News
Wash and Pack Facility ready to educate and conduct business at Dakota College at Bottineau
Scott Wagar
11/11/2014
Dakota College at Bottineau’s Entrepreneurial Center for Horticulture (ECH) has completed its Wash and Pack Facility and its staff will now begin to prepare the edifice for a number of uses it will conduct in association with the ECH.
“The purpose of the ECH Wash and Pack Facility is to demonstrate proper post-harvest handling and storage of vegetables. It will be used to prepare vegetables grown in the demonstration high tunnels and gardens on campus for sale through the on-campus CSA and for sale to Sodexo dining services,” stated Holly Rose Mawby.
“It will also be used to educate producers and clients of the ECH on proper equipment and techniques in post-harvest handling and food safety regulations.”
The inside of the structure has a number of pieces of equipment, which brings the best type of technology in cleaning the vegetables which will be grown on DCB’s campus.
“Inside the building are the necessary pieces of equipment and materials to meet health regulations for the cleaning, packaging and storing of fruits and vegetables,” Mawby said. “This includes a triple compartment sink, a separate hand washing sink, properly sealed floors, easily cleanable walls, a walk in cooler and space for storage of bins, totes, boxes and harvest tools.”
The facility will be under the direction of Bill Bittle, the ECH’s farm manager. Bittle, along with two or three summer employees, will work in the building where they will care for the the produce that is harvested, conduct demonstration gardens, do applied research and a number of trials.
The facility is 2,000 square feet and cost an estimated $443,000 to construct. A grant from the Federal Economic Development Administration donated $350,000 for the wash and pack facility, with matching funds from the Center of North America Coalition REAP Zone fund and the Bottineau Gateway Fund.
Dr. Ken Grosz, dean of Dakota College at Bottineau, is pleased with the water and pack facility.
“We are pleased with the completion of the construction project connected with our Entrepreneurial Center for Horticulture,” Grosz said.
“It is a perfect fit for our traditional mission of providing educational programming in the natural resources area and is a natural, additional component to our horticulture and forestry programs. It is playing a significant role in stimulating economic development in rural North Dakota.”