WASHINGTON — Union Kitchen’s new 30,000-square-foot production facility in Eckington opens today at 1625 Eckington Place NE, Washington, D.C., 20002.
15 companies plan to begin manufacturing their products at the Eckington facility, including Berg Bites, Stone’s Throw Foods, and Swapples. Union Kitchen aims to provide best-in-class manufacturing space for members of its competitive food Accelerator to build and scale their CPG food and beverage businesses.
This new facility, designed in partnership with Nestle USA, places a premium on food safety and optimized manufacturing practices. Union Kitchen remains the only shared manufacturing facility in the country with both USDA-Organic and USDA-meat approval. Businesses in this facility will have multi-million dollar production capacity.
Vice President Elena Rosenblum says “The new Eckington manufacturing facility allows growing DC manufacturing companies to scale their operations in a sustainable manner. When we keep manufacturing in DC, we see more job creation, greater economic resiliency, and a reduced carbon footprint in our local food supply chain.”
The new Eckington facility will expand Union Kitchen’s manufacturing footprint by nearly 3x. “The idea is that businesses who are pushing on the limits of our Ivy City Kitchen can take the next steps while keeping production local to DC,” says Cullen Gilchrist, CEO and Founder of Union Kitchen. “We want to support these businesses who are scaling nationally, providing them with a customized production space before one day investing in their own facilities.”
To celebrate the opening of the Eckington facility, Union Kitchen’s signature event, Meet the Makers, will return October 22 from 5-7pm. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite.
About Union Kitchen
Union Kitchen is a Washington-based food business Accelerator that strives to empower local food founders by offering expertise and support from launch to scale. Since 2012, Union Kitchen has supported more than 120 brands through its four-phase Accelerator and on average launches products seven times faster than the national average. In addition to its Accelerator, Union Kitchen has six store locations throughout the DMV with products made locally and throughout the nation, plus everyday essentials.