Hardwick opens new food hub for local farmers to store and distribute products
'The Vermont farmer can't do it all': 22,000 sq ft facility to help 100+ farms connect across Vermont.
'The Vermont farmer can't do it all': 22,000 sq ft facility to help 100+ farms connect across Vermont.
'The Vermont farmer can't do it all': 22,000 sq ft facility to help 100+ farms connect across Vermont.
There is a new headquarters for locally-sourced food in Central Vermont that is now open for business. The project has been seven years in the making and is expected to make it easier for farmers to get their products into the hands of consumers state-wide.
The 22,000 square foot food hub in Hardwick is designed to help farmers ship their products across the state.
"One of the biggest challenges that farmers face is getting it to the market," said Vermont's secretary of agriculture, Anson Tebbetts. "The Vermont farmer can't do it all."
The facility is already paying off, helping more than 100 local farms store and distribute their food since it opened just a few weeks ago.
"Connecting the community to local agriculture is a very big goal of ours," said executive director of Center for an Agricultural Economy Jon Ramsay.
The non-profit staff said they hope the project will broaden the market for Vermont farms in the coming years, like for Jasper Hill Farm, which operates out of the village of Greensboro.
"I think it's probably a big load off many producers to know that their inventory has a safe place to live," said Jasper Hill's Zoe Brickley.
The farm will be setting up shop in the hub where they will be able to house some of their day-to-day operations and get products, like their world-famous cheese, out the door and onto the dinner table.
"Reach out to us," said Ramsay. "We're excited to show folks what we have here."
If you are a local farm or business interested in learning more about the food hub, check out the CAE website.