From Local Food Shift:
Local Orbit’s “Hub Camp” Offers Hands-On Local Food Distribution Training, Denver, Nov. 17 – 19. With the advent of autumn and the season’s harvest mostly complete, many of us are now turning our thoughts to food hubs—the infrastructure that can connect our farmers and ranchers with their larger markets.
In 2013, eight food hubs were slated for development in the Colorado Front Range, but to our knowledge only one was actually launched (by the Arkansas Valley Organic Growers). But this year, more are beginning to take shape (including the Colorado Springs Public Market which just landed a building, and Re:Vision’s stunning Westw
But moving to food hub infrastructure is serious business, fraught with many challenges and risks. The path forward is littered with failures. How can we do this successfully?
To help forge the path forward, Nov. 17 – 19, Local Food Shift Group is partnering with Ann Arbor’s Local Orbit to offer the “Hub Camp,” a three-day, hands-on workshop for entrepreneurs seeking to aggregate and distribute food from local farms to chefs, schools, hospitals, retailers and other wholesale customers. The Hub Camp is uniquely focused on practical skills and best practices learned from successful local food distribution businesses across the country.
As one of the attendees of the recent Hub Camp in Michigan said, “I’ve gotten more from three days at Hub Camp than from three years of going to conferences and talks about local food distribution.” The attendees are operators, or potential operators, of businesses that are creating shorter, more transparent local food supply chains and increasing marketplace opportunities for local producers. The interactive format is structured with flexibility to address the individual needs of each participant.
The workshop will feature Erika Block, founder and CEO of Local Orbit, along with her Director of Training, Noah Fulmer. The agenda will include presentations by and interaction with local professionals in food safety, legal and regulatory issues, purchasing at commercial scale, and finance.
Registration is $345. The location is Natural Grocers Market, 1433 Washington Street (Colfax and Washington), in Denver.
Click here for more information and to register. We hope you will join us in this important event!