Fish House gets grant to expand

The Ocracoke Foundation has received a $200,000 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation to expand and renovate the historic Ocracoke Seafood Company and to purchase a refrigerated van.

Known locally as the fish house, the grant will help the company increase local retail and wholesale sales.

Manager Susie O’Neal said the retail space will be expanded to allow for the selling of premade items such as crab and fish cakes.

The refrigerator/cooler will be moved to the other side of the building to make room for the expansion, she said.

They also want to purchase a custom designed refrigerated van that will hold three pallets.

“This will allow us to travel to Raleigh, New Bern and Wanchese,” she said.

This new van will enable the company to safely deliver smaller loads on slow days and double loads on busy days and, for the first time, to distribute Ocracoke-grown shellfish, noted Sara Teaster, grant manager.

Now, with the refrigerated box truck, the company delivers 4,500 pounds of locally caught seafood to Jeffrey’s in Hatteras from where it gets distributed farther.

O’Neal said the target date to reopen for retail sales is March 28, but that will depend on the status of renovations, the weather and the commercial fishing catch.

In a special, state-sanctioned legal structure, the Ocracoke Seafood Company is the for-profit co-operative under the auspices of the nonprofit Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association. The umbrella organization over both is the Ocracoke Foundation.

Members of the fish house board include Bill Evans, president; Stevie Wilson, vice president; Morty Gaskill, treasurer; Albert O’Neal, secretary; and Vince O’Neal, member-at-large.

The grant was part of $1.2 million awarded to several projects intended to support the rural workforce and agriculture.

“The Golden LEAF Board awarded projects that represent all three funding priorities of the foundation: job creation and economic investment, workforce preparedness, and agriculture,” said Golden LEAF Board Chair Ralph Strayhorn. “These projects will support the long-term economic advancement of rural, tobacco-dependent and economically distressed communities.”