New Food Hub Launches! Info Meeting for Sustainable Farmers Interested in Participating — September 25

Woodinville, WA– The 21 Acres Center for Local Food and Sustainable Living in Woodinville, Washington, is hosting an informational session for farmers, September 25, 8 am to 10 am, to learn about participation in the new 21 Acres Food Hub.  This new regional food hub, assisted by Northwest Agriculture Business Center, will serve as an aggregation and distribution site for Seattle and Tacoma deliveries.

Local food systems research across the country, and here in the Puget Sound region, shows that one of the biggest hurdles to building regional food systems are the logistics to selling and buying local farm product in large volumes, conducting efficient purchase and sale transactions, and aggregating and delivering product.  Northwest Agriculture Business Center and 21 Acres are addressing these challenges and removing barriers on both the supply and demand side. These cooperative efforts will help to ultimately increase the sustainability of local farms.

The 21 Acres Food Hub will be unique in that the product will be sourced from farmers using beyond organic standards and who use production practices with ultimate sustainability in mind.  These parameters are evolving and farmers who are interested in contributing to the conversation and learning more about the food hub are invited to attend the informational session and hear details regarding: eligibility requirements for production standards; goals and intentions of the hub; negligible fees if any at all (21 Acres and NABC are covering almost all expenses); Local Orbit online management/payment system; days and times of operations and delivery locations.  In addition, at this event farmers will meet the organizational staff members who are supporting the food hub operations including in areas such as marketing, operations and driving/distribution.  Tours of 21 Acres will be provided (including dry and cold food hub storage spaces) along with refreshments from the 21 Acres Farm Market.

According to Lucy Norris, Northwest Agricultural Business Center, “We’re so excited about the potential for the 21 Acres Food Hub to help commercial and institutional food service operators procure fresh, seasonal local foods direct from farms in the Puget Sound region.  This effort will not only help local farms grow their profitability but reducing the time they spend traveling, but will help reduce carbon emissions by limiting the number of trucks on the road.”

21 Acres Center for Local Food and Sustainable Living is a comprehensive campus with a farm, school, commercial kitchen, market and green-built facility at 13701 NE 171st Street, Woodinville, WA  98072. All the programming and services offered through 21 Acres focus on the areas of Growing, Eating and Living. 21 Acres is located in the lush Sammamish Valley of East King County, near Woodinville. Address: 13701 NE 171st Ave., Woodinville, WA 98072.  For more information visit www.21acres.org