A week after Arkansas Business focused on nonprofits in Arkansas, I’ll focus on a food-related nonprofit, St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, that exists to preserve and restore a magnificent historic property in North Little Rock.
At 6800 Camp Robinson Road, atop a hill that offers beautiful views of downtown Little Rock, St. Joseph started life in 1910 as an orphanage, St. Joseph’s Home.
These days the 63-acre St. Joseph Center is a lot of things, among them:
► An urban farm that educates people about sustainable agriculture and food production
► Host to a farmer’s market, the St. Joseph Farm Stand, and a number of special markets like the annual upcoming Merry Market focusing on handmade holiday gifts
► A community garden
► An event center
► Home to artist studios, including that of Arkansas artist Kevin Kresse, who did much of the work on his statue of country music legend Johnny Cash at the center
► Host to traveling RVers through several outdoors recreation companies, including Harvest Hosts, an online booking company that offers members overnight stays at a network of over 1,900 wineries, breweries, farms and other attractions.
► And, most recently, an Airbnb location offering three rooms in the 56,000-SF building.
Most of all, the St. Joseph Center is about community outreach. That means it offers a number of educational programs, including programs about food preservation, a Junior Naturalist Camp and yoga, “sometimes with goats.”
Michael Shellabarger, vice president of the St. Joseph Center board, detailed a few of the nonprofit’s efforts to serve the community while preserving the property, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Our conversation started with my asking Shellabarger about seeking a state permit for the center to offer native beer. I thought that meant it might be about to launch a craft brewery. Shellabarger regretfully disabused me of that notion.
“It’s not a brewery permit, as much as I would love it to be,” he said. Instead, the permit will simply allow the St. Joseph Center to sell native Arkansas beer — like that from Flyway Brewing, Diamond Bear Brewery, Preston Rose Farm & Brewing and Country Monks Brewing, which is a ministry of Subiaco Academy — at its night markets, which it holds four to six times a year, as well as some select Fridays and Saturdays.
Fall is a perfect time to visit this lovely property. The last live Farm Stand market will be Saturday, Oct. 29. And the Merry Market is Nov. 26.
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