Unity Food Hub opens new headquarters
A wholesale and retail business from the Maine Farmland Trust that aims to expand markets for local farmers is set to open its new headquarters and distribution center in a former schoolhouse in Unity this week, the Morning Sentinel reported Wednesday.
The business, Unity Food Hub, buys in bulk from more than 40 central Maine farms and sells shares of the products to individuals and wholesale buyers. It started operations last year in a temporary location until renovations to the 19th-century schoolhouse were complete.
The Unity Food Hub sells weekly shares of local produce, dairy and meat to consumers, who can pick up them up in Belfast, Biddeford and Unity.
But the focus of the operation is the wholesale business, connecting local farmers to statewide distribution channels, General Manager Matt Tremblay told the Sentinel. It can be challenging for a store or restaurant to get enough product from one local farmer, so the business acts as a central distributor to connect buyers with amounts and variety they need, Tremblay told the paper.
Farmers also benefit because they can sell to just the Unity Food Hub instead of multiple stores and restaurants, he said.
In September 2014, Maine Farmland Trust received $100,000 for the development of the Unity hub, one of seven Maine food production efforts to receive $450,000 in all under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Local Food Marketing Promotion Program. In a 2012 USDA study, even most successful food hub operators reported struggling to stay solvent as they tried to balance supply and demand.
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