Food Hubs Research Articles

Barriers to access to local produce in an early childhood setting in rural Appalachia

This case study examines young children’s access to fresh local produce in childcare settings in rural Appalachia. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with childcare center directors participating in farm to early care and education programming were conducted in the spring of 2023. Centering the per­spective of childcare directors, this research explores why farm to school programming is diffi­cult to implement. It specifically addresses the bar­riers preventing early childcare centers from pro­viding access to fresh and local produce to enrolled children. Eight primary obstacles to implementing farm to early care and education programming were identified: lack of staff; too wide a variety of tasks for directors; the “extra” work that fresh pro­duce requires; lack of knowledge about how to grow food; lack of required kitchen equipment; need for additional funding; unclear or out-of-date regulations about food safety; and a lack of paren­tal time. Limitations of the research include the specific geographic location of the study and the long-lasting implications of the COVID-19 pan­demic. Recommendations drawn from this case study include improving communication between childcare centers and regulatory agencies; creative use of alternative gardening practices; participating in a regional food hub; and improved funding.

Regeneration of Local Food by a New Local Food Community: Case Study of Food Hub Project Inc. in Kamiyama, Tokushima Prefecture

Regeneration of Local Food by a New Local Food Community: Case Study of Food Hub Project Inc. in Kamiyama, Tokushima Prefecture

Determining the optimal food hub location in the fresh produce supply chain

Purpose Using recent US regional data associated with food system operations, this study aims at building optimization and econometric models to incorporate varying influential factors on food hub location decisions and generate effective facility location solutions. Design/methodology/approach Mathematical optimization and econometric models have been commonly used to identify hub location decisions, and each is associated with specific strengths to handle uncertainty. This paper develops an optimization model and a hurdle model of the US fresh produce sector to compare the hub location solutions between these two modeling approaches. Findings Econometric modeling and mathematical optimization are complementary approaches. While there is a divergence between the results of the optimization model and the econometric model, the optimization solution is largely confirmed by the econometric solution. A combination of the results of the two models might lead to improved decision-making. Practical implications This study suggests a future direction in which model development can move forward, for example, to explore and expose how to make the existing modeling techniques easier to use and more accessible to decision-makers. Social implications The models and results provide information that is currently limited and is useful to help inform sustainable decisions of various stakeholders interested in the development of regional food systems, regional infrastructure investment and operational strategies for food hubs. Originality/value This study sheds light on how the application of complementary modeling approaches improves the effectiveness of facility location solutions. This study offers new perspectives on elaborating key features to encompass facility location issues by applying interdisciplinary approaches.

Impact of food hubs on food security and sustainability: Food hubs perspectives from Leeds, UK

In the context of rising food insecurity, food hubs such as food pantries, food banks, community agriculture supported schemes, social supermarkets, community kitchens and cafes, have proliferated both in number and in the roles they perform. Food hubs have a range of benefits in the communities that they serve as well as the wider food system. However, more empirical evidence is required to build a compelling case for policy support. Using the area of Leeds, UK as a case study, and taking a mixed methods approach (i.e. evidence synthesis, mapping, survey and interviews) we present the food hubs’ perspectives on the benefits that they offer to food security, sustainability, resilience and food justice. Food hubs reflect on how their activities enhance sustainability, strengthen local food systems, support local economies, and improve the health, wellbeing and agency of their communities. In doing so, food hubs contribute to regional, national and global priorities on food security, health, sustainability, justice and resilience. However, to scale up or out their positive impact, food hubs require support to transition away from emergency food provision to longer-term, holistic and financially viable models that focus on community wellbeing and empowerment, healthy diets, local economies and environmental sustainability.

Designing Food Hubs for Territories of Proximity: Assessing the Spatial, Ecological, and Cultural Potentials of Places through Multi-Criteria Decision Support Systems

Logistics, distribution models, and landscapes of food production strongly influence the space of our cities and territories. In addition to the network of large-scale retail distribution that is diffused in urban and non-urban areas, with this contribution, we study the presence of new forms of the local and sustainable distribution of food (such as Alternative Food Networks, and community-supported agriculture). Studying and understanding how these distribution models can support and be integrated within a landscape planning and design approach is explored through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multi-criteria decision analysis method. Through the specific focus of a Food Hub localization, the aim is to demonstrate how distribution models can not only support but also integrate into landscape planning and design. The fundamental objectives for structuring and locating a Food Hub can be organized under three strategic objectives: pursuing the benefit of people, the planet, and profit. The choice of one distribution method over others, or what is the best location and condition for distribution centers, is the question we have tested with the collaboration of “L’Ortazzo” Association. The case study is a solidarity purchasing group located in the upper Valsugana valley area (Trentino Region, Italy), a supra-municipality reality involving about a hundred families that, currently, do not have a physical distribution center.

Food day-trippers’ perceptions of regional food destination attractiveness: an application of distance decay theory

ABSTRACT The shift towards local food consumption is creating new opportunities for regional food destinations. The growing market segment of ‘food day-trippers’ who travel to nearby destinations to experience local cuisine has elevated this trend. In response, destination marketers increasingly use local cuisine to enhance destination attractiveness and to create regional food hubs. Yet, it is unclear what attracts food day-trippers to these destinations. This paper explores destination attributes that represent regional food destination attractiveness and presents personal values that shape those attribute preferences. The Repertory Test and Laddering Analysis explore these connections, providing valuable insights into perceptual orientations influencing travel choices within this context. Supported by distance decay theory, findings show that despite the common proposition prioritising food-related attributes in food destination marketing, proximity and non-food attributes also appear important. Underlined by personal values such as a sense of security, these attribute preferences demonstrate food day-trippers’ tendency to look for novelty in food experiences rather than in the location. Practically, these insights highlight an opportunity to capitalise on repeat visitation and aid destination marketers in revisiting their value propositions to include elements that go beyond food.

Dynamic evaluation of distribution channels in a fresh food supply chain from a sustainability and resilience approach

Research on agrifood supply chains has grown in recent years; however, little attention has been given to the effect of the choice of distribution channel on the sustainable and resilient performance of the network. This research proposes a system dynamics model to evaluate different distribution channels for a fresh food supply chain in a developing country. Among the main results is that the use of food hubs in a channel distribution produces long-term environmental, social and resilience benefits for the entire network, while short supply chains are the most economically viable alternative.

The effect of price and assortment of local products on store performance: An agent‐based modelling approach

AbstractRetail distribution is essential for the growth of markets for local food. While online direct‐to‐consumer and local food hubs are becoming more sophisticated, the largest market for local foods remains the traditional intermediation (retailing) sector. We develop an agent‐based model to simulate the expansion, growth and profitability of retailers offering local foods across a landscape populated by consumers and competing retailers. We design a series of experiments to examine how changes in prices and assortment that include local and non‐local options in the fresh produce category impact store market share and profitability. We validate the model, and conduct our experiments, using household fresh produce expenditures data from a retail food‐delivery business in the Mid‐Atlantic region of the US. We find that retailers offering a larger assortment of local foods are able to sustain higher basket‐average retail prices and exhibit higher long‐run profits in comparison to retailers that do not carry local options. These results underscore the importance of local foods in a food retailer's price and assortment strategy. The key implication is that retailers need to be conscious not only of the breadth but also of the quality of their assortment in their pricing strategies.

Food Hub or Not Yet? Exploring the Food Hub Milieu in Czechia

Abstract In global research, food hubs are evaluated as a suitable tool for the development of alternative food networks and the transformation of the agri-food system towards sustainability. However, in Europe, research conclusions in recent years point to a lack of knowledge about operating food hubs. Expanding information about how food hubs work is crucial for improving their operational effectiveness and establishing support from the public sector. Therefore, this exploratory research aims to discover examples of food hubs in Czechia where the term "food hub" is not used and no appropriate equivalent has been developed. This leads to the task of determining the criteria under which it is possible to define existing entities as food hubs. Using several examples supported by qualitative research, the article opens a discussion about the acceptability of the hybridization of alternative food networks. Our findings contribute to the debate about the potential of food hubs to develop local and regional food markets, especially in the context of post-socialist countries, where the conditions are different from the Western states.

Food Hubs and the Role of Small Farmers in Sustainable Agriculture

This paper analyzes the role that food hubs (FHs), a new system for organizing the distribution of agri-food products, could have in order to increase the competitiveness of marginal farmers. The research was carried out through interviews with 20 farmers in conditions of economic “marginality” in the Province of Palermo, Italy. Results show that FHs can represent a new perspective to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of small farms that are unable to compete with large-scale distributors. FHs foster a “strategic network” which involves all the players in the supply chain, from the manufacturing companies to the consumer’s table, and they are a source of co-production of “shared value”. Results also show that FHs have positive economic, social and environmental impacts and they could represent an important opportunity for family farms and the territories affected by rural exodus.

Productive Specialty Eggplant Cultivars Suitable for Small Farms in the Southeastern Coastal Plain

Specialty eggplants (Solanum melongena L.), cultivars with fruit shapes, sizes, and colors different from the typical teardrop-shaped, dark purple eggplant fruit, are an underproduced vegetable commodity in the southeastern United States. Seven cultivars representing seven different fruit types were grown in Charleston, SC, USA, in Spring and Fall 2018 and 2019 to assess cultivar productivity and net return. Despite year-to-year variability, Hansel (Chinese type), Millionaire (Japanese type), and Gretel (white fruit) generally had greater weights of both marketable (US Fancy and No. 1 fruit) and edible (US Fancy, No. 1 and No. 2) fruit than Fairy Tale (Sicilian type) and Patio Baby (Indian type), whereas the globe-fruited cultivars Black Beauty (heirloom) and Rosa Bianca (Italian type), had intermediate yields. Yields of plants after ratooning in the fall were lower than in the spring before ratooning. Prices per carton paid by local food hubs for US Fancy, No. 1, and No. 2 fruit were two to three times greater than wholesale terminal market prices. Nevertheless, fruit weights were a greater determinant of net returns than prices were. Growers in the southeastern coastal plain can maximize net returns from specialty eggplant crops by choosing cultivars that produce high fruit weights.

Caring at the edges: Infrastructures of care and repair in urban deprivation

Care is an activity vital to making the world liveable. Alternative infrastructures of care have emerged that re-centre care and repair within everyday life. These infrastructures often require more care to address care deficits and repair the social fabric of society; however, insights are limited as to the implications of demands on people and the places they reside for such extra care. Through an ethnographic study of a community food hub in an area of entrenched deprivation, we examine how an alternative infrastructure of care is built in practice. We demonstrate how care unfolds expansively across people and place to (reactively) repair care deficits and (proactively) generate new care relations. We contribute to the complexity of care theorising by revealing the challenges of care provision that stem from a position of necessity and repair. We offer a critical discussion of alternative infrastructures of care that simultaneously recognises the opportunities for hope, whilst acknowledging their limits.

Concevoir un centre alimentaire communautaire pour favoriser la sécurité alimentaire

Objective: The objective of this community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) project was to gain an in-depth understanding of the needs, interest and opportunities that exist within a post-secondary institution with respect to supporting food security among students via a food hub. Methods: The project was undertaken on the campus of the University of British Columbia-Vancouver. The CBPAR approach included 4 phases: 1) information gathering, 2) relationship development, 3) implementation of the community engagement strategy, and 4) shareback of findings to the community. Results: Phase 1 identified key components that formed the research process including campus partners for relationship development (phase 2) and subsequent engagement through their networks (phase 3). Phase 3 included engagement of 62, 111, 156, and 154 students, who participated in facilitated dialogues, community meals, a survey and targeted survey, respectively. Food insecurity related experiences were prevalent, with 37% to 75% indicating they worried about running out of food in the last year. Over 90% of all survey respondents affirmed that they would access a community food hub (CFH). Preferences for the CFH were inclusion of emergency food access, community meals, and financial support and planning, while prioritizing foods that meet cultural needs, and a low cost grocery store within the CFH. Conclusion: There is a demonstrated need and desire among students for innovative approaches to support food security at a post-secondary institution. The process outlined may serve as a road map for other communities who are seeking to move beyond emergency food relief.

Food hubs in a new public place

This article covers the concept of food hubs and their relation with the common places, and other possible interactions within the civil society, in the eyes of the theoretical point of view of the “social practical theory”. Resembling the conceptualization of the food hubs more in a general way considering the problems and particularities of these systems, recognizing the different business models in the market. Additionally, we will explore some of the values and prerogatives spread by those hubs in connection with the environmental and climate change assumptions and scientific research, using a short supply chain to distribution channels in their commercial transactions. Understanding the role of the hubs in building a sustainable transformation together with those movements, NGOs, private and government initiatives additionally with the digitalization of information and relations between societies.

Identification and assessment of supply chain risks: The case of food hubs

AbstractThe supply chain risk management literature highlights the importance of ex‐ante identification and assessment of risks to ensure continuity of firms, in particular, and the high performance of supply chains in which they operate, in general. Supply chain disruptions are harmful and costly for firms. The risk of such disruptions can be particularly consequential for firms in emerging industries that lack resources and for which dominant organizational and supply chain designs do not yet exist. Within local and regional food supply chains, food hubs are nascent enterprises coordinating these supply chains. Building off the existing supply chain risk management literature, this study identifies and assesses the perceived supply chain risks faced by U.S. food hubs. The study employs an exploratory sequential mixed methods research design and the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis methodology for this purpose. The results show risks related to imbalances in food supply and demand, logistical delays, human resources, and infrastructure capacity limitations were perceived to be the highest priority supply chain risks for the U.S. food hubs before the COVID‐19 pandemic. The study further provides insights on association between food hub characteristics and risk, as well as association between risk preferences and risk perceptions of food hub managers [EconLit Citations: L29 Other (Firm Supply Chain Risk Management)].

Lessons Learned from a Food Hub-Based Retail Intervention That Expanded Reach and Sales of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in Low-Income, Low-Access Neighborhoods

ABSTRACT From 2014–2016, a food hub-based healthy retail initiative in Oakland, CA expanded (from five to 17) the number of corner stores and produce stands that offer fresh fruits and vegetables (FV) in low-income, low-access (LILA) neighborhoods. Complementary interventions addressed promotion, affordability, and SNAP-EBT accommodation. Surveys, interviews, and financial data demonstrated that this expansion reached residents in LILA neighborhoods, increased FV purchases, and benefited local stores and regional farms, but did not reduce food hub financial losses. Keys to success included careful site selection, business assistance, community engagement, and FV affordability and quality. Strategies to achieve financial sustainability are needed.

Transport Network Efficiency during Typhoon Relief Operations

The transport network is the backbone of relief delivery operations during natural disasters such as typhoons. In this study, we constructed a transport network model connecting the cities and municipalities of the Visayas island group in the Philippines with their regional relief or food hubs. Using this model, we simulated relief delivery under various damage scenarios arising from the impact of a chosen typhoon. Using Typhoon Haiyan (“Yolanda”) as an example, we measured the relief delivery efficiency of the transport network over a range of damage scenarios relative to the baseline undamaged case. We find that the Visayas transport network is sensitive to small damages, with 30 out of 251 town centers (12%) getting disconnected from the network and relief delivery efficiency dropping to 75%, resulting in time delays of up to 12 h, when just 1% of the nodes are damaged. Our results explain the difficulty of achieving timely relief delivery efforts in the aftermath of typhoons, especially in archipelagic geographies. We also present a prototype decision support tool that can efficiently generate simulations of multiple projected scenarios, including different typhoon paths and additional food hub locations, to help decision-makers forecast expected improvements in relief delivery efficiency. This tool underlines the importance of strategic prepositioning of relief goods and data-driven disaster risk reduction and management plans.

‘We’ve Never Done This Before’

How do you build a community around a systemic problem such as food justice in a crisis via creative resilience methodologies? In what ways can the lessons learned in a creative crisis response help foster a more adaptive and responsive food system in preparing for future crises? ‘We’ve never done this before’ became the motto of Fawkner Commons when local residents, Jen Rae from Fair Share Fare and partner Sally Beattie co-founder of Fawkner Food Bowls mobilised local food producers, community members and partners to covert a community garden into an urban farm and a disused lawn bowling club into a community-led COVID-19-response food hub. Fawkner, the most food insecure and culturally diverse suburb in the City of Merri-bek1 (5kms north of the CBD of Melbourne, Australia) was heavily impacted by the 2020–21 COVID-19 Victorian state lockdowns, restrictions, case numbers and deaths. While most food relief organisations closed or were overwhelmed, Fawkner Commons became a central hub for food aggregation and provisioning, distributing over $116K boxes of no-cost/low-cost culturally relevant food boxes and over 2,400 prepared meals in 2020. This article is a critical reflection delving into some of the creative methodologies underpinning the success of Fawkner Commons and its legacy in the community. With a focus on social cohesion, accessibility and inclusion, it offers lessons to support the transformation of other hyperlocal food systems to become more adaptive, responsive and collaborative working with communities, artists, local government and food organisations.

Citizen way: Co-created citizen science meets convivial food design

This research approaches co-created citizen science from an interdisciplinary design perspective and is aligned with ideals of democratic and participatory co-creation of knowledge, its dissemination and implementation. We propose a new theoretical and practical design framework to be added to citizen science: convivial food system design. Convivial food system design is a new relational and tactical way to approach the development of a regenerative food system. Citizen science approaches can also benefit convivial food system design through activating communities of practice to share their insights and actively participate in co-food systems design processes. The integration of convivial food systems design and citizen science offers a deep, holistic and radical relation between amateur, civic and academic (scientific) knowledge in the production of alternatives to industrial food systems. This article shows the possibilities and potentials of this new conceptual integration through a theoretical framework and case study ‘experiment’ – the Huon Valley Food Hub project, Tasmania, Australia.

การปรับปรุงการแปรรูปอาหารทะเลในวิสาหกิจขนาดเล็ก: กรณีศึกษาการผลิตน้ำปลาผสม

The seafood industry is economically important and generates high income. Therefore, the government has a policy to push the Thai food industry into a global food hub. This is a good opportunity for Thai seafood industries throughout the supply chain. In increasing the quantity and value of the export of Thai aquatic products. The fish sauce market has been adversely affected by the competition of seasoning powders that can be easily substituted and have good taste. This trend has had a serious impact on the competitiveness of small operators. Therefore, this research focuses on the study of the blended fish sauce production process, which is low price, large market, and high competition. But has a relatively high energy cost by increasing productivity in the brewing process at lower energy costs. The improvement results showed that the energy cost per 1 cycle of mixed fish sauce production decreased from 1,210.65 baht to 536 baht or approximately 0.55 baht / liter to 0.24 baht / liter, which increases the productivity per unit of energy by approximately 56.36%.