Our 12-month support programme for Regional Food Hubs (those focusing on wholesale and distribution support for sustainable farmers and producers, rather than surplus or community food) is now in full swing. We’ve so far delivered training on Financial Planning, Writing Successful Funding Bids and Engaging with Local Councils. Upcoming sessions include Physical Systems & Logistics, Tech For Wholesale and Management & Leadership Skills.
The programme is run in collaboration with Sustain, the Soil Association and Growing Communities. Julie Brown, Director of Growing Communities, is working with the 12 hubs in our cohort to help them develop their financial models and see how they can grow their wholesale operations – eventually to supply into public institutions if they aren’t already. We know this is really difficult work, and some initial findings from the project include:
- Non-profit Regional Food Hubs are repeatedly held up as the answer to infrastructure problems for small-scale farmers and sustainably-produced food, but there are not many businesses that show how to make it work.
- A handful of brilliant organic wholesalers such as Organic North, Langridge and the Better Food Shed do, but beyond them – even among our fantastic and inspiring cohort – there are few examples of food hubs that are currently in a position to scale up and move into large-volume B2B or public procurement.
- The reason for this? Most are held back by time and resources, as there is chronically little funding to start up and support these sorts of enterprises.
- Scale is key – it’s clear that volumes have to be large enough in wholesale to make the narrow margins work. But how to get there?
- Hubs need to have a good understanding of regional suppliers (and the supply chains/movements of food) before they start. We’re excited to hear that the Food Data Collaboration is looking at creating a mapping tool as part of the platform, so that small local suppliers can be made more visible and ordering can be made easier. Research, leg-work and relationship-building are also vital.
- Regional Food Trade Fairs are another good way to showcase small local producers and link up supply and demand – Sussex Food Partnership’s Meet The Producers Events (every 2 months linking farmers, suppliers, restaurants, shops etc) is one great example.
- Entrepreneurialism and a good understanding of business and finance are also really important for making the numbers work – staff skills are key.
We will be sharing more of the insights from this programme throughout the year, including at Groundswell and hopefully at ORFC 2026, and in a Lessons Learned report at the end. If you have any questions about the Regional Food Hub Programme please email lois@betterfoodtraders.org.