Pictured above: the MyFoodshed trailer making a delivery on the foodhub route.
From our earliest inception, Ogallala Commons believed a critical part of rural sustainability is a healthy local foodshed. As a result, we have spent a large portion of the last two decades bringing together local food enthusiasts in the communities where we work. As we gathered with food producers, community institutions, and other interested community members to talk best practices and how we can best support local food movements across the OC region, several things became clear. Primarily, that one of the greatest barriers to sustainability that local food producers face is a barrier in access to profitable markets.
For many, if not most, small and local producers, the typical access to market in rural areas comes from farmer’s markets or direct-to-consumer sales. While these can both be valuable markets, they typically limit a customer pool to a) those who participate in the farmer’s market experience which limits hours, seasons, and locations; or b) a personalized following the producer must invest significant time in building, and the customer must be willing to purchase their produce in multiple transactions from multiple vendors.
This method of multi-vendor purchase also presents a challenge for institutions like schools, hospitals, senior centers, and small food retailers. These institutions are integral to feeding so much of our population, and in many cases, feeding particularly vulnerable sections of the population who could most benefit from healthy local food and often have the most difficult time accessing such.
Many of the communities in the OC region qualify as “food deserts”, which are, according to the United States Department of Agriculture: a census tract containing 1,000 to 8,000 people with a poverty rate “of 20 percent or greater, or a median family income at or below 80 percent of the statewide or metropolitan area median family income;“ where “at least 500 persons and/or at least 33 percent of the population lives more than 1 mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (10 miles, in the case of rural census tracts).” Source
With an established need from producers looking to access a market, and an established need in these food deserts for produce, it was easy to identify a gap in mid-market aggregation of produce. This is where Ogallala Commons’ My Foodshed program came to life: in the form of a non-traditional foodhub to stand in the gap.
Often, traditional food hubs function within the “hub and spoke” model: produce is aggregated at one central location and then transferred out to different “spokes” of the wheel. An easy way to picture this is to think in airline context: many major airlines have “hubs” where all flights are routed through one of the major hubs like Houston, or Denver International, regardless of final destination. In the food systems space, this is not always an economically profitable model for major food providers especially if the region served is particularly remote.
This is where MyFoodshed is stepping in: instead of a hub-and-spoke model, we are designing a point-to-point model of distribution. The point-to-point method of distribution utilizes smaller aggregation points that can share food directly between, around, and through a network rather than distribution only from one large, centralized hub.
MyFoodshed is specifically envisioned to aggregate produce from multiple small producers, giving those producers access to a market they may otherwise not have the volume to support. This also allows rural institutions and rural small food retailers to access local produce from a regional market to which they wouldn’t otherwise have access.
MyFoodshed’s first physical location opened in Raton, NM, in June of 2023, and now supports a dedicated weekly delivery route in Eastern New Mexico, with additional stops in Colorado and Texas more seasonally. Over the next three years, our focus is expanding to a region bordered by Kit Carson, CO, on the north and Plainview, TX, on the south, and stretching from Mora, NM, on the west to Wheeler, TX, on the east. Over the next 12-18 months, additional hub locations are planned in Clovis (NM), Amarillo (TX), and Walsh (CO). Over the following two years, these hubs will grow to support regular delivery routes around and between their regions as well!
Join us in the pivotal work of Rebuilding Local Food Systems. Ogallala Commons is excited to form producer and institutional cohorts to collaboratively identify and implement effective strategies to propel this program forward. Your participation can make a significant impact on our communities. Let’s work together to create a more sustainable and thriving food system. Whether you’re a local producer or an institution, please contact our Director of Operations, Berlin Arellano, at berlin@ogallalacommons.org.
Become a Community Partner and Advocate by volunteering your time to help us establish MyFoodshed hubs, donating funds, and spread the word about our mission. Together, we can make a significant impact in our communities.
