Food First N.L. reopens food network to fight regional food insecurity
Food hub allows customers to shop and purchase directly from local producers
After putting it on hold because of a lack of funding, Food First N.L. has relaunched its western Newfoundland food network, offering access to locally produced, affordable food in an effort to fight food insecurity.
The Western N.L. Food Hub began as a pilot project in 2021 but went on hiatus last year, Food First N.L. president Josh Smee said Wednesday, but new funding has been secured through the Northpine Foundation, a Toronto-based private philanthropic organization, for at least the next two years.
"We didn't want to come back and relaunch until we knew we had the resources to keep it going for a while," Smee said.
"Sticking around for a while, it lets producers and consumers make plans around it.… We wanted to wait until we could say, 'We're here. And we're here, hopefully, to stay.'"
The hub's front end is an online platform that allows customers to shop for food directly from producers. Orders are placed from Friday to Monday of each week and can be picked up the following Thursday at the hub's location on Corner Brook's Herald Avenue, where food is brought by delivery van and packaged to take home.
Ten producers have joined on so far, Smee said.
One of those producers, Richard Butt of BirchBark Farm in Pasadena, is also the food hub's program co-ordinator. He said he loves the ability to connect directly with consumers.
"What's being brought to the food hub is already sold, so it's not [that] we're stocking fridges and waiting for people to walk through the doors to purchase it," Butt said. "When it shows up here it's showing up on a Wednesday, back out the door on a Thursday and right to the customer's table."
The hub is staffed by local youths, through a partnership with Choices for Youth, a non-profit organization that provides services to at-risk youths and young adults.
One of Food First N.L.'s goals is to create a network of pickup points across western Newfoundland, said Smee, so more people can access the food without having to come into Corner Brook.
That's a key step in creating a sustainable business, Butt added, one he says will help fight food insecurity and help people become less reliant on food shipped in from outside the province.
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With files from Colleen Connors and CBC Newfoundland Morning
