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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: October 19, 2010 <br /> Action Agenda , <br /> Item No. <br /> SUBJECT: New Appointments — Steering Committee for the Piedmont Food &Agricultural <br /> Processing Center <br /> DEPARTMENT: Board of Commissioners PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): Under Separate Cover INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> Member Roster Clerk's Office, 245-2130 <br /> Applicant Interest List <br /> Application(s)/Resume(s) of Person(s) on <br /> the Interest List <br /> Position Advertisements <br /> Interlocal Agreement <br /> PURPOSE: To consider appointing one Commissioner, one Orange County farmer, County <br /> Manager (or designee) and the Cooperative Extension Director to the Steering Committee for <br /> the Piedmont Food & Agricultural Processing Center. <br /> BACKGROUND: The Piedmont Food & Agricultural Processing Center is a multi-county effort <br /> involving Alamance, Chatham, Durham, and Orange Counties, as well as Weaver Street Market <br /> and Whole Foods and is an example of public-private collaboration in the Piedmont Region. <br /> The shared-use facility located at 500 Valley Forge Road in Hillsborough, NC will allow farmers <br /> and local food entrepreneurs in the Piedmont region to better compete in the emerging BUY <br /> LOCAL, EAT SEASONAL, FARM to FORK economy. This value-added processing center in <br /> Hillsborough is within a 1.5 hour drive of 15,378 farms in a 22 county area, nearly one-third of all <br /> farms in North Carolina, according to 2007 USDA statistics. <br /> Recently the center has been awarded $1,127,319 from five agencies, including the NC <br /> Tobacco Trust Fund, the Golden Leaf Foundation, NC Agricultural Development and Farmland <br /> Preservation Trust Fund, US Housing & Urban Development— Economic Development <br /> Initiative, and the Rural Advancement Foundation International USA—Tobacco Communities <br /> Initiative. <br /> The Center is scheduled to open in March 2011 and will provide a wide range of food <br /> processing equipment in a commercial kitchen. Planning includes business development <br /> education, especially for food-based businesses. The processing center should be financially <br /> sustainable in its third year of operation through the collection of user and program fees and <br /> from the fundraising effort of the nonprofit entity that will be formed to manage the center. <br /> This Steering Committee, created June 3, 2010, will consist of a County Commissioner, a <br /> County Manager (or his designee) the Cooperative Extension Director of each of the Parties <br />