Our first learning group webinar will be on
May 14, 2014 at 4 pm EDT / 3 pm CDT

So You Think a Food Hub is Right for You: How to help food hub organizers and prospective farmers make informed decisions about food hub options

So you want to start a regional food hub or food value chain business.  Or you are assisting someone who is exploring the possibility.  This webinar will help you walk through some of the critical first steps including:

• How can you assess your local food system and make an informed decision about an entity or service that can fill a needed gap? 
• How can you figure out how to position yourself in the local food system and what roles or services to take on? 
• Once you have an idea of your position, what are the options for business models that might suit your role or service well?
• How can you create strong, mutually beneficial relationships with local farmers? 
• How can you communicate truthfully about the benefits and expectations of marketing through this business?

Presenters will include two Southerners with Food Hub experience - Tina Prevatte of Firsthand Foods and Kathlyn Terry of Appalachian Sustainable Development - along with Eric Bendfelt of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service.  They will discuss the topics listed above and suggest tips for best practices, using examples from their work.

Background information you might find useful before the webinar:

First Hand Foods: http://firsthandfoods.com 

• For a 6-minute video on how they work, go to:
  http://firsthandfoods.com/news/page/4
  Scroll down the page to "UNC-TV Features Farmhand Foods in its documentary series, NC Rising"

Appalachian Harvest: http://asdevelop.org/programs/appalachian-harvest/ 

• Kathlyn Terry will reference two resources, the Market Income Calculator and Sell What You Grow, that can be downloaded from this page: http://asdevelop.org/resources/

The Role of Food Hubs in Local Food Marketing (January 2013) http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/supportdocuments/sr73.pdf 

This report includes a discussion of business structures, varying functions, and primary challenges of food hubs.

This live webinar is specifically for members of the Southern SAWG Food Hub Learning Network. It will be archived and accessible to all - members and non-members - after May 14.