Hello Friends of Taproot Kitchen on Lopez!
Remember us? Taproot?
Your local nonprofit shared-use certified commercial food processing facility on Lopez Island!
(try saying that three times fast!) 

We admit it, it's been a while. But what do they say, "well, better late than never." It's time for us to catch up!  This newsletter kicks off the beginning of a series of quick kitchen highlights. What we've been up to, what our awesome kitchen users are cooking, our hopes & dreams for the future, cool things happening in the world of food security, and we could go on and on… but we’re trying to keep this short! Our plan is to pop briefly into your inbox every week so we can all stay in touch.

Let's take a moment to get reacquainted now!
We thought it would be best to remind you all about Taproot, your nonprofit shared-use certified commercial food processing facility right here on Lopez Island. Well, that's kind of a long-winded statement so let’s break it down and explain. 

Taproot is a community kitchen and food storage provider. Its primary purpose is to create and sustain jobs that feature abundant fresh farm produce from the beautiful San Juan Islands. In doing so it hopes to provide nourishment, livelihood, and food security to Lopez and to the larger San Juan County community. How do we do this you ask?  Here is a list of our big objectives:

1. Provide a facility for commercial food processing, in particular for adding value to locally grown fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural products.
2. Help small entrepreneurs develop their business ideas at minimal cost by providing shared infrastructure and encouraging cooperation, creativity, and collaboration between food producers.
3. Equip and manage a certified commercial kitchen for intermittent users such as farmer’s market vendors, food truck vendors, and caterers.
4. Offer individuals, families, and nonprofits access to commercial equipment to efficiently process foods for their own use.
5. Educate all on safe food handling and processing practices and facilitate small business start-ups with resources and information.

Now that we covered the basics we look forward to sharing our accomplishments and kitchen highlights with you each week. Thanks for taking a moment to catch up with us!

Happy cooking,
The Taproot Crew