Clovis Culinary Center wins community impact award from Clovis Chamber of Commerce
The Clovis Chamber of Commerce awarded the Clovis Culinary Center its Community Impact Award at the annual Salute to Business awards on Jan. 25. The award honors community organizations for dedicated service to the city of Clovis.
The Clovis Culinary Center is a community commercial kitchen and business incubator dedicated to helping food entrepreneurs launch successful businesses in the central San Joaquin Valley. It serves start-up caterers, food truck operators, bakers, small manufacturers of specialty foods, legal street vendors, wholesalers who sell to retail markets, and others starting part-time food businesses by providing business counseling and market development.
“The Clovis Culinary Center is honored to be recognized by the Clovis Chamber of Commerce,” said Shawn Miller, a founder and ongoing board member for the kitchen. “This particular award is meaningful because it means the Culinary Center has made an impact with its clients and customers in the community — which has been the goal from Day 1.”
Since opening in 2018, it has served 130 different clients, helped launch numerous successful food businesses and created 600 jobs.
The Brioche Lady, The Grazing Table and The St. Francis Homeless Project are notable Clovis Culinary Center success stories, the latter winning a $10,000 award during the Pressure Cooker competition at the MADE Central CA trade show in 2022. Another CCC client, Saint Goods, won second-place honors at MADE in 2023.
Other recent successes include Dads Cookies, which has grown to include three brick-and-mortar locations, and Miguel’s Salsa, which was recently named the No. 1 place to eat in the Central Valley by Yelp.
There are currently 80 clients working out of the kitchen in 2024, many from historically underserved communities. The Clovis Culinary Center also hosts cooking classes, workshops, fundraisers and private dinners led by its chefs and members.
The program is funded through the city of Clovis, federal Community Development Block Grants and private donations. For more information about the Clovis Culinary Center and its programs, visit clovisculinarycenter.com.
To learn more about jumpstarting your food biz at the Clovis Culinary Center, go here.
