Shoals Commercial Culinary Center

The Shoals Culinary Center (SCC), a local homegrown food industry operation, was created to foster entrepreneurship, create job opportunities, and grow the food industry in the ares. The center, which officially opened in July 2001, in the Burrell Slater Community Education Center, is one of only 15 such kitchens in the United States and the only one in the State of Alabama. The center is a unique incubation concept offering assistance to specialty food producers in getting their product to market. A shared commercial kitchen allows small entrepreneurs in the food-related industry to share the equipment and facilities of a professionally-equipped kitchen and the expertise of food processing professionals in all aspects of the production and sales of their individual products. This allows small businesses to begin and to compete with larger, established businesses. Thus, providing consumers with a more specialized, wider range of products and products tailored to meet specific, small segments of the economy. At the SCC, assistance is offered in the areas of product development and testing, ingredient procurement, packaging, labeling, cost analysis, co-packing, health department compliance, and marketing in a licensed and permitted facility.