07/04/2015
SUCCESS STORY OF FOOD HUBS:
Food hubs offer an exciting bridge between food producers and consumers, providing a mutually beneficial relationship across both ends of the food system. As defined by the National Food Hub Collaboration, “a food hub is a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers in order to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.” Food hubs present an opportunity for communities to make healthy food sourcing a profitable enterprise for producers, distributors, and retailers, while simultaneously improving access to local foods.
Though similar to traditional food distributors or farmers’ markets, food hubs often work under three models to better connect local food producers to distributors and/or consumers:
1-Farm-to-business/institution model
2-Farm-to-consumer model
3-Hybrid model
The differences between a farmers’ market and a food hub are nuanced: unlike farmers’ markets, where producers sell products directly to consumers, food hubs are geared toward providing producers with access to larger volume markets. For example, food hubs can provide a single drop-off and pick-up point for produce to be distributed to consumers, restaurants, or institutions such as universities, hospitals, and other large businesses. Food hubs can improve access to healthy foods in low-income or underserved areas by making it easier for farmers to offer their products in these areas. Food hubs can facilitate relationships with product purchasers in underserved neighborhoods and can provide services to producers such as insurance, quality control, and distribution and processing.
http://www.healthyfoodaccess.org/retail-strategies/food-hubs
Food hubs offer an exciting bridge between food producers and consumers, providing a mutually beneficial relationship across both ends of the food system. As defined by the National Food Hub Collaboration, “a food hub is a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution,…