Balancing Act: Regional Needs, Aspirational
Goals, and the Business of Running a Food Hub
March 20, 2025
March COP Meeting

Research Team
Sarah-Patricia Breen, Selkirk College
Lindsay Harris, UBCO & Kamloops Food Policy Council
Damon Chouinard, Central Kootenay Food Policy Council
Caitlin Quist, Selkirk College

Summary Report – Available Now!
Download
the Report

What roles do Food Hubs currently play?

Source: L. Harris

Source: Adobe Express AI

How do these
roles match
what is needed?

What roles do Food Hubs aspire to?

What prevents Food Hubs from reaching these
aspirations?

A narrow focus on commercial processing creates a
disconnect between Food hubs and the needs of local
food systems
Waste
Reduction
Commercial
Processing &
Shared
Infrastructure

Value Chain
Development

Community
Development
Sector Specific
Business
Supports

Increasing
Access to Local
Food
Aggregation &
Distribution

Scale Adds Complexity
Broader Region

• Intermittent Users
• Other hubs

Immediate
Region

• Regular users

Community

• Where hub is
based

Food Hub

• Single Location
• Multiple Programs

Food hubs are making an effort to be adaptable and
responsive – but are challenged by conflicting
pressures
[People are not] even making a living wage because the
organization that is doing all of this community work for the
betterment of the community can't afford to pay them. And
any of the grant cycles that come out, everything is so
infrastructure related. It's either infrastructure or equipment
improvements.
- Interview Participant

Food hubs remain sites of untapped potential
"...the bare bones of it is that it's a shared commercial
kitchen. But it's just more expansive than that. It's like an
emergent entity that is constantly shifting and evolving to
just be positioned to act when we need it to act. To be a
resource when we need it to be a resource. To be a
community hub, when we need it to be a community hub. It is
a complex network of relationships that is a true community
resource. It is infrastructure that the community owns. And
then it can be whatever we want it to be. “
- Interview participant​

Recommendations: Research
• Persistence of Alternative Food Networks
• AFNs often struggle to survive, yet not long after their
demise, tend to resurface, likely due to the fact that the
needs that bring them into existence are strong and
unwavering, yet also at direct odds with the dominant food
system. Participatory research approaches can support
communities with finding pathways through these tensions.

Recommendations: Food Hub Practitioners
• Explore diverse pathways to financial sustainability

• Financial sustainability requires a spectrum of approaches

• Expand potential roles at the right pace
• Be realistic when expanding the scope

• Prioritize collaboration

• Understand the local landscape, your place in it, and how you’re
working with others

• Be based in place

• Make decisions based on local needs and your capacity

Recommendations: Decision and Policy Makers
• Make strategic and integrated investments

• Food hubs require capital and operational funding opportunities
that acknowledge broader benefits

• Listen to local needs to guide the vision

• Any vision that does not match the needs or realities at the local
level will be ineffective

• Enable collaboration

• The BC Food Hub Network needs to be able to act as a true
horizontally governed and independent network

Thank you!

For more information visit:

Contact Details:

Sarah - sbreen@selkirk.ca
Lindsay - lindsay@tapestryevaluation.com
Damon - ed@ckfoodpolicy.ca