St. Charles Community College unveiled the new Agriculture and Food Science Building on their Dardenne Creek Campus in Dardenne Prairie on Wednesday August 26, 2020 with a dedication by Governor Mike Parson. Blanton Construction, Inc. was delighted to have been chosen as the contractor for this renovation project of turning a former gymnasium into a space featuring a bakery, test kitchen, commercial kitchen, and a brewing lab.
This Agriculture and Food Science Building will house future programs in culinary arts, brewing science and nutrition in traditional for credit courses along with short-term training and non-credit courses in topics such as organic gardening, topic specific cooking classes & youth programs as well. In addition, the fields surrounding the building will be utilized for the agricultural program for growing plants to be used in the culinary for credit programs and for demonstration and analysis in the agricultural program.
The community college has certainly made a major investment for the benefit of their students and the St. Charles County community with this $2.8 million dollar renovation. This project was partially funded by a $1.53 million dollar MoExcels Workforce Initiative grant. The college has plans to add a greenhouse, shed and some equipment and those expenditures will be funded by the St. Charles Community College. We look for the SCC to become a center for all around healthy living in the future with all its planned credit and non-credit course offerings and demonstrations.