A new resource hub for the Fayetteville food industry is now open and accepting members. The NC Food Commissary is the newest mobile food unit available to restaurateurs of all levels.

Located at 813 Griffin St. in Fayetteville, the new facility is equipped with commercial kitchen spaces, a small business center, private culinary classroom space, and everything needed for those who own and operate food trucks or who are working in the food industry. 

“We're a commercial shared kitchen for food truck owners, caterers, bakers, anybody in the food business industry that needs a commercial kitchen to cook out of or prep their foods. That's what that's what our main function is,” shared Co-Owner Chris Thiessen. “We have three private kitchens. We have a large cooking kitchen, and then we have two smaller prep kitchens, and then we have another smaller room for just dishwashing. I say shared, but the kitchens themselves only have one business at a time. The kitchen, when the members are here, is private to them.” 

The NC Food Commissary is the first of its kind for Cumberland County, providing a home away from home for food truck owners, or commercial chefs who may need a little more space. 

Food truck packages include services such as trash disposal, gray water disposal, cooking oil recycling and access to dry and cold storage and kitchen access time and more.  

Kitchen bundle packages include kitchen access hours, dry and cold storage space, access to dishwashing space and access to the small business center and more. 

“We have three packages for food trucks and three different packages for bakers, caterers and non food truck business owners, and all the packages have dry storage. That's a regulatory thing. You have to have dry storage for your members. For us, it's a two by two foot by four foot secured shelf, and then we offer refrigerator and freezer space,” shared Thiessen. “We have lockers here for personal use, but we also have lockers for use as a mailbox. Many food businesses have to have a commercial address before you can have any food deliveries; the big guys won't deliver to your house. So one of the things we can offer is they can use this address for deliveries, and for their mail as well.” 

The secured facility is open Monday through Sunday 24/7 and maintains strict sanitation SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and adheres to HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and regulations and codes set by the City of Fayetteville & Cumberland County Health Department. 

The culinary classroom, Thiessen shared, will be a place for culinary education on food safety, business education, or cooking demonstrations.

“We also run a nonprofit out of here. The commissary itself is for profit, but we have a nonprofit sister, and that's what's going to be fueling that classroom. So the nonprofit is going to be out there scouring for grant monies so that we can make sure and pay people who come in and do classes, whether they're from the community or members here,” shared Thiessen. 

The concept was brought to the area by a four member team consisting of Thiessen, her husband Scott Simard and business consultants Allen Collins and restaurant owner Mike Fields of Caffé OPA in Fayetteville. 

The NC Food Commissary was the result of Thiessen’s desire to feed the less fortunate. The sister nonprofit to the NC Food Commissary, NC Meal Train Ministry will be working to help move meals from commissary members to those in need, and utilize space on the property for a community garden expected to launch in summer 2026. 

 “There's this whole piece outside of the kitchens. How I envision it is, we're bustling, we’ve got people here cooking, doing events and they come to me and they go, ‘Hey, Chris, I got 10 extra meals,’ And I say, ‘All right, you know what? I've got freezer space,’” shared Theissen. “Let me pop them in the freezer. I'll give you credit back, they can have a business deduction, or I can give them a break on their kitchen time. And I can route these meals. There's so many places to route them to.” 

While the space isn’t open to the public yet, a grand opening has been planned for January 2026. 

Memberships are open and more information about membership services, requirements and packages can be found online at 

www.ncfoodcommissary.com or by calling (910) 807-7850.   

Editor's Note: this article has been updated to include infomration on the classroom space and the NC Meal Train Ministry nonprofit group.