Sixty-pound bags of soybeans from Lee Farms in Truxton are stacked on pallets. With just water, the kitchen’s commercial kettles and the knowledge of how to separate the curds — it’s similar to making cheese, he said — he turns them into packages of tofu.

“You can come here and run your business. You don’t have to worry about any other issues like scheduling and equipment,” Brewer said.

Jessie Pearl Hairston raves about the facility and the opportunities it provides.

“It’s better than sliced bread and crushed ice. It’s really advantageous to anyone that’s trying to do anything,” she said.

Hairston runs Jessie Pearl’s Poundcakes, Etc., which makes “anything sweet that you can put your mouth on,” she said. Along with the poundcakes of the company’s name, she bakes cream cheese pecan pies, peach cobbler pies (“which is from the slavery days. It’s a cross between a pie and a cobbler”), cookies, gooey butter cakes and more.

She formerly cooked her baked goods in the kitchen at Mama Josephine’s restaurant in the Shaw neighborhood, but the Salus Center kitchen is more convenient. She just calls to see what times are available — most of the other companies do not use the regular ovens — and schedules when she can come in.