BRATTLEBORO — Food Connects is expanding its operations within the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation’s Business Park on Putney Road, allowing for an additional 10,000 square feet for the nonprofit’s Food Hub operations.
The Food Connects Food Hub allows wholesale customers to buy regional food while maximizing returns to producers, and gives local schools, hospitals, restaurants and food co-ops access to nutritious, locally-grown food. Since 2009, the Food Connects Food Hub has grown to sell food from over 117 regional producers to over 250 customers, including schools and institutions, retail grocers, hospitals and farmstands.
In late 2018, Food Connects moved to a warehouse space in the BDCC Business Park to expand its operations. Since then, it quickly grew — outfitting a roughly 1,000-square-foot freezer and cooler space the following winter.
Food Connects saw increased demand for local and regional foods as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged global food distribution channels. Between 2019 and 2021, sales tripled, prompting the need to increase cold and dry storage, hire more drivers and expand its fleet size.
Now, Food Connects has outgrown its Food Hub space and needs to add infrastructure to match its projected growth. Sales through June 30 of this year were 65 percent above 2021, without having hit peak harvest season. The primary need is additional cooler and freezer space to store fresh produce, dairy products, and meats to meet the organization’s growing demand.
“It’s exciting to see more and more connections with producers and wholesale customers who share our vision of a better connected regional food system,” says Richard Berkfield, executive director at Food Connects.
“Knowing where the food is from, how it was produced, who the producers are, the connection between food and health and well-being — it’s all part of our mission to create healthy families, thriving farms, and connected communities.”
In 2021, Food Connects was able to return over $1.2 million to food producers across the region, creating a cycle of community reinvestment.
This expansion will represent a 210 percent increase in food handling space — 1,150-square feet in cooler space (+133 percent), 1,200 square feet in freezer space (+572 percent), and a more than 200 percent increase in dry storage. Once fully built out, long-term food storage and handling capacity will increase by 330 percent. As this space is filled with more regional food, customers (especially those in rural areas who cannot meet minimum orders from mainstream distributors) will have increased access to quality regional food.
Expansion also means more jobs. Since the decision to expand, Food Connects has created two new positions, an inside sales and procurement coordinator and a warehouse coordinator to help increase efficiencies. As the increased internal capacity impacts food businesses, a ripple effect is expected to create more jobs throughout their businesses.
“This regionally important expansion project is in keeping with the BDCC’s mission to help increase the vibrancy of the economy for all residents of Windham County,” said BDCC Executive Director Adam Grinold. “Food Connects continues to deliver on its virtuous mission while simultaneously planning for a future business model they know will bring meaningful benefit to their producers and consumers alike.”
To learn more about this project and support the growth of the Food Hub, contact Food Connects at development@foodconnects.org.
