Pre-established partnerships withvalues aligned organizations andcommunity members were key tohelping hubs understand and navigatethe new supply and demand landscapeswhen their traditional market modelsdried up. Hubs utilized CSA-typefunctions without needing to adopt atraditional CSA model. This, alongsidewith their last-mile and logisticscapabilities, can be an efficient andvaluable way to meet the needs ofgrowers and eaters.

Many hubs took elements of aCommunity Supported Agriculturemodel- which guarantees a market forfarmers, provides customers a food boxon a regular schedule, and strives tomatch the needs of farmers andgrowers. Local food hubs, even thosethat didn't run CSAs, were able tocollarborate with partners and usethese models to manage this massivemarket shift. Hubs also had theadvantage of highly developed logisticsand last-mile delivery.

Local and regional food systems have long differentiatedthemselves by focusing on resiliency and collaboration,rather than specialization and competition. Local foodsystems don’t rely on economies of scale, making itdifficult to compete economically with a mainstream foodsystem; instead, collaboration and creativity must bepursued as a competitive advantage. It is this foundationthat allowed local food supply chain actors – food hubs,community kitchens, farmers markets, even restaurants andschools –to quickly create solutions when the COVID-19pandemic struck in March 2020.

Wholesale businesses are a key part of local foodenterprises’ success. According to the forthcoming 2019Food Hub Survey, 39% of the hubs surveyed rely primarilyon wholesale markets and only 10% of all sales that hubsreported were from direct to consumer market channels.When these wholesale channels dried up overnight at thestart of the pandemic, many hubs had inventory sitting inwarehouses that needed to be redirected, and farmersweren’t sure if they should harvest the crops that hadplanted to supply their partner hubs. At the same time,there was a huge surge in food insecurity.

Local Food Systems Response to COVID:

Ellie Bomstein , Wallace Centerat Winrock International

How Food Hubs Shifted Their Model to Meet the Needsof Growers and Consumers during COVID-19

From Food Hubs to CSAs

Building Better Beyond

ISSUEWholesale businesses are a key part oflocal food enterprises’ success.According to the forthcoming 2019 FoodHub Survey, 39% of the hubs surveyedrely primarily on wholesale markets andonly 10% of all sales that hubs reportedwere from direct to consumer marketchannels. When these wholesalechannels dried up overnight at the startof the pandemic, many hubs hadinventory sitting in warehouses thatneeded to be redirected, and farmersweren’t sure if they should harvest thecrops that had planted to supply theirpartner hubs. At the same time, therewas a huge surge in food insecurity.

INNOVATION

OUTCOME

December 2020

1

LFS-IB-06

Food hubs and other supply chain businessessprang into action so farmers could continueselling their product and families could haveaccess to healthy, local food. There was a broadrange of responses from hubs depending ontheir existing customer base, their geography,their funding model, and the needs of theirfarmers and customers. Many hubs took elements of a CommunitySupported Agriculture Model- whichguarantees a market for farmers, providescustomers a seasonally shifting box of food on aregular schedule, and strives to match up theneeds of both farmers and growers—in theirCOVID responses. CSA’s have been a keyelement of building the local food economy fordecades, so local food hubs, even those thatdidn’t run CSAs, were able to collaborate withpartners and use these models to manage amassive market shift. Hubs then leveraged theirstrengths in managing logistics and last miledelivery. Reaching consumers in a CSA-typemodel, rather than through an intermediarylike a restaurant, university, or school, became akey strategy for supply chain businessesresponding to the loss of their traditionalmarkets.

Though many hubs independently pivoted toCSA-style programs that matched up theirexisting supply with new kinds of demand, thefederal government built elements of a CSAinto the design of the Farmers to Families FoodBox program introduced in late spring 2020.This program, funded through the CoronavirusFood Assistance Program, provided distributors

with funds to purchase food and then createproduce boxes to deliver to communityorganizations that would distribute it to families inneed. Many of these contracted distributorsleveraged their existing relationships with localfarmers and community organizations to ensurethat they were aligning their programs tightly withlocally available supply and demand. Oneparticularly creative contractor, Fresh Approach,which is a food hub in Concord, CA, took a valuechain coordination approach to their contract, andcreated a web of food hubs, BIPOC (Blackindigenous and people of color) farmers, andcommunity-based organizations working togetherto build and distribute boxes. A decentralizedapproach allowed the nonprofits that FreshApproach partnered with to tailor their offerings tothe communities they work in. Fresh Approachworked in a coordination role, aligning supply anddemand and distributing funding to multiple smallorganizations who could best navigate the assetsand needs of their communities.

For example, Fresh Approach supported an urbanfarm specifically focused on supplying food toCOVID positive families in their neighborhood,and a mutual aid effort that was deeply in touchwith their community who directed the boxeswhere they would have the most impact.

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Leveraging Strong Social and Business Networks

Food Hubs Shifting to a CSA-Style Model

Andy Ollove, who administered the project forFresh Approach put it like this: “when foodsystems nonprofits seek funding, we tend tothink about building the next big thing that fixeseverything. What we showed in this project bysharing resources and using small mission aligned

hubs, the impact went in so many places wedidn’t foresee. It allowed us to move way morefood that we would have on our own. By servingin a central coordination role, Fresh Approachwas able to leverage the infrastructure, supply,and capacities of their network and run a highlysuccessful program that turned over 600,000pounds of produce into almost 60,000 boxes ofhealthy food. By focusing on relationships andconnectivity, Fresh Approach providedmeaningful and efficient support to local farmersand families in need.

The Kansas City Food Hub, which is acooperative hub in Kansas City, MO, also gotcreative about responding to the pandemic. Theirsales prior to March 2020 were largely torestaurants and cafeterias so they had to rapidly shiftto a direct to consumer approach. Rather than tryto attract individual customers like many CSA-models, they asked “neighborhood activists” toorganize purchasing groups of at least 10 people inwhat they came to call their Neighborhood FarmShare program. Each community lead wouldreceive the vegetable box deliveries and thenorganize a pickup in their driveway or a nearbypark. At the height of the season, they werereaching 210 weekly members. This approach wasmore cost effective than individual CSAs andminimized the hub’s need to focus on attractingnew customers on their own, but still utilizedcommunity partnership to address a key challengeof CSAs—last mile delivery. By relying on existingcommunity relationships, the Kansas City FoodHub was able to maximize the effectiveness of theirtransition to direct to consumer marketing toincrease access to local food and keep the farmersthey work with viable.

The Good Acre, a food hub in Falcon Heights,MN, also took a networked approach to addressingoverlapping crises of the pandemic, police violence,

"The goal wasn't to build a

new food system; it's to

strengthen the network

like neurons, it's about

strengthening the

connective tissues in this

exchange."

3

Andy Ollove, administrator of the

Fresh Approach Project

Commuity-Driven Responses to COVID Disruptions

and disinvestment and oppression in BIPOCcommunities in the Minneapolis region. TheGood Acre partnered with several nonprofits tocreate a direct to consumer food donationprogram that specifically focused on creating amarket for BIPOC growers. In addition to thepandemic, Minneapolis was also the center of theracial justice uprisings this summer that stemmedfrom the murder of George Floyd by policeofficers.

In response, the Good Acre helped launchLEAFF, the Local Emergency Assistance FarmerFund, which utilized the CSA function ofguaranteeing a market for producers. LEAFFguaranteed purchase of up to $7,500 of producefrom BIPOC farmers and redistributes it tocommunities in need. provided purchasedproduce to organizations, like The Food Group,that support those facing hunger and foodinsecurity, including people impacted byCOVID-19, communities rebuilding fromprotests following the murder of George Floyd,or communities that have been oppressedthroughout Minneapolis’ history. LEAFF’s goalwas to provide resources and support to BIPOCfarmers to ensure COVID-19 did not createadditional barriers to success and provideconnections to new wholesale markets andtechnology for longer-term sustainability. Thusfar, they have bought nearly:

This work was done in partnership with TheLatino Economic Development Center, and theHmong American Partnership who helped ensurethat refugee, immigrant and BIPOC farmers couldalso benefit and provide culturally relevant foods totheir communities. By focusing on buildingconnections to community organizationsconnected to people experiencing food insecurity,and partnering closely with groups that servemarginalized farmers, the Good Acre was able toleverage its capacity as a food hub to pivot andaddress the needs of both groups.

Pre-established partnerships with values alignedorganizations and community members were keyto helping hubs understand and navigate the newsupply and demand landscapes when theirtraditional market channels dried up. FreshApproach’s connections to community-basedorganizations allowed them to identify thecommunities where the boxes would have thegreatest impact.

Communication channels with new consumerscan be difficult to establish so relying on existingnetworks makes accessing new supply chains muchquicker, responsive to unique community needsand cost effective. By utilizing social networks oftheir neighbors, the Kansas City Food Hub wasable to amplify their reach and save on marketingcosts.

Hubs can utilize CSA-type functions withoutneeding to adopt a traditional CSA model. This,aligned with the last-mile and logistics capabilitiesof food hubs, can be an efficient and valuable wayto meet the needs of growers and eaters. The GoodAcre used their distribution capabilities to match upwith their partner organizations’ strengths in farmer

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$300,000

150 pounds

in produce from farmers, which has resulted in:

of donated produce.

Outcomes of these shifts for Food Hubs

Nurturing and resourcing relationshipdevelopment and value chain coordination is keyto resiliency in local food systems. Andy Ollove ofFresh Approach noted: “We used the model ofrecruiting small organizations… We could getinto invisible communities with really high touch.In some cases, we were getting food to peopleone mile from where it was grown. To do thatmost effectively, you think of it as a networkrather than an individual nonprofit.”

Though many hubs will likely return tosupplying wholesale market channels, there is alsoa lot of potential to maintain CSA approaches.CSA membership was plateauing before thepandemic but re-surged over the summer. Manyhubs are concerned about retaining customersthat they connected with early in the pandemic.Making this shift stick may require investment innew infrastructure, like more sophisticated onlineordering systems, marketing, more labor to fulfillroles like packing and delivery, or more stablefunding to support food donation programs.

Linking the local food supply chain withhunger relief efforts is a systems-level approachthat can create increased community food securityand strengthen community ties and connectivity.There is a lot of potential for this type of system,and much to be learned about the efficiencies andcommunity development that this approach can

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Building Better Beyond: opportunities and considerations

support, and connections to food insecurecommunities to create an efficient and targetedsystem that supported farmers and families inneed.

create.

It seems from the examples presented here thatthe food hub network is well positioned to do thiseffectively if food assistance programs andfunding seek innovative and community-basedprocurement going forward.

The findings and conclusions in this innovation brief are those of the authors and shouldnot be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or

policy. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

Educational programs of Kentucky Cooperative Extension serve all people regardless of economic or social status and will notdiscriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation,gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic information, age, veteran status, or physical or mental

disability.

For more information and resources on Localand Regional Food Systems Response to COVID:Building Better Beyond, visit:https://lfscovid.localfoodeconomics.com/ where you can sign up for our project listserv,read other innovation briefs, and check outresources put forth by other sectors of the localand regional food system.

This innovation brief was created in fulfillmentof a cooperative research agreement between theMarketing Services Division of the AgriculturalMarketing Service of the United StatesDepartment of Agriculture (USDA AMS), theUniversity of Kentucky, Colorado StateUniversity and Penn State University.

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Reviewed by: Dr. Dawn Thilmany, Colorado StateUniversity and Emily Spencer, University ofKentucky Cooperative Extension.

Citation: Bomstein, Ellie (2020). From FoodHubs to CSAs. University of Kentucky AECExtension Publication LSF-IB-06, December.

Thanks for reading!

Special thanks to the following organizationfor contributing to this innovation brief:

For more information regarding food hubs,visit: https://www.wallacecenter.org/

Design and Edits by: Emily Spencer, University ofKentucky Cooperative Extension