St. Charles Community College (SCC) was awarded $4 million in MoExcels funding from
the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development fiscal year
2025 budget to support the expansion of its culinary, agriculture, and healthcare
programs. SCC will use these funds, along with a $2 million contribution from the
college, to construct an innovative new facility on its Dardenne Creek Campus.
In addition to the other buildings, the Field to Table Institute and the Center for
Healthy Living, the new 14,000 square-foot facility will be outfitted with state-of-the-art
equipment and will feature a teaching kitchen as well as a cafe/market where students
will learn operations and get practical experience. The facility also will include
four classrooms to support programming at the Dardenne Creek Campus and an expansive
general lecture space to accommodate large classes, special presentations, and events.
The building will be next to the current Field to Table Institute, close to the fields,
the greenhouse, and the freight farm.
“Due to substantial enrollment growth in our culinary, agriculture, and healthcare
programs, our existing facilities on the DCC campus have reached capacity,” said Shelley
Machens, Chief of External Campuses. “The addition of this new building will enable
us to better accommodate the increasing needs of our students and community, enhance
partnerships with local businesses, and expand our curriculum with new program offerings.”
Fittingly, this forward-looking project will itself be built using innovative technologies.
Although design plans are still in progress, the college is exploring options for
fabrication with pre-engineered metal or 3D-printed building, and other resource-saving
methods that will accelerate the construction timeline and allow the structure to
be completed by September 2025.
“Jobs in the culinary, agriculture, and healthcare fields are growing in our area,”
said John Wiemann, Vice President of Operations/Strategic Initiatives. “Thanks to
the support from Governor Parson and the MoExcels Workforce Initiative, we will be
able to expand our enrollment and meet the growing needs of our community.”
SCC’s Field to Table Institute, established in 2019, brings together culinary, agriculture, and healthcare, teaching the concept of going directly from the field to the table, and the connection
between farming, food, healthcare and quality of life. In addition to credit programs,
the Field to Table Institute also offers community-based courses in food, gardening,
health and sustainability.
SCC finalized the purchase of the Center for Healthy Living and the Dardenne Creek Campus in February of 2017.
For more information, contact Machens at smachens@stchas.edu.
Early/proposed renderings:
