New England Food Hub & Processor Network

The New England Food Hub & Processor Network aims to build a New England food system where regional products can be harvested, packed, processed, ordered, transported, and delivered in service of New England’s hospitals, K-12 schools, restaurants, universities, grocers, and consumers.

The food hubs and processors in this network are values-aligned, meaning they prioritize supporting local producers who grow, raise, and catch food in ways that are ecologically sustainable for our region. Together, they are working towards equitable access to fresh, nourishing food for all, prioritizing those who have historically been marginalized, and partnering with producers who provide their workers fair wages.

While they share a similar vision for building a regional foodshed, each organization or business supports their producers, food makers, buyers, and consumers in unique and diverse ways. They are non-profits, for-profits, and cooperatives. They utilize trucks, warehouses, storefronts, commercial kitchens, processing equipment, ordering software, endless spreadsheets, and more, to make local food systems work. They all have one thing in common: they see the value in collaboration over competition.

Interested in learning more or getting involved in the New England Food Hub & Processor Network? Email Hannah Leighton: hannah@farmtoinstitution.org 

More about Food Hubs & Processors

Learn About Our Recent Work

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Developing this network is the culmination of years of interest and exploration around bringing New England-based food hubs and processors together. Farm to Institution New England hosted conversations at the Northeast Farm to Institution Summits in 2015 and 2017 which led to a USDA Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) grant that funded the research and publishing of New England Food Hub Network: Exploring Options to Expand Food Hub Collaboration & Increase New England Farm to Institution Sales.

The New England Food Processors Community of Practice formed to create a culture of collaboration and teamwork among the team members located around New England and to take advantage of established relationships and networks - watch a video about facility visits and their work. Those seven members were the Franklin County Community Development Corporation (Greenfield, MA), the Vermont Food Venture Center (Hardwick, VT), Mad River Food Hub (Waitsfield, VT), Northern Girl (Van Buren, ME), CommonWealth Kitchen (Dorchester, MA), Farm Fresh RI (Pawtucket, RI), and Hope & Main (Warren, RI). Since 2020, processors throughout New England have been connecting regularly through the Northeast Food Collective, coordinated by Healthcare Without Harm.

At the 2023 Northeast Farm to Institution Summit, the NH Food Alliance, which coordinates the NH Food Hub Network, and Healthcare Without Harm co-hosted a session to combine these aligned efforts and brought together food hubs and processors from around the region. It was clear that food hubs and processors were energized to establish a network together and that there was an ecosystem of organizations eager to support the hubs and processors in the network building process.

The New England Food Hub & Processors Network is innovative in that it is inclusive of the full breadth of the middle-of-the-local-food-supply-chain, inviting historically siloed but parallel conversations to now occur at the same table, where collaborations are more efficiently identified and cross-sector lessons can be shared more readily.

In fall 2024 FINE was awarded a Northeast Regional Food Business Center grant to continue the coordination of the network. Over the next two years the Network will focus on providing compliance-based trainings and information in the form of monthly webinars and discussions, in-person site visits, technical assistance and more.