Opportunities for Food Hubs Grow

These past few months, ALL IN Eats has been focused on expanding our farms and food hubs. Food hubs are a central infrastructural piece of the Circular Food Economy.

Food Hubs will support

• the aggregation of fresh produce from local farms and recovered food by providing fridge, freezer, and storage space;
• small/emerging entrepreneurs by providing commercial kitchen space; and
• more localized food and meal distribution to better serve community/partners.

Our current plan is to work with community partners to build out food hubs in every region. We’re currently in the process of identifying and discussing the use of potential food hub spaces in: Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland, Tri-City, and Tri-Valley.

 

Alameda

We’re partnering with Corica Park Golf Course to develop a comprehensive farming partnership and food hub that would serve the City of Alameda and the East Oakland region. We have submitted a proposal to the City of Alameda to lease Grand View Pavilion, which would serve as a multipurpose commercial kitchen, event space, and staging area.

 

Berkeley

We’re partnering with Berkeley Food Network (BFN) to serve the North County region. We’re currently in the process of working with the City of Berkeley and Bauman College with support from Supervisor Carson’s office to negotiate the use of existing commercial kitchen space or repurpose one of the City owned properties into a commercial kitchen space. This would support the expansion of BFN’s program and operations and help expand the capacity for the Bread Project as well as create more opportunities for local food entrepreneurs.

 

Oakland

We’re partnering with Councilmember Taylor to set up the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center kitchen as a food hub site in East Oakland. In addition, we are currently exploring other potential kitchen sites and open plots for farming in East, West, and Central Oakland.

 

Tri-City

We’re partnering with Tri City Volunteers to serve the South County region. The plan is to retrofit part of the existing warehouse to meet expanded capacity needs and create a commercial kitchen space. We are excited and grateful to have the support of Congressmember Khanna in including our request for $1M in the federal budget towards the renovations necessary for the food hub. The budget has been approved by the House of Representatives and will now be in the hands of the Senate for final approval.

 

Tri-Valley

We have been partnering closely with Board of Supervisor Haubert to identify a potential food hub space in the Tri-Valley region. We are excited to be a part of ongoing conversations with Open Heart Kitchen and the Alameda County Community Food Bank to work together on establishing a food hub space.