Alachua County launches food hub pilot project
Press release from Alachua County
ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – Alachua County’s Fresh Food Pathways Project: Food Hub Feasibility Study is entering Phase II of its 30-month initiative to strengthen the local food system, support area farmers, and expand access to locally grown food.
This phase will assess how a community-based food hub could improve coordination across the local food system, create new market opportunities for farmers, and increase the availability of local products for institutions that purchase food at scale.
Working with food system consultants New Venture Advisors (NVA), the County will launch a 10-month pilot project with Frog Song Farms, a farm and food distribution company based in Hawthorne.
The pilot will gather operational and market data to evaluate the long-term feasibility of a food hub, while supporting and expanding Frog Song Farms’ existing farming and distribution operations.
A food hub connects small and mid-sized farms with larger markets by coordinating services such as aggregation, marketing, sales, and distribution.
“This project allows us to expand the reach of our local food network and support more farmers throughout Alachua County,” said John Bitter, owner of Frog Song Farms. “By improving aggregation, distribution, and access, we can get more fresh, locally grown food into schools, institutions, and homes across the county.”
The pilot will focus on expanding farmer participation in a coordinated aggregation and distribution network, increasing institutional purchases of locally grown food — including through Alachua County Public Schools — and improving food access through direct-to-consumer sales and community distribution partnerships.
“Strengthening connections between local farmers, institutions, and residents helps build a more resilient food system,” said Bailey McClellan, the County’s agriculture economic development coordinator. “This pilot will provide valuable insight into how a food hub could support farmers while expanding access to fresh, locally grown food.”
Frog Song Farms currently aggregates and distributes products from several farms across Florida and will use the pilot to expand outreach to additional growers in Alachua County and the surrounding region. The project will also increase operational capacity through job training in produce handling and food distribution, supporting workforce development and living-wage jobs in the local food economy.
Learn more and follow along for project updates.
I think USSR already tried this….
I don’t see the government taking private property in this case.
In other words, Alachua county is taking your tax money and redistributing it for the greater good to stop climate change, end world hunger, and ending homelessness. Sounds nice.
New venture advisors and Frog song should make bank with your tax dollars being funneled to them to help the planet, will be creating jobs with a living wage, and will be helping people with free food giveaways.
How much is this costing the taxpayers? Article doesn’t say.
Almost a million in ARPA funds
https://alachuachronicle.com/alachua-county-commission-votes-to-purchase-scottish-inn-moves-forward-with-food-hub-pilot-program/
Alford: “This is critical work… in the face of climate change”
Sugar coated communism…
Economics 101: supply, demand, and the free market.
I am really surprise it appears so many of you are not supporting local small scale farmers.
I support myself…it’s called personal responsibility…
I’ll be planting my vegetable garden this weekend …
you want to give me some of your money to plant my garden? I didn’t think so…you’re like Bernie Sanders wanting free stuff..
Sanders and I are nothing a like. You should know that by now.
That being said, if you want to eat, support farmers.
I like the idea that a lot of small scale farmers are going to be brought together and their processes streamlined to allow them to bring better food to the market place.
Sounds like capitalism at it’s best to me.
And you are very late on your spring garden. Good luck. Mine has been in for over a month.
What crops really grow here? Watermelons yes, they make it sound like all sorts of crops can be grown here. Better idea give the farmers you are paying for study to farmers instead. Couldn’t U.F. do study? They probably have information already.
It really depends: Our dirt is not great for most farming. This is why this was turpentine and wood forest region forever.
That being said you can grow things in this region. They just need to be the right kinds of things and you have to augment a lot with minerals and fertilizers.
But yes, it can work nicely. Strawberries grow nicely in this region, along with tobacco, root vegetables, heavy greens, etc.
UF has done boat loads of studies on what grows well in Florida and where. A lot of that information is online.
Grave a shovel and grow something. Even a modest few pots can grow lots of herbs for your table.
Huge congratulations to Chicago-based New Venture Advisors for finding a creative way to fleece Alachua County tax payers out of a million dollars in funding, even if they are only getting to keep about $500k.
Frog Song Farms is a small farm of only 60+ acres and has only been around for 15 years, so NVA’s revolutionary program of “grow more crops in the dirt, then sell them” is probably going to be a total game-changer for this private business.
It’s awesome to see FSF working their way up the government handout ladder, from their humble beginnings with a $60k COVID grant to multiple $100k county grants for “emergency” vegetable supply, and now what we can only guess is several hundred thousand dollars for this project.
In today’s environment people don’t realize how difficult it is becoming to funnel taxpayer money to corrupt politicians and their friends, either directly or more commonly indirectly through a middleman in the form of campaign contributions and/or straight up buying votes.
It’s good to see that even with all the scrutiny on fake NGOs these days, there are people with the ingenuity to think outside the box and find a way to (legally) raid the public coffers. Alachua County is definitely the easiest pickings in the country outside of maybe Minnesota, so I hope this trend continues.
A little history for you who like Ceder Key.
It was the pencil capital of the world at one point. Ceder was used in everything from pencils to really fine floors…its’ an excellent wood.
But they used it all. Some has grown back. But they really used it all.
The federal government has a program to help struggling communities find new ways to continue.
And now Ceder Key sells clams all over the US. As I understand it most of the clams in Las Vegas are from Cedar Key.
I personally like my clams and oysters raw.