Nona’s Italian Cucina has been awarded the 2022 Made in Virginia award for its pasta sauce. The magazine received more than 200 entries from all across Virginia. Nona’s Italian Cucina is a Charlottesville small business that all started in Italy in 1990. Owner Yvonne Cunningham followed her husband overseas while he was serving in Naples, and there, she met a woman name Nona.

“Our claim to fame is the pasta sauce. She taught us that in her kitchen and my girls were running around just like a year and four years old. And it was amazing. We learned about real family and the Italian traditions and about the sauce,” Cunningham said.