At 20-year Anniversary, the Center for an Agricultural Economy Expands New Food Hub to Better Support Farmers and the Community

HARDWICK, Vermont—(Sept. 23, 2024) When the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE) opens the doors on the Food Hub later this year, its capacity to ship, store and process food and agricultural products will greatly expand, boosting the organization’s mission to strengthen Vermont’s food system. As a net-zero, solar-powered facility utilizing cutting-edge refrigeration and heat-capture technology, the Food Hub will also further the non-profit’s commitment to sustainability and demonstrate that agriculture can work in concert with environmental initiatives.

The 12,500-square-foot Food Hub will come online as CAE marks 20 years of working to make the local food system resilient, including, most recently, assisting farms with flood recovery. The Food Hub will increase CAE’s capacity to aggregate and distribute locally produced foods from across the state and transport them to markets within Vermont and beyond.

“This expansion is long-needed to ensure a thriving food system. The local food system cannot grow or persist without adequate infrastructure,” said Jon Ramsay, CAE’s Executive Director. “The Food Hub continues CAE’s work of providing shared-use facilities and resources that are accessible to farmers and the community. This reduces redundancies on farms, allows farms to access infrastructure before making investments of their own, and brings communities together. And, importantly, reducing these redundancies has a direct benefit back to the climate.”

Recently, climate has been front-of-mind with devastating flooding hitting the region hard for the second summer in a row. CAE has been a vital resource in assisting farmers in recovering from the floods, and CAE’s role in recovery efforts has only reinforced the organization’s mission to strengthen a sustainable food system. Flood response efforts have included emergency loans to farms, staff capacity to support organizing relief efforts and food vouchers and meals for affected community members.

“Farming and the future of the planet don’t have to be at odds, and in all of our work, especially the Food Hub, we are thinking about climate change and how farmers already are and can continue to be part of the solution,“ Ramsay said.

To celebrate CAE’s 20th anniversary, there will be an open house at all three of CAE’s facilities—Atkins Field, the Vermont Food Venture Center and the Food Hub—from 2:00-5:00 p.m. on October 5. The open house will be followed by a “Grand Welcoming” at the Food Hub at 5:00 p.m. featuring speakers, celebratory dessert and another chance to tour the new building. Check www.caevt.org/fun for location details and information.

CAE’s new facility, the Food Hub, is adjacent to Hardwick’s landmark historic Yellow Barn, which stands as the gateway to the northeastern Vermont town. The Food Hub and the Yellow Barn are both part of a public-private partnership with the town of Hardwick. Scheduled to be online by the end of 2024, the Food Hub will replace one of CAE's current rented facilities that houses the Farm Connex program. Farm Connex has outgrown the rented facility, which is smaller than many residential garages. This space has been stretched beyond its capacity and thus requires complicated and time- consuming logistics in order for the program to function there. The new facility will free up space at the Vermont Food Venture Center (VFVC), a CAE-owned incubator space where food businesses can process their products in shared-use commercial kitchens. Additionally, CAE's Just Cut program, which also produces out of the VFVC, will have access to more crop storage space. Currently limited by storage space, the program, which increases farmer access to institutional markets, will benefit greatly from the new facility as well. Last year, Just Cut processed over 174,000 pounds of potatoes, carrots, cabbage, beets and other locally-grown produce purchased from 20 regional farms and sold to more than 45 institutions including the University of Vermont and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

“This new facility in Hardwick is a testament to CAE’s two decades of achievements and commitment to ensuring the long-term success and health of the local food system and the community,” said Andrew Meyer, CAE Founding Board Member.

Features of the Food Hub include:

●       Cutting-edge, zero-emission refrigeration technology, heat recapture to heat the building, solar array to fully offset all electrical needs, creating a fossil-fuel-free facility;

●       Three loading dock bays to serve Farm Connex, CAE’s innovative delivery service;

●       5,000 square feet of food storage including refrigerated, frozen and root cellar zones. The storage will be available at affordable rates to farmers, food businesses and local partners;

●       Expanded storage space allows room to grow Just Cut, CAE’s farm-to-institution program that provides hospitals and schools with prepared local vegetables;

●       Conference room space available for community use;

●       Teaching kitchen to expand workshop and educational opportunities.

About the Center for an Agricultural Economy: Founded in Hardwick, Vermont, in 2004, the Center for an Agricultural Economy supports rural communities and working landscapes by building a more interconnected local food system. CAE’s food sovereignty and place-based education programming is rooted in the local northern Vermont community, while food hub enterprises and a revolving loan fund operate statewide. Through five program areas and three (physical) places, more than 450 farms, food businesses, local businesses, and institutions, as well as thousands of community members are impacted. Taken together, the producers with whom CAE works maintain 10,000 acres of working farmland, preserving Vermont’s iconic landscape, providing hundreds of jobs and feeding local communities.