IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/joafsc/359618.html

Building Resilience in Nonprofit Food Hubs

Author

Listed:
  • LeBlanc, Jacqueline R.
  • Conner, David
  • McRae, Glenn
  • Darby, Heather

Abstract

Food hubs serve as intermediaries between market actors in the aggregation and distribution of local food. Scholars have identified four common food hub models: retail-driven, nonprofit-driven, producer-driven, and consumer-driven. The nonprofit sector has played a prominent role in emerging alternative food networks such as food hubs. This research uses qualitative methods to analyze the development of nonprofit food hubs in Vermont, as well as potential challenges faced and opportunities gained by this model. The results suggest that nonprofit food hubs in Vermont can foster the awareness and education necessary to create and expand a thriving community food system, allowing multiple actors to participate at multiple levels. In this way, nonprofit food hubs provide a vehicle for cooperation between farmers and consumers. The most successful food hubs are those that develop within existing organizations; through the multifunctionality of the organization, the food hub can help educate consumers and producers and foster relationships that can lead to an increase in a local food system's capacity. Analysis reveals that although nonprofit food hubs offer the potential to positively impact local food systems, there are key areas of perceived vulnerability that threaten the overall resilience of this model. Recommended interventions for building resilience in nonprofit food hubs include technical assistance, market analysis, and business planning to foster financially stable nonprofit food hubs with sustainable program models and business structures.

Suggested Citation

  • LeBlanc, Jacqueline R. & Conner, David & McRae, Glenn & Darby, Heather, 2014. "Building Resilience in Nonprofit Food Hubs," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University, vol. 4(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:joafsc:359618
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/359618/files/pdf.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matson, James & Thayer, Jeremiah, 2013. "The Role of Food Hubs in Food Supply Chains," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University, vol. 3(4).
    2. Roberta Sonnino & Christopher Griggs-Trevarthen, 2013. "A resilient social economy? Insights from the community food sector in the UK," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3-4), pages 272-292, April.
    3. Matson, James & Sullins, Martha & Cook, Chris, 2013. "The Role of Food Hubs in Local Food Marketing," Service Reports (SR) 280771, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sylvie Nail, 2018. "Alimentar las Ciudades. Territorios, Actores, Relaciones," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Finanzas, Gobierno y Relaciones Internacionales, number 123.
    2. Nigel R Curry, 2021. "The rural social economy, community food hubs and the market," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(7-8), pages 569-588, November.
    3. Aintzira Oñederra-Aramendi & Mirene Begiristain-Zubillaga & Mamen Cuellar-Padilla, 2023. "Characterisation of food governance for alternative and sustainable food systems: a systematic review," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-32, December.
    4. Papargyropoulou, Effie & Bridge, Gemma & Woodcock, Sonja & Strachan, Emma & Rowlands, Joanna & Boniface, Elizabeth, 2024. "Impact of food hubs on food security and sustainability: Food hubs perspectives from Leeds, UK," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    5. Tatevik Avetisyan Artoonian & R. Brent Ross & Robert S. Shupp, 2025. "Identification and assessment of supply chain risks: The case of food hubs," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 84-105, January.
    6. Ebrahim P. Karan & Sadegh Asgari & Somayeh Asadi, 2023. "Resilience assessment of centralized and distributed food systems," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(1), pages 59-75, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giaime Berti & Catherine Mulligan, 2016. "Competitiveness of Small Farms and Innovative Food Supply Chains: The Role of Food Hubs in Creating Sustainable Regional and Local Food Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-31, July.
    2. Liang, Haoyue & Ge, Houtian & Gomez, Miguel I. & Peters, Christian J., 2025. "Modeling sustainable fresh produce supply chain systems in the Northeast U.S," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 361063, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Nigel R Curry, 2021. "The rural social economy, community food hubs and the market," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(7-8), pages 569-588, November.
    4. Park, Timothy & Martinez, Steve & Ibrahim, Mohammed, . "Sales Performance of Local Food Marketers: Evaluation of Multivalued Treatment Effects," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 49(3).
    5. Alison Blay-Palmer & Roberta Sonnino & Julien Custot, 2016. "A food politics of the possible? Growing sustainable food systems through networks of knowledge," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(1), pages 27-43, March.
    6. Antonio Baselice & Maurizio Prosperi & Valentino Marini Govigli & Antonio Lopolito, 2021. "Application of a Comprehensive Methodology for the Evaluation of Social Innovations in Rural Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.
    7. Sylvie Nail, 2018. "Alimentar las Ciudades. Territorios, Actores, Relaciones," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Finanzas, Gobierno y Relaciones Internacionales, number 123.
    8. Anuj Mittal & Caroline C. Krejci & Teri J. Craven, 2018. "Logistics Best Practices for Regional Food Systems: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-44, January.
    9. Efryta Wulan Anggraeni & Yuanita Handayati & Santi Novani, 2022. "Improving Local Food Systems through the Coordination of Agriculture Supply Chain Actors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-19, March.
    10. Shideler, Dave & Watson, Philip, 2019. "Making Change through Local Food Production: Calculating the Economic Impact of Your Local Food Project," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University, vol. 8(C).
    11. Martinez, Steve W. & Park, Timothy, "undated". "Marketing Practices and Financial Performance of Local Food Producers: A Comparison of Beginning and Experienced Farmers," USDA Miscellaneous 313069, United States Department of Agriculture.
    12. Donghyun Kim & Up Lim, 2017. "Social Enterprise as a Catalyst for Sustainable Local and Regional Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, August.
    13. Xiyuan Xiang & Jing Wang & Zehai Long & Yangjie Huang, 2022. "Improving the Entrepreneurial Competence of College Social Entrepreneurs: Digital Government Building, Entrepreneurship Education, and Entrepreneurial Cognition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    14. Giuseppe Terzo, 2021. "Social capital, social economy and economic resilience of Italian provinces," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(5), pages 1113-1135, October.
    15. Mara Willemijn van Twuijver & Lucas Olmedo & Mary O’Shaughnessy & Thia Hennessy, 2020. "Rural social enterprises in Europe: A systematic literature review," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 35(2), pages 121-142, March.
    16. Brimlow, Jacob N. & Matson, James, 2015. "Buying Local? An exploratory analysis of barriers to local food sales from the perspective of intermediary buyers in California and North Carolina," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205872, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Gail Feenstra & Shermain Hardesty, 2016. "Values-Based Supply Chains as a Strategy for Supporting Small and Mid-Scale Producers in the United States," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-17, August.
    18. Ignazio Cabras & Gary Bosworth, 2014. "Embedded models of rural entrepreneurship: The case of pubs in Cumbria, North West of England," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 29(6-7), pages 598-616, September.
    19. Leticia Canal Vieira & Silvia Serrao-Neumann & Michael Howes, 2019. "Local Action with a Global Vision: The Transformative Potential of Food Social Enterprises in Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-16, November.
    20. Josephine Mylan & Helen Holmes & Jessica Paddock, 2016. "Re-Introducing Consumption to the ‘Circular Economy’: A Sociotechnical Analysis of Domestic Food Provisioning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-14, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:joafsc:359618. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.