Food hubs have the potential to create a more equitable food system that values quality jobs, healthy food access, local economic growth, small business development, and sustainable agriculture. Food hubs designed with these equity considerations can provide opportunities for growers and producers, aggregators and distributors, and the consumer. This resource outlines strategies for developing profitable, equitable food hubs that create more just, fair, and inclusive food systems and local economies.

Whether you are an investor or lender considering investing in a food hub, a food hub operator undertaking business planning, or a policymaker looking to better understand the food hub sector, Wholesome Wave’s Food Hub Business Assessment Toolkit provides you with the tools to evaluate a food hub business’ readiness for investment. The Toolkit provides a framework for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of food hubs in the areas of business model and strategy, impact potential, market overview, marketing and sales, operations, organization and management, risk mitigation, technology and systems, and finance.

The Douglas County Commission established the DCFPC in 2009 with the goal of strengthening the local food system for farmers, consumers and buyers in the greater Douglas County area. Between 2009 and 2012, the DCFPC worked with key stakeholders to consider strategies to strengthen the local food system. One priority was to investigate the potential for a food hub as a means to accelerate, strengthen and expand the local food system. In October 2013, the DCFPC selected SCALE to lead this examination.

Common Market is a regional food hub in Philadelphia, PA. Their mission is to strengthen regional farms by connecting farmers to over 150 public and private institutions. This profile includes project highlights and impacts.

CEI and Wholesome Wave collaborated on providing business development assistance and “patient capital” to Farm Fresh Rhode Island.  The financing deal allows Farm Fresh Rhode Island to nearly double its produce storage and significantly expand its Market Mobile and Veggie Box programs, which enable thousands of families to access local, fresh food from dozens of family farms across New England.

The Hudson Valley Food Hub is part of a larger Food Hub initiative supported by The Local Economies Project (LEP), a program of The New World Foundation. The initiative works to build capacity and infrastructure for the regional food system for the benefit of farmers, citizens and communities. The Local Economies Project commissioned a comprehensive study to identify potential infrastructure challenges that hinder the growth of the local farm economy and whether food hubs could be one means for addressing these challenges. See also the Executive Summary.

The Hudson Valley Food Hub is part of a larger Food Hub initiative supported by The Local Economies Project (LEP), a program of The New World Foundation. The initiative works to build capacity and infrastructure for the regional food system for the benefit of farmers, citizens and communities. The Local Economies Project commissioned a comprehensive study to identify potential infrastructure challenges that hinder the growth of the local farm economy and whether food hubs could be one means for addressing these challenges. This executive summary highlights the general findings.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack highlighted the economic opportunity provided by strong local and regional food systems for America's farmers and ranchers while touring Blue Ridge Produce, a regional food hub that aggregates, markets and distributes locally grown fruits and vegetables for sale to wholesale customers in the region surrounding the nation's capital. 

Report which provides a comprehensive look at the economic role, challenges and opportunities for food hubs in the nation's growing local food movement. 

One benefit producers find working with food hubs is the long-term, transparent relationship characteristic of a value chain. Transparency can increase market efficiency by making an effort to find that inscrutable balance between supply and demand. A food hub has the valuable position of being in the middle of the transaction, so they have an understanding of what the buyers want, and the adjustments that producers can reasonably make to meet that demand. In this webinar, two food hubs present their very different methods for doing production planning.