Wednesday, July 22nd from 10:00-2:00pm
Lake to River Cooperative, 901 Elm Street in Youngstown, OH 44505
CLICK HERE to register for this event.
Overview: Increasingly, communities are looking to the development of "food hubs" as the next stage in the growth and competitiveness of local food systems. Food hubs can serve multiple functions and follow several different forms. Food hubs can focus on facilitating producer-market transactions, coordinate distribution, offer value-added processing facilities, or focus on developing under-served markets. Food hubs can be organized as non-profit organizations, for-profit businesses, cooperative enterprises, or informal associations. Regardless of form and function, food hubs provide a key missing link in the infrastructure to make local food systems more stable, cost-effective, and competitive. How can we best support the development of this important infrastructure in Northeast Ohio? Are there areas where communities might collaborate or coordinate activities to be more effective? How do existing food hubs manage their growth? How do communities interested in food hubs get started?
Event: Lake-to-River Cooperative in Youngstown, Ohio is hosting the first regional gathering of food hub stakeholders in Northeast Ohio. This event will provide an opportunity to network with others, learn about food hub projects underway in Northeast Ohio, and determine areas where we might cooperate or collaborate to make all of our individual efforts more effective.
Key Questions:
- What are some of the key product areas each group wishes to focus on?
- What are some key shared challenges that we all confront in developing food hubs?
- What does regional cooperation look like and why would people want to invest time in it?
Schedule:
10:00-10:30 Welcome and introductions and asset mapping
10:30-11:15 Tour of the Lake to River Food Hub facility
11:15-12:15 Addressing Key Food Hub Challneges in Northeast Ohio (Facilitated by Leslie Schaller* with ACENet)
12:15-1:15 Lunch and interactive groups
1:15-2:00 Forming a Food Hub Network in Northeast Ohio (Facilitated by Brian Williams** with MORPC)
*Leslie Shcaller will share her experiences facilitating a food hub network in Southeastern Ohio through the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACENet) and can respond to some of the key challenges confronting food hub develpoments in Northeast Ohio
** Brian Williams from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) will share some highlights of a newly-released national food hub report and will help think through how a food hub network might work in Northeast Ohio