the on-site community garden,” said Drohen. “And local farmers will be able to work directly with kitchen members to turn what they grow into value-added products, connecting that garden and a planned one-acre, small-scale farm to real income opportunities, a long-term investment in a stronger, more resilient local food system.”

Drohen said that this opening has been a long time coming. The school was one of four that the town decommissioned in 2015, she added, and a re-use committee was created and a request for proposals issued.

“They (the town) really liked what we were doing over at the makerspace (in Orange) and wanted this building turned into something that created a ripple of community benefits,” said Drohen.

“The kitchen is designed to help food entrepreneurs, community members, and small businesses in the Athol region grow, create and thrive.”

LaunchSpace, she said, did a lot of “boots on the ground” feasibility study work, going to community events and public meetings to ask residents what they wanted to see at the school.

In addition to the shared-use kitchen, LaunchSpace plans to renovate part of the gym into event space, convert eight classrooms into business incubation studios for local artists and entrepreneurs, another two classrooms for childcare, and set aside one room for use by a hockey organization that has a rink adjacent to the school. Suggestions from the public were used in planning the redevelopment of the school.

“A community kitchen, childcare, independent studio space, event space were all things that people wanted, and we didn’t have space for all that at the makerspace,” Drohen said.

Because of the magnitude of the project, it was decided to complete it in phases, with the kitchen being the first phase.

What kicked off development of the kitchen, Drohen explained, was receipt of a federal earmark of just over $1 million, secured by Rep. Jim McGovern.

“So, we got that earmark, which stabilized us post-pandemic, and that allowed us to hire an architect and get into design, which let us know what the whole project was going to cost,” Drohen said.

Redevelopment of the school is estimated to cost approximately $18 million, according to Drohen. She added that state Sen. Jo Comerford and state Rep. Susannah Whipps have also worked to secure state funding for the project.

“A lot of the equipment you see actually got donated,” Drohen. We purchased a couple of things at market rate but really tried to use our dollars as efficiently as possible.”

Funding for the kitchen, said Drohen, has come from state and federal grants, as well as different organizations. These include a state Food Infrastructure Security Grant of just under $500,000; $50,000 from a state Collaborative Workspace Grant; and $50,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding from the town of Athol.

LaunchSpace also secured a $195,000 loan through the North Central Mass Development. Renaissance Builders in Gill was contracted to undertake the work for the kitchen, estimated at $1,108,000.

Drohen said memberships for use of the kitchen will range from $35 per hour to $100 for four hours and $1,400 a month.

“There are several programs we want to run out of the kitchen, which we’ll be scaling up over about 18 months,” Drohen said. “We’ve had about 40 people reach out to us; eight people have signed up for potential membership. Our goal is to have five signed up by the end of August.”

Whether people want to set up shop in a local storefront, a food truck, or their home, Drohen said all are welcome.

“It all depends on what (members) want to do,” she added. “We hired an amazing kitchen manager, Julian Brooks, who came over to us from The Farm School. He’s very farmer/food system minded; we really wanted that to be a part of how this kitchen’s vision is fulfilled. But it depends on what they want to do; there’s always going to be licensing requirements, permitting requirements, food safety practices. And we’ll bring in that training.”

In addition, said Drohen, much of the produce used in the kitchen will come from the community garden located behind the school.

Drohen said LaunchSpace is working with Athol Health Agent Jane O’Brien to “develop almost like a work-flow menu for people. ‘So, I want to open a food truck; I need to get this permit, I need to this, do that.’ We’ll have it all set up because that’s the kind of help potential members said they would want to see. Basically, Jane is helping streamline the process.”

Drohen said that O’Brien will provide guidance to those who need or want assistance navigating their way through the permitting process and providing information on what those setting up their own restaurant, food truck, or home kitchen business need to do to meet the various health codes.

After several years of preparation, said Suhoski, “They’ve finally gotten over the hump with this first phase, the kitchen redevelopment. So, I think they deserve a lot of credit for sticking to their plan. The commercial kitchen phase is one where they’ll be able to connect small and independent and nonprofit – and for profit – food producing entities to a kitchen that would otherwise be unavailable to these small entrepreneurs. I think all of that is laudable.”