Sacramento Region Food Hub
RUCS stakeholders have identified the need for expanded regional agricultural infrastructure to increase the amount of locally grown food reaching local markets. Agricultural infrastructure encompasses aspects of aggregation, packing, processing, storage, marketing and distribution capacity and facilities, forming what many are calling “food hubs.” Food hubs help connect locally produced and source-identified foods to local markets by creating new market channels between growers and consumers. As the food hub and local food system scale expands, it can serve larger markets, such as institutional and wholesale buyers, and even markets outside of the SACOG region.
SACOG’s Sacramento Region Food Hub Feasibility Analysis provides a series of analytical and business planning tools for entrepreneurs, jurisdictions, developers, investors and other stakeholders to advance the development of regional agricultural infrastructure. These tools include research analyses of food hub characteristics; detailed capital cost estimates of a prototypical food hub enterprise; a project food hub business plan and model; and, a pro forma toolkit to test the business model’s financial feasibility as well as customizable applications.