Taproot A Lopez Kitchen

Taproot Community Kitchen is a non-profit shared-use certified commercial kitchen on Lopez Island. Our commercial kitchen is available to rent by the hour and we also provide food storage for frozen, cold, and dry goods.

Taproot plays a pivotal role in addressing food insecurity on Lopez Island.  “From plow to plate, all islanders – seed savers, farmers, sauce-maker, home-maker and also people who just like to eat good food – stand to benefit from a vibrant local food economy.” says Randall Waugh, Board, Chair of Taproot Community Kitchen. “And, in order to have a self-sufficient, sustainable local food economy, we need a local food processing facility like Taproot.”

Taproot has three primary funding sources – kitchen use fees, grants, and donations.  At this time, we’re leaning heavily on grants and donations to help us build a strong foundation that will last us for decades to come. 

We're raising $5,000 during this 2024 Give Lopez campaign so we can continue to keep our kitchen use and storage rental fees low for our customers and provide them small business support.

It is Taproot’s mission to encourage and assist those who are selling at the farmer's markets, direct to customers, on the SJI Food Hub, or in local stores. Your donation, volunteerism, or advocacy contributes to a stronger, more enduring, and vibrant island food web.

More about Taproot Community Kitchen

Over the course of the last 8 years, Taproot Community Kitchen has become a vital hub where the threads of community, sustainability and nourishment intertwine. Currently, three licensed WSDA producers and over fifteen Lopez businesses use our kitchen and storage space, including Just Heavenly Fudge Factory, Chicaoji Sauce, Vortex, Island Grazing Table, Lopez Grind, Pine Tree Creamery, Patito's Sweets, and David's BBQ!  We also work with a range of non-profit organizations such as the Food Share, Lopez Locavores and the LIFRC Gleaning program. 

In December 2023, Taproot began constructing a cook room which will allow us to transform into a full-scale local food processing facility. The new kitchen space will include additional storage space, a sizable range, ovens, a steam jacketed kettle, and a large processing and cooking area.  Taproot secured a grant in 2023 to purchase all the new equipment and just recently secured all the needed funding to purchase and install a new class 1 fire suppression hood.

With its prep kitchen and fully equipped cook room, Taproot will be able to foster additional kitchen opportunities, like co-packing value-added products (processing, packaging, and labeling your recipe idea to produce a shelf-ready food product) and offering small business support.  Our priority is to continue to expand food security here on Lopez Island in partnership with the many organizations focused on our local food system. Taproot wants to emphasize that building food security infrastructure is a generational community investment.  Please help us in growing an abundant, sustainable local food system that is both affordable and accessible. Thank you!