Ann Anderson Podcast

The Harvest Hub in Arcata is an aggregation and distribution hub managed by the North Coast Growers Association. It allows farmers and food producers to bring their products to one place, making it easier for purchasers like restaurants and food banks to buy from them. This benefits both farmers and purchasers, as it increases sales and supports the local food system. The Harvest Hub also offers a cold storage area and facilitates the purchase of packaging and storage supplies. Additionally, they have a Harvest Box Program where customers can buy boxes of food from multiple farmers. The program helps the community and supports local farmers. Anne Anderson, a member of various organizations in Humboldt County, is on the advisory board and helps provide ideas and insights to improve the hub. Today I will be speaking with Anne Anderson about the Harvest Hub in Arcata. She is a part of many organizations here in Humboldt County, such as the Humboldt Permaculture Guild, the Master Food Preservers, and the Food Security Council. So, Anne, what can you tell us about the Harvest Hub and the services it provides? Well, the Harvest Hub is managed by the North Coast Growers Association, and it is technically called an aggregation and distribution hub, so that farmers and food producers take their products to the hub, and then people who need to buy those products, like restaurants or schools or food banks or whoever, can go and purchase their products there. So the advantage to the farmer is that they only need to take their products to one place, as opposed to taking it to a dozen different restaurants or groceries or whatever. And the advantage to the purchaser is that they just go to one place to buy all the different things. Because it's easier for people to buy this way, they will buy more, and so farmers will produce more. So the effect is that farmers do better, purchasers do better, and the whole environment and the local food system will grow because of the aggregation, distribution, or food hub system. So you're on the advisory board. What kind of responsibilities do you take on being in that position? Well, we meet quarterly, and there's about 10 of us from different parts of the food system. We answer questions that they may have. We give our opinions about stuff. We look over the budget. We give them ideas about how to make things better, what issues may be. Are there any other services offered for local farmers? Yeah, they have a big cold storage area. They also can facilitate purchase of common goods like boxes and other packaging and bags and stuff. Storage is a very important thing that farmers need, and they don't always have it on their own farms. That sounds great. What can you tell us about the Harvest Box Program? There have been CSAs where farmers will put together a box of food, and people will set up for a year to buy food boxes. But Megan had the idea of making food boxes that were from a lot of different farmers, and then the NCGA, the Growers Association, would sell that to the customers. That was kind of the beginning of it, and so now they're continuing that through the food hubs, so clients for harvest boxes can pick them up also at the food hubs. What a great program to offer the community and also support our local farmers. So, Anne, thank you so much for your time speaking with me today about this program. It was an honor. My pleasure.