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Stallings Building

Pasco opens first incubator kitchen

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An incubator kitchen has opened in Dade City, to promote economic development through food businesses.

The new facility is a collaborative effort between University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS)-Pasco County extension, the Pasco Economic Development Council, Inc.’s SMARTstart incubator program and Pasco County.

The kitchen was officially unveiled on Sept. 23, during a ribbon cutting at the Stallings Building, in Dade City.

Mark Richardson, Ron Oakley, Michael Anderson and Mick Hughes congregate inside the new incubator kitchen at Dade City’s Stallings Building. The kitchen is expected to support education and economic development.
(Brian Fernandes)

Pasco County Commission Chairman Ron Oakley, told those gathered, “This kitchen is going to do great things for Pasco County. It’s going to start those businesses off, and then they’re going to create jobs.”

The incubator will be operated in a renovated kitchen, where participants will  learn culinary skills and entrepreneurs will have a launchpad for new businesses.

Dr. Whitney Elmore said she had that vision in mind, when she first saw the building five years ago.

“Turning this corner out here on 14th Street, I saw this county-owned (Stallings)building sitting unused in a community that was, frankly, in need of resource development and economic opportunity.

“I saw this building’s potential to become an educational outreach center where members of the community, and all of Pasco County, could come for educational services and furthermore, empowerment,” Elmore said.

The Stallings Building, also now known as the One Stop Shop, was established in 1991.

It had been vacant when Elmore, the director for the Pasco Extension Office, came across it.

She has helped to establish the building as a hub for educational classes and food demonstrations.

The kitchen was not in a suitable condition for showing demonstrations, Elmore said.

The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences-Pasco County Extension, recently unveiled its new incubator kitchen at the Stallings Building in Dade City.

The renovation has been three years in the making, she added.

The $30,000-project included refurbishing the oven hood, installing a built-in grease trap and new ceiling tiles. There also is a pantry closet to store dry foods and other products.

Welbilt, a kitchen equipment company, donated a stove, oven, a three-compartment sink, stainless steel counters, an ice maker, a fridge and a freezer.

“Not only did they donate that kitchen equipment that you see in there,” the director said, “they helped us figure out what needs to go where, to optimize safety and to optimize utility of the different parts.”

And Welbilt is planning to do more, Elmore said.

Oakley said the project is a “public-private partnership, working together for the betterment of the community.”

After the ceremonial ribbon cutting, guests had the opportunity to tour the newly-built kitchen.

What sets the incubator kitchen apart from other commercial kitchens, said Elmore, is that it’s open to the public to stock and preserve food.

The kitchen can be a learning space and can serve as a stock room, for a culinary instructor about to teach a class.

The storage space can be used by food trucks, too.

Those using the kitchen for storage will pay a fee.

Dan Mitchell, manager of Pasco Economic Development Council’s SMARTstart incubator program, has been involved in the project, too.

SMARTstart offers memberships so people can take advantage of the kitchen.

“When we start a new entrepreneur [as] a member, we build an action plan for them,” Mitchell explained. “If they think it’s going to take them a year to launch, we meet with them once a month, we coach them, we hold them accountable and we help them get to that launch date.”

Elmore said the kitchen will help people develop skills to be culinary entrepreneurs. She also thinks it will be an incentive for migrant workers to stay within the region.

Elmore also believes the kitchen will give people healthier food options, which will lead to fewer chronic illnesses.

The kitchen could help reduce crime, too, she said.

“We know through many different models all across the nation, and all kinds of studies, that if you offer economic opportunity, job growth development [and] educational services, that you can cut down on the crime,” Elmore explained.

And with a community garden based outside the Stallings Building, the kitchen provides a convenient space for preparing one’s own produce.

Long-term plans include starting an educational program for single mothers to become businesswomen within the food industry, as well as adding new incubator kitchens throughout Pasco County.

“That’s our goal,” said Mitchell, “to knock down the barriers to entries to starting a business, and be that launching pad.”

Community gardening coming to Dade City

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Two new community gardens will be coming soon to Dade City.

The University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Pasco County Extension Office will be establishing community gardens with the help of the City of Dade City, the Pasco County Commission and private donors.

Soon, gardeners will be using community gardening plots to grow vegetables in Dade City. (Courtesy of Eden Santiago-Gomez, Pasco Extension Office)

Members of the community will be able to grow their own produce in free garden plots, according to Whitney C. Elmore, Pasco County Extension director and urban horticulture agent.

The gardens will be located at Watson Park, which is at North and Main avenues, between 17th and 19th streets, and on the land surrounding the Stallings Building, at 15029 14th St.

The Dade City Watson Park Community Garden is being made possible with support from Dade City Mayor Camille Hernandez, the Dade City Commission and UF/IFAS, Elmore said. This is a new land use agreement model piloted between the University of Florida and a municipality, she added.

The Stallings Building Urban Farm has been made possible through the recently passed Pasco County Urban Agriculture Ordinance, the cooperation of Pasco County Commission and the guidance of Assistant County Administrator Cathy Pearson, Elmore added.

Many private citizens and companies also donated items and equipment to make these new ventures possible, according to Eden Santiago-Gomez, community gardens program assistant at the extension office.

The Dade City Watson Park Community Garden will host more than 30 community plots of varying sizes, including wheelchair-accessible and senior-accessible raised beds. All plots and beds will be available to lease free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis to the surrounding community.

Nice, plump tomatoes may be among the vegetables grown soon in Dade City by gardeners using community garden plots. (Courtesy of University of Florida/IFAS)

Educator plots also will be available, so students on school field trips can engage and interact with all things gardening.

Lessons will be taught, on site, by the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension faculty and staff on topics such as gardening 101, good bugs/bad bugs, gardening for nutrition, composting, rain water harvesting, fertilizers, eating on a budget, and making your own healthy snacks, Elmore added.

Garden tours also will be available to the public in the future by Pasco Master Gardeners and Horticulture staff.

A planting party will be held to commemorate the first community garden in Dade City. The party will be on Jan. 12, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Dade City Watson Park Community Garden. The public is invited to share the afternoon with Dade City officials, local leaders and members of the community.

The Stallings Building Urban Farm will feature more than 50 8-foot-by-8-foot community plots and six raised wheelchair-accessible beds, all available for the community to lease, free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis. The rest of the area will be farmed by the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension Office’s Community Gardens Program. All food grown in that area of the Urban Farm will be donated to local food pantries initially. At some point, the hope is to offer a monthly farm stand or possibly Community Supported Agriculture to benefit the local community, Santiago-Gomez said.

Numerous gardening techniques will be utilized at this site (from traditional row cropping to permaculture design techniques) as educational demonstrations for county residents during various classes, to be offered in the near future.

Both gardens are located in the low-income communities of Dade City, and are aimed at helping local community members learn to grow their own food.

This will give local community members access to fresh fruits and vegetables, in what is currently a food desert. Additionally, money saved on grocery bills, by growing much of the produce needed for a family, can be redirected to other areas of everyday life, Elmore said.

Citizens can sign up now for a free garden plot at either of these locations and start gardening. Please contact Eden Santiago-Gomez at or (352) 518-0156 to reserve your free plot.

Here’s a slate of upcoming classes aimed at helping people who want to learn more about how to propagate from seeds, and other gardening topics.

Propagating from Seeds #101
Where: Clayton Hall at Pasco County Fairgrounds, 36702 State Road 52 in Dade City
When: Jan. 6, 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Cost: Free
Details: Learn some tricks of the trade to successfully germinate seeds and raise the seedlings to beautiful plants.
Registration is required. Call the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension Office at (352) 518-0156 for details.        

Composting Workshop
Where: Centennial Park Branch Library, 5740 Moog Road in Holiday
When: Jan. 11, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Cost: $35 fee, includes instruction and one composting bin
Details: Learn how to recycle nutrients into plants and add organic matter to your soil. The workshop covers the do’s and don’ts of composting for Florida flowers and vegetables. Each Pasco household is eligible to receive one compost bin when at least one household member registers and attends this workshop.
Call the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension Office at (352) 518-0156 for details.        

Vegetable Gardening Basics
Where: Stallings Building, 15029 14th St., in Dade City
When: Jan. 18, 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Cost: Free
Details: Learn how to to choose a location for a garden, what makes good soil, when to plant different vegetables, and how to control common vegetable garden pests.
Registration is required. Call the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension Office at (352) 518-0156 for details.        

Published December 27, 2017

Activists bring new life to Moore-Mickens

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The Pasco County School District handed over the keys to the new tenants of the Moore-Mickens Education Center effective July 1.

The lease is for 30 years at $10 a year.

Volunteers and board members of the nonprofit Moore-Mickens Education Center and Vocational Center Inc., are working to reopen the historical school in Dade City. From left, Rev. Jesse McClendon Sr., Saundra Coward, Londa Edwards, Levater Holt, Marilyn Hunter and Margarita Romo. (Kathy Steele)

So, now the school’s future is in the hands of a coalition of community activists who founded the nonprofit Moore-Mickens Education Center and Vocational Center Inc.

Its legacy already is in place.

Moore-Mickens is rooted in Pasco’s history as the first public school for blacks. It began as Moore Academy and later operated under the Moore and Mickens’ names as elementary, middle and high schools, and finally, as the education center.

The school’s name honors the accomplishments of two Pasco educators, Rev. Junias D. Moore and Odell Kingston Mickens.

Though the nonprofit plans to be patient and move ahead one program at a time, there are ambitious plans in store for Moore-Mickens, which sprawls across a campus of 14 buildings at the end of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Dade City.

Empowering children is a priority.

The first goal is to open a volunteer prekindergarten school that will give children a foundation for educational success.

“I want to see kids open doors for themselves,” said Marilyn Hunter, president of the nonprofit.

Margarita Romo echoes those thoughts.

A monument sign for Moore-Mickens Education Center sits behind a fence at the entrance to the campus, off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Dade City.

“It can be the lighthouse for people who need to believe in themselves, said Romo, founder of Farmworkers Self-Help.

There are challenges ahead.

The first step is to organize a volunteer cleanup to get buildings ready to open. Plans are to use the administrative building, the building that housed the Cyesis teen parent program, and a building where the Dade City City Commission once held meetings.

In April, vandals broke about 100 windows and several doors in several buildings. The school district boarded up the windows and doors.

Repair costs are left for the nonprofit.

Romo can tick off a laundry list of items the school needs.

A church donated about 100 chairs, but more are needed, she said. Tables, commercial kitchen equipment, books and lawn mowers for the sprawling campus make up a short list.

“It’s a hard task just getting started,” Romo said. “We’ll open a little bit at a time, so we don’t go in debt.”

A local Episcopal church is making a donation to aid the school.

Hunter said the nonprofit plans to apply for a state historical grant, but additional cash donations and in-kind support are needed.

Termites are an issue in at least one building.

“It’s been sitting for three years without any care at all,” she said.

Prior to its closing in 2015, Moore-Mickens offered classes for adults, teen parents and special-needs children.

In April, vandals busted out 100 windows and broke several doors at the Moore-Mickens Education Center in Dade City.

Hunter taught in Pasco schools, including adult education classes at Moore-Mickens. And, she is a high school graduate of the class of 1970, the last one before desegregation.

“I’m proud of that,” she said.

School officials threatened to close Moore-Mickens in 2014, but backed off when area residents rallied to keep it open. They cited costly repairs as the reason for finally closing the campus a year later.

Community activists immediately began lobbying to save the school. Many had ties as former students or teachers at the school.

Rev. Jesse McClendon Sr., took the lead early on. A core group of 15 or so came together, eventually founding the nonprofit.

Few would have given them much chance for success.

But, Moore-Mickens stirs passions among people who revere the school as a community treasure.

“My heart has always been here at this school and this community,” said Saundra Coward, the nonprofit’s vice president and a former student. “I have a hurt for east Pasco because there’s so much taken away from us. This center here is the heart of many of us. The closing of it was a hurting thing.”

The passion caught even McClendon by surprise.

He had expected the outcry from the black community, but everyone who had ties with Moore-Mickens wanted to save it, he said.

McClendon went to Moore Elementary, and later worked as plant manager at Moore-Mickens. His mother, Joanna McClendon, was a teacher.

Levater Holt is an officer with the nonprofit as well as former student and teacher at the school. “This school for me is where I came up,” she said. “We’re reaching out to the whole community.”

In addition to VPK classes, the nonprofit wants to offer General Equivalency Diploma instruction and vocational skills classes. Other social agencies also could become partners, including food banks, and other children’s programs. There could be a charter school, afterschool programs, and a community garden.

Hunter would like to see sports activities, possibly basketball and badminton, and maybe a splash pad.

Romo sees the Moore-Mickens campus as a hub for social agencies in the area. A “one-stop” community center already is planned for the former Stallings Building on 14th Street in Dade City.

In the future, there could be links between that site and Moore-Mickens, which Romo said has space to accommodate several programs.

Londa Edwards, Romo’s granddaughter, has a mentoring program in the Tommytown neighborhood. She would like to also bring it to Moore-Mickens.

Coward, and her sister, Dometa Mitchell, are founders of Hebron Refuge Outreach, which offers youth programs that could fit in at Moore-Mickens as well.

This is a grassroots effort, Romo said.

“It’s kind of exciting, because here is a community that gathered together to try to say ‘yes we can’.” And, now she added, “We’re going to make this happen.”

For information, call Hunter at (352) 807-5691 or email .

Published July 5, 2017

Pasco Extension eyeing options for new home

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Nobody disputes that Pasco County’s Extension Office is in serious need of an upgrade.

But that’s where the consensus ends.

Extension now operates out of space owned by the Pasco County Fair Association, under an annual $17,000 lease, which is currently on a month-to-month basis.

But the office is too small and outdated to meet Extension’s needs.

The county wants to improve conditions for Extension and has been weighing various options.

It held a community stakeholder meeting on Oct. 12 at the Stallings Building, at 15029 14th St., in Dade

Whitney Elmore, director of Pasco County Extension, said she needs more space to enable her to create more programs to serve more Pasco County residents.
Richard K. Riley/photos                                 Whitney Elmore, director of Pasco County Extension, said she needs more space to enable her to create more programs to serve more Pasco County residents.

City.

The county owns that building and had been leasing it out, but that lease ended and the building is now vacant.

Moving Extension to the Stallings Building is one of the options the county is considering, said Cathy Pearson, an assistant county administrator.

The building, constructed in 1991, is in generally good condition and is immediately available. It would cost an estimated $146,000 to renovate and the project would take about 120 days, Pearson said.

Some advantages are that it has a kitchen and there’s space to do a community garden center.

Another option the county is considering would keep the program at the fairgrounds, with improvements made there.

“We’re on hold right now. We want to look and see what it would cost to do some renovations to that,” Pearson said. “We haven’t had a chance to work those figures out. We want facilities to take a hard look at that in the next month or so and come back with some figures.”

The county doesn’t own the fairgrounds, Pearson said.

The county also considered a third option to move Extension to the county’s  old Data Center building, but that option doesn’t appear to be viable, Pearson said.

The building, constructed in 1977, would cost an estimated $606,000 to renovate and would take about a year, Pearson said.

A fourth option would involve a public/private partnership, but none has materialized so far.

“Is there something that we’re not thinking of?” Pearson asked.

County staff needs more time to evaluate the fairgrounds option, Pearson said, noting that it just began exploring that idea earlier in the week.

She estimated it would take about 90 days to evaluate that option and suggested meeting with the stakeholders again after the holidays.

Margarita Romo is urging Pasco County to relocate the Extension Office to the Stallings Building. She said area children need more opportunities and this would help to provide them.
Margarita Romo is urging Pasco County to relocate the Extension Office to the Stallings Building. She said area children need more opportunities and this would help to provide them.

Reaction from the crowd was all over the map.

Some support upgrading the fairgrounds building and keeping Extension there.

Others want the county to move the program to the Stallings Building because it could serve to help lift up a neighborhood where people struggle to provide opportunities for their children.

Some noted potential safety issues, if Extension moves to the Stallings Building.

A comparison of police calls shows that the neighborhood had more than twice as many police calls than the fairgrounds location.

However, some people in the crowd noted that improved trust in law enforcement has led to a greater number of calls, and the Stallings Building is in a more populated area than the fairgrounds, which makes police calls more likely.

Others in the crowd questioned how long it would take to upgrade the fairgrounds, how much it would cost and how Extension would operate in the interim.

A question also was raised about why the county would want to invest taxpayer money in a property not owned by the county.

Other questions included whether the county would continue to pay rent on the fairgrounds property and how the arrangement would affect Extension’s ability to control scheduling and programs.

Whitney Elmore, the director of Extension, said the main goal to expand the programming that’s available.

“Our existing facilities don’t allow us to expand,” she said.

Some speakers suggested relocating Extension temporarily to the Stallings Building, until renovations can be made to the fairgrounds, at which time it would move back.

Others suggested the county consider using both sites.

Margarita Romo, founder of Farmworkers Self-Help, urged the county to move Extension to the Stallings Building and to keep it there. The community’s children need more opportunities, she said.

“Come here, where it’s a challenge,” Romo said. “Take it on.”

LeAnne John, president of the Pasco County Fair Assoc., asked for time to determine whether improvements can be made at the fairgrounds to keep Extension there.

Leanne John, president of the Pasco County Fair Association, wants Pasco County to gather more information on whether it would be possible to upgrade the fairgrounds' building, so Extension could remain there.
Leanne John, president of the Pasco County Fair Association, wants Pasco County to gather more information on whether it would be possible to upgrade the fairgrounds’ building, so Extension could remain there.

“I grew up with the fair,” said Cindy Waller, John’s mom, and also a former president of the association. “If you want to showcase your Extension Office, what better place?” she asked.

Another meeting with stakeholders is expected after the county has gathered more information.

Published Oct. 19, 2016