Food Hub Reference Desk

This step-by-step guide explains how to select and prepare a produce sample for nutrient density testing, calibrate and clean a digital refractometer, take a °Brix reading, and document the result. Use it with the Nutrient Testing Crop & Sample Planning Worksheet, also available for download from the Food Hub Online Reference Desk. Use it to collect more consistent soluble-solids measurements across participating farms. Note: °Brix is one crop-quality indicator and does not provide a complete nutrient-density profile.

This editable worksheet helps food hubs organize participating farms, crop varieties, harvest and shipping availability, and contacts for nutrient testing. Use it to identify available crops, resolve scheduling gaps, and coordinate sample collection with growers and your testing provider before shipping.

This five-slide presentation introduces eight forms of capital—social, intellectual, financial, spiritual, material, living, cultural, and experiential—with questions and a small-group exercise for farm businesses. Use it to guide a conversation with producers or your food hub team about existing strengths, resource gaps, and how relationships, knowledge, and physical assets can complement one another.

This U.S. Department of Agriculture report compares illustrative wholesale and subscription-based, direct-to-consumer food hubs, with detailed assumptions about producer payments, staffing, facilities, transportation, income, and cash flow. Use it to understand how sales, costs, and payment timing affect financial viability and to identify assumptions to stress test your own budget.

This workbook presents seven hypothetical profit-and-loss models for rural food hubs serving metro markets. Four Illinois (Chicago-serving) scenarios range from approximately $647,000 to $3.83 million in annual revenue. Three Tennessee (Nashville-serving) projections range from approximately $451,000 to $1.32 million. Use this workbook to examine how customer mix, sales volume, food purchasing, payroll, transportation, administrative costs, staffing and projected income can change as a hub grows. Then compare your own food hub's expense allocations to these examples to see where adjustments might be needed and to validate where you are on track. Note: For a set of charts illustrating the financial data described in these seven scenarios, view the companion document titled Food Hub Financial Scenario Comparison, also available for download from the Food Hub Online Reference Desk.

This visual companion to the Food Hub Profit & Loss Models workbook compares seven Illinois and Tennessee scenarios through charts and summary tables covering revenue by customer channel, expenses, net profit margin, customer counts, payroll allocation, and net income. Use it to quickly see how financial performance and staffing patterns change across different revenue scales. Then consult the companion workbook to review the assumptions and calculations behind each scenario. Note: For a detailed breakdown of each scenario's financial assumptions in a spreadsheet, see the companion document titled Food Hub Profit & Loss Models: Seven Revenue and Staffing Scenarios, also available for download from the Food Hub Online Reference Desk.

This 12-page Sequoia Capital pitch-deck framework identifies the core information investors expect to see from local food hubs. These details include company purpose, customer problem, solution, timing, market size, competition, product, business model, team, and financials. Use it as a checklist to organize a food hub’s investment story, identify missing evidence, and prepare a clearer presentation for potential investors and other capital partners.

This 2025 white paper from Kitchen Sync Strategies presents 11 recommendations from a gathering of food hub leaders. It covers issues including funding, institutional sales, shared services, regional networks, and community-led solutions, with participant ratings of potential impact and feasibility. Use it to identify collaboration opportunities and frame discussions with your board, funders, and partners about the investments and support your food hub needs.

This guide provides entrepreneurs with insights and exercises to help them map the necessary relationships needed to support the prosperity of farmer-led food hubs in the U.S. It features guidance on how to plan the crops your food hub will offer to ensure a consistent supply of high-quality produce in every season.

This 2026 Rockefeller Foundation report combines modeled economic benefits of locally sourced Food is Medicine programs with three program case studies and strategies for local purchasing, infrastructure investment, and program development. Use it to explore how your food hub could supply healthcare-linked food programs and inform conversations with healthcare partners, funders, and policymakers about sourcing, distribution, and investment needs.

This 2025 national report draws on survey responses from 100 food hubs about their 2024 operations. It examines finances, customers and sales channels, community priorities, institutional purchasing barriers, and technical assistance needs. Use it to explore market opportunities, compare your hub’s challenges with those of surveyed peers, and identify priorities for business support, partnerships, and investment.

This national research report from 2017 presents findings from 131 food hubs on staffing, suppliers and customers, food safety, revenues and expenses, community goals, and barriers to growth. Use these historical findings to inform decisions about your hub’s business model, producer relationships, and operational priorities.

This real-world example shows how Palouse Heritage connects regenerative grain production with identity-preserved landrace varieties, processing, brewing, and other value-added markets through a vertically integrated regional model. Use this document to explore how a food hub or producer network might create more value locally by connecting differentiated crops with processors, food and beverage businesses, and end customers rather than selling solely into commodity markets.

This diagram maps a values-based grain supply chain connecting farms and contracted growers with seed cleaning, food and malt processing, restaurants, bakeries, breweries, and wholesale markets. Use it to visualize how a food hub or regional food business can coordinate multiple producers, processors, services, and buyers while keeping more production and market relationships connected within a regional supply chain.

This visual guide follows a vertically integrated grain system from farming and grain production through cleaning, storage, milling, malting, baking, brewing, and community markets. Use it to identify opportunities for connecting production, processing, value-added products, and local buyers within a more integrated regional food economy.