We are a food hub working group in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Interior food system needs cooperation and organization to remain robust and strengthen food security. 

VISION

A non-profit focused on 4 aspects:

1) Farmer incubation

2) Establishment of a robust community kitchen

3) Establish a cooperative food processing and storage facility - potential for cooperative wholesaling to school districts

4) Promote year-round food production with hydroponics and mushroom farming. 

Aggregation at the cooperative facility could  provide instant sale to farmers, and shared marketing, allowing local food to pool together to meet the demand of larger institutional buyers such as school districts and community stores.

The DEC certified processing kitchen will support the creation of value-added products for our creative community of food producers to reach retail markets legally and safely, without the enormous overhead of financing their own DEC certified kitchen. We still have over 20, and counting, local food producers making value-added products that don’t have access to a safe DEC certified kitchen, can’t afford to build their own, but now no longer qualify under cottage law because they make over $25,000. 

Storage for locally produced foods will provide an essential service to local farmers, encouraging them to produce more and sell throughout the Winter. Having food in a central locale makes it easier to organize and distribute to local and rural school districts, food banks, and other buyers. 

In Fairbanks we have local food retailers like The Roaming Root and the co-op grocery that say they need more food storage. 

Local food producers in multiple reports have stated they would produce more food, if they had access to shared food storage.

We have large buyers like Quality Sales and the School District that have stated they would love to purchase large amounts of local food for our children, but the cost of transaction is too expensive to buy little bits here and there from various farms; they need a local food aggregator for bulk purchases. 

Production with a hydroponics/mushroom farm will add to the amount of available fresh food year round.

Farmer incubation and education whereby new farmers are provided land, equipment, training, business modeling, and a guaranteed market price at end of season to be sold to the food hub co-op if they wish. 

Farm land access for new farmers is provided through our network of arable land owners willing to share their space with food producers. 

Training provided through AFFECT, the "Fairbanks Soil and Water's" farming education program that literally pays people to learn how to farm.

CURRENT SUPPORT

The Fairbanks North Star Borough has established their formal support of this project by listing us as the lead for such a facility on their most recent Community Economic Development Strategy (CEDS). We have a letter of support from Mayor Bryce Ward, and the borough chose this project for an economic impact assessment. 

The Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC)  has stated in their Regional Food Assessment and Recommendations report (2021) the desire for  “increasing food availability from farming and local food production, especially in communities outside the Fairbanks area”, and “Increasing food affordability, availability, quality, and culture in retail and commercial food outlets, again, especially in communities outside the Fairbanks area[...]”

The Alaska Food Policy Council’s report on Potential Infrastructure Investments (2018) highlights Alaska’s legislative priority to support, “Food Storage in Climate-Protected Food Caches Across the State”, and “Shared Community Kitchens for Creating Value-Added Products”. The report states that, “If several farms co-located in close proximity to such a facility and coordinated their efforts, they would gain considerable market presence, with buyers wanting to know what they are growing and confident that deliveries could be made.”

The Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District’s report on Food Security in Interior Alaska (2018) interviewed 32 local producers and 55 buyers. From their findings they recommend, “Develop a basic local food distribution center business model, assessing the feasibility of adding services after one to five years of operation, that addresses the challenges raised by farmers and buyers,” and, “consider a range of desired services, offering a one-stop shop for buyers and farmers for advertising availability and quantity of local food, reduced delivery time and increased product freshness, cold storage and an overall aim of simplifying and streamlining the market in wholesale local food.

The Food Security Task Force Report (2022) commissioned by Governor Mike Dunleavy states the primary infrastructure needed for producers as, “cold storage and other storage infrastructure.” For processing, the report highlights, “commercial kitchens and processing equipment,” as an infrastructure need. Under the Distribution and Processing section of the report, the report states the need for, “Climate-controlled, regional hub storage facilities”, “Refrigeration and temperature-controlled storage centers for local producers” and, “Commercial kitchens for food processing for easier storage and distribution”.

CURRENT STAGE 

We are actively seeking funding to lay the groundwork for a shared-use kitchen. We continue  to build relationships in Interior communities, conduct needs assessments, and most importantly, learn from the community how they would like to be represented in a community owned food hub. These are the first steps.