Franklin County Food Hub
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Date
2024-12
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Abstract
Local farmers in Franklin County, Ohio struggle to gain access to larger markets, such as grocery stores or institutional customers, as they usually require more certifications, licenses, and produce quantity than what smaller local farmers can provide. This excludes farmers from accessing a significant portion of the market. The few remaining sale venues available to growers are farmers' markets, festivals, and other events. At these events, farmers must individually take on costs associated with the aggregation, preparation, and transportation of their produce. This further raises operating costs for growers and therefore prices for consumers. By collectivizing these services, a food hub will provide time and cost savings for local growers through benefits associated with economies of scale. The Franklin County Food Hub project aimed to advance and inform the operational design of a food hub to provide partners with relevant tools to pursue project funding. To achieve this, the team completed high-level research on existing food hub operations and interviews with relevant local stakeholders. Guided by a framework of four key operational pillars (Partners, Process, Profitability, and Purpose), these analyses informed the team’s recommendations for the Franklin County Food Hub. Recommendations included prioritizing the voices of farmers, considering employees, transportation, focusing on cataloging existing assets, and building collaboration by ensuring community involvement. If the needs of farmers, the community, and the local food economy can be bridged, a successful pillar of a resilient food system will be created.
Description
Course Code: ENR 4567
Keywords
Food Hub, Farmers, Local Farms, Food System Resilience