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Winchester, VA (5/22/24) -
Governor Glenn Youngkin announced that Taste of Blue Ridge received $10,000 from the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) Marketing Leverage Program (MLP). In total, VTC awarded more than $3.27 million for 268 local and regional tourism marketing programs across the state to help increase visitation and revenue for Virginia’s localities through tourism.
Taste of Blue Ridge received a $10,000 grant for “Root to Table Embraces Virginia’s Diversity”. The Root to Table Food Movement and the Taste of Blue Ridge Community pledged $35,246 in matching funds.
2024 is a year of expansion for the Root to Table Movement. The brand is recognized as a brand fostering community and culinary excellence. This Grant will highlight Virginia’s diverse cultures with its fourth annual Great Chefs Table’s theme “The World of Taste” and then our third annual Salute to Women in Culinary and Agriculture – “Journey Through Food” in March 2025. 2025 will also feature our first annual “European Food Festival.” The Taste of Blue Ridge Community will also host two “Think Tanks” for culinary and agricultural professionals to network and explore topics and issues important to their industries. All of these events will focus on chefs, farmers, and food artisans supporting the Root to Table mission, vision, and core values.
Mission - To support, promote and influence the regional food system of the Blue Ridge Piedmont region.
Vision - Our vision is for an abundant, verdant and symbiotic regional food system that supports a community of farmers, producers, artisans, hospitality professionals and patrons.
Core Values - Community, Regeneration, Sustainability.
Eight years have passed since the Taste of Blue Ridge Community was created. Over these years, visitors have come from eight states as well as the entire state of Virginia with over 65% attending multiple events. Taste’s recognition of local culinary professionals has grown from 12 to over 120 this past year.
VTC’s tourism marketing and sponsorship programs are designed to increase visitor spending by leveraging limited marketing dollars, to stimulate new tourism marketing through partnerships, and to extend the “Virginia is for Lovers” brand to drive visitation. Using the hub and spoke tourism partnership model, Virginia entities partner to apply for funding. Partners may consist of Virginia cities, towns, counties, convention and visitors’ bureaus, chambers of commerce, other local or regional destination marketing organizations, museums, attractions, cultural events, and other tourism-related non-profits and tourism-oriented businesses.
More information on VTC’s Grant Programs can be found at vatc.org/grants.
“I’m encouraged to see Virginia wine becoming increasingly inclusive and approachable” said Courtney Cacatian, Executive Director of CACVB. “I look forward to seeing how ‘Root to Table Embraces Virginia’s Diversity’ shapes the story of Virginia to broaden the economic opportunity to more people who have been historically excluded.”
“VTC’s marketing and sponsorship programs are powerful incentives creating tourism partnerships across Virginia that are a robust part of Virginia’s economic ecosystem,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “Across the Commonwealth, the tourism industry recognizes the importance of having inventive strategies to showcase all that Virginia has to offer. These grants will support those efforts and help draw thousands of additional visitors to the Commonwealth to experience everything that makes Virginia so special.”
“The VTC grant programs continue to inject critical funds into communities across the Commonwealth, helping to make Virginia the best place to live, work, and raise a family,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick. “The tourism industry in an incredible employment on-ramp for high school and college students, part-time workers, and those interested long-term hospitality careers. From kitchen line cooks to regional executive hotel managers, these funds support a robust hospitality workforce by inducing tourism demand and increasing overnight visitation.”
For more information on Taste of Blue Ridge and the Root to Table Movement, visit tasteofblueridge.com.
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