Agrifood Hub ProjectWhat | Where | Why | How | When
Our mission is to build stronger, more sustainable communities. So when we found out that local farm land is underutilized for farming and that profitable farming depends on new models of distribution, we knew that we were on to something that could provide us with social enterprise funds at the same time as it connected local farms to new markets. An agrifood hub helps to re-localize the food system. It aggregates products from local farms and food processors and sells them to local restaurants, wholesalers, food retailers and institutions. It is perfect for small and medium-sized farms that find it difficult to service the wholesale market by themselves--and for food outlets that want access to local food without having to fetch it themselves from multiple sources at the right quantities. We want to create an agrifood hub that will serve Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and Mission. The agrifood hub will build community capital. It will have economic benefits, such as sales and jobs, ecological benefits due to good land stewardship and reduced transport requirements, social benefits from new relationships, education and pride in employment, and human benefits in terms of skills and knowledge transfer. We will build the agrifood hub in three phases. At first, it will be a "virtual hub" consisting of a specialized ordering web platform, a third-party transport fleet and a staff member with a telephone. The second phase will bring the transport fleet in-house. And the final phase will involve cold storage, a commercial kitchen for primary processing and many other amenities as time goes by. We hope to complete the feasibility studies and business plan in 2017 and open for business in 2018. We'd appreciate your help in realizing this goal. |
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