Imagine knowing exactly where your food comes from.
I've recently started volunteering at the Second Mile Food Hub in Vancouver, WA, and I wanted to share this wonderful place and what it offers with you.
The Second Mile Food Hub, owned by Holly Hansen, is an example of sustainable community-focused business, aimed to create value locally while providing people with something we all want: locally grown food.
The more local you can source your food, the better. This keeps money in your community significantly longer, reduces the greenhouse gas emissions required for transportation, and guarantees that your food is fresher and therefore more nutritious.
Typically, to get locally grown food you have to go to farmer's markets and pay top dollar for produce and other items, at which only the largest of your local farms can afford space. Maybe a health food store has some local produce too - again, for top prices. And there are so many reasons it's good to buy locally grown food, the struggle between the cost and the benefits is real.
A downside of every type of grocery store is food waste. Around 40% of the food grown in the USA for human consumption ends up in landfills. Some of that is from food going bad in the fridge at home, but a significant portion is waste from the grocery industry. (Also food quality at the grocery store has declined significantly in the past couple of years!)
Second Mile Food Hub has a clever model, different from grocery stores or farmer's markets, that addresses that issue. Customers buy through the Food Hub's website over a given weekend, and every Monday only the purchased produce is harvested. On Tuesdays, the orders are delivered or picked up.
They work with small farms in the Clark County area, all of which are between1-4 acres and use organic and regenerative farming practices, including hydroponics. Some other food producers partner with the Food Hub too, offering products such as honey, nut butters, meat, eggs, seeds for planting, baked goods, and soap. And, the prices are comparable to grocery store prices while being more fresh.
As the growing season goes on, the produce and food product options on the website will continue to expand.
If this is the sort of thing that appeals to you, I recommend checking out their website. If you are a small farmer or make other food products, I know they are always interested in adding vendors to the Food Hub. If you are looking for a commercial kitchen space to produce food items, the Second Mile Marketplace has time in the kitchen that can be rented.
Shop local, keep money in the community, help preserve Clark County farmland, and support our local food system and families. It doesn't get better than that!
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