This last quarter marked the end of a banner year for the Food Hub, a year in which we:
Julicia and Scott on the road.
Built and moved into our new cold storage facility;
Transitioned 100% of our operations to our central location in Brattleboro;
Hired a new Sales Manager and two new Operations Coordinators;
Launched new delivery routes to the Burlington, the Upper Valley, and to the Mt. Sunapee area of NH;
Purchased a second refrigerated delivery van;
Brought on more than a dozen new producers.
Nathanael on the road with a new refrigerated van,
In 2019 the Food Hub sold $562,840 of local food to local customers, representing approximately $465,000 of revenue paid back to farms and food producers in our area and 41% growth over total sales in 2018. In our largest sales week of the 4th quarter 2019 we sold, aggregated, and delivered $18,400 of food.
All of this change and growth sets the stage for building Food Connects into a gateway for moving smaller-scale, specialty food products from northern New England to larger population centers to the south. In Q1 and Q2 of 2020, we will launch a new software platform for managing inventory, e-commerce, and accounting. This tool will revolutionize our ability to generate sales through promotions, maintain traceability for food safety standards, accurately track and price in overhead costs, and coordinate everyday product movement logistics in our local service area and beyond. In partnership with Equinox Food Brokers, we will lead an initiative to create a “catalog” of specialty products from VT and NH food hubs and start sales and delivery of those products to retailers and distributors in MA, CT, RI, and NY.
Inside our new cooler.
In all, we expect that 2020 will be a year of seeking out—and capitalizing on—new opportunities to push the boundaries of what a rural New England food hub can do.