What do you name a hub of hubs? The hubba hubbas, of course.

Thanks to my new friend Joe at HmCapital Partners in Pennsylvania for the wonderful question and answer in this post's headline.

A group of emerging food hubs in the Great Lakes region met in Chicago recently. I got to meet Joe and Greg from the wonderful Republic Food Enterprise Center in Pennsylvania along with many other amazing food hub folks from all across the Great Lakes region.

To me food hubs are food-based enterprises that spin off and support a greater good. It seems clear that smart hubs aggregate with others and keep experimenting to see which niches need filling, with all due accolades to Darwin.

The Chicago based organization Fresh Taste hosted a recent weekend retreat for new and emerging food hubs in the Great Lakes region. The working title for the weekend was ‘Building Community Wealth Through Food Hubs’. What a valuable gathering!

Links to all these new friends are below. Since this initial gathering, several new partner projects have emerged. I can’t wait to watch this grow.

The Great Lakes region has historically been a great food provider. Rebuilding that capacity is strategic and critically important to 21st century regional food needs. That kind of long range planning is emerging from all kinds of interesting places.

I’m honored to be hanging out with such a smart bunch! Please visit their info and links below. And welcome new friends and new projects in our wonderful Great Lakes food region.


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First a link to news and info from Fresh Taste in Chicago who hosted this gathering. Then links to participants.

Fresh Taste. Thanks Karen and friends!


Food hub project profiles:

Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living. Fred and Dr J.

Center For Urban Transformation. Orrin

Edible Economy Project. Terra, Marty and Elaine.

Gourmet Gorilla. Jason

Green City Growers / Evergreen Cooperative. Mary

Institutional Food Market Coalition. Olivia

Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks. Shelly and Irv

Farm Business Development Center at Prairie Crossing Farm. Mike

The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission. Local Food Study. PDF. 2.5 MB. Kevin and Beth

Republic Food Enterprise Center / Holly Mead Capital. Joe and Greg

Renaissance Farm / Slow Money Wisconsin. Mark

Southwest Michigan Green Enterprises Incubator. John

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen / Food Action Alliance. Rick


Supporting partners and resources

Kailo Fund. Tina

Southwest Wisconsin Community Action Program. Wally

Slow Food Midwest / Slo-fig. Joel

Fresh Taste – Meeting conveners. Karen and Vanessa