FAQ
General
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There are many pros of our global, industrial food system such as producing the absolute highest quantity of food at the very cheapest possible price. However, when a food system values only quantity and profit and does not factor in other things, such as equity for farmers and other workers in the food system, environmental impact, effects on frontline communities, and access to nutrient-dense, culturally appropriate foods, many people suffer. We aim to create a more resilient food system working towards including some of these values that have been left out or undervalued in our current food system.
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The real question here should be, why is most food so cheap? How can a product shipped all the way around the world in its own packaging cost so little? How can a chicken cost less than the feed it would take to keep it alive? All in a time when costs of everything are going up? Keeping transparency throughout the entire food web can help shine a light on where corners are being cut so that we can make better decisions as to how we procure our food. The goal is not to break the bank, and local foods need to brainstorm on how we can work together to keep costs as low as possible, but sometimes there is more to the story than appears on the price tag.
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The OKC Food Hub has several components that generate revenue and operate much like a traditional business. 75% of everything we sell goes directly back to the farmers who grew the crops! Our mission as an organization is to support producers, to get fresh food to all Oklahomans, and to provide education and advocacy around food systems development. Many of these efforts will not ever generate a profit yet they are the reason that we exist. In order to offset these aspects, our priorities will always lie in serving and educating, rather than strictly pursuing profit.
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According to the USDA, a food hub is “a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution and marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.” Although farmers markets provide an amazing outlet for producers to sell their products directly to consumers, they only comprise a certain percentage of the market. They can also be difficult for farmers to staff, occur at limited hours, and are often seasonal/weather dependent. It is not the intention of food hubs to displace farmers markets, rather to offer an additional sales outlet for farmers wanting to sell more product, without taking away from time on the farm. Food hubs aggregate products on behalf of many farmers to be able to tap into even larger markets like grocery stores, schools, and institutions, which can be hard to achieve as one single farm.
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The OKC Food Hub will always be different from other produce distributors such as Fresh Point as we prioritize farmers and feeding communities over profit. The OKC Food Hub actively engages producers around pricing, and aims to give farmers the absolute highest price per product possible. The OKC Food Hub is always asking how they can better fill in the gaps to support farmers, and work strategically with communities who are not getting enough access to fresh produce as partners.
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At the moment, The OKC Food Hub does not have its own building. Please let us know if you hear of one for lease in the OKC metro area! Around ~5,000-10,000 sq ft with cold storage would be great :). For now, all aggregation occurs at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma where producers drop off, and product is sorted then delivered by OKC Food Hub staff within 24 hours of producer drop.
Wholesale Buyers
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To get started buying, all you need to do is create an account on our website HERE. We will reach out to you via email and discuss the specifics of what you are looking for and how we can get it to you. The general buying process includes logging in each Thursday to see what’s available, shopping as you would with any online store for what you want, placing your order and waiting for it to be delivered the following Tuesday/Wednesday.
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At the moment, we have no formalized order minimums. Depending where you are physically located and what you are wanting to buy, a cost mitigation strategy may need to be discussed. In general, especially for the OKC metro area, there are no minimums at this time.
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The OKC Food Hub primarily serves the OKC metro area, but we are also running a route to Tulsa, Shawnee and sometimes Yukon/Tuttle. Depending on the size and frequency of the order, new routes may be possible. If you have any questions, please reach out.
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Although we love working with buyers who purchase consistently, weekly purchasing is not a requirement of the OKC Food Hub for the time being. Before beginning to purchase we will initiate an onboarding call to get a sense of what you are looking for. At the moment, we are not requiring contracts to begin purchasing. We will prioritize our regular customers in operational decisions as we view them as partners in building a better food system.
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At the moment, all of our growers are required to complete the Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training and receive and show their certification of completion. GAP certification is a future goal for OKC Food Hub growers.
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All of our products are inspected upon arrival to ensure quality. Growers have been given descriptions of what is expected and are striving for consistency. Beyond quality control checks upon arrival, OKC Food Hub staff will ensure the cold chain is maintained from drop off to delivery and that products are delivered as quickly as possible! If you have any issues with product upon arrival please always let us know and we will do everything we can to address the issue.
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Every single farmer we work with at the OKC Food Hub is someone we know personally. Joining our hub network is truly joining our community. That said, we make sure to visit each farm at least once per growing season (often many more times than that) to take photos, help on the farm, and ensure transparency and accuracy of information provided to our customers.
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One of our highest values at the OKC Food Hub is transparency in the food chain. We want to make sure you as a buyer have as much information as we do about where your food comes from and how it is grown. Every single item that is listed on our online marketplace will be labeled according to what farm it's from, as well as have symbols on it related to what growing practices were used. You can filter your search for growing practices that are important to you. All product will be labeled by farmer when it arrives for delivery. Full summaries of farmers and links to their personal pages and websites will also be available on our website, so you can contact the growers themselves if you have any specific questions you are unable to find the answer to.
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We currently have a few growers who are USDA certified organic. Many of our growers do not have this certification, however, they use practices that are USDA certified organic or better to grow their produce. These practices will be highlighted on each product.
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If you are interested in working with us, please reach out as we have a list of all products and pricing we would be happy to share with you to determine whether or not our prices will fit into your budget. We are working diligently with our producers to get the lowest prices possible that can still maintain their farm businesses and livelihoods. Price points vary across products and will be updated each year, so if something isn’t quite where you need it to be, please give us feedback and keep checking back! If there is any way we can make it work, we will.
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We have several producers who either grow hydroponically, in greenhouses or high tunnels and are able to have at least some products available year round. If you are looking for something specific and don’t see it, please reach out!
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Currently, we are not selling products like meat or eggs, but we have recently opened our application to include meat and egg vendors and hope to begin selling these products in the near future. As always, if you are looking for something specific and have a timeline and amount of when you need it by, please reach out.
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We have several items that we can provide in consistent quantity all year round. The further in advance you work with us to anticipate your specific needs, the better we can meet them. It is difficult to guarantee 100% that all products will be available as they are heavily dependent on weather and factors beyond any individual grower’s control. We aim to build resilience in this area as a hub by sourcing products from many different producers so even if one producer is not able to meet demand, another producer can fill in. That said, with a developing food system as we have in Oklahoma, we recommend working strategically to dedicate a designated dollar amount that you’d like to commit to sourcing local, and working with us to determine which products you’d most like to source, while supplementing other products from more traditional suppliers.
Growers
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If you’d like to sell with us, visit our “For Farmers” section of the website for more information and fill out the application at the top! We will reach out to you from there. If you have any specific questions before filling out the application, feel free to shoot us an email admin@okcfoodhub.org
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If you have enough product to make a weekly drive to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to deliver your product, and you can fill at least one wholesale size box (generally about 10-25 lbs of product), then you are not too small to participate! In general, if you are building your farm business to accommodate larger wholesale quantities, you can participate in the OKC Food Hub.
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We are not regularly picking up from many farms, however, depending on your quantity and location, this is something we can discuss. Feel free to bring this up during your onboarding call if this is something you are interested in.
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As of right now, the only safety requirement the OKC Food Hub requires (for fruit and vegetable producers) is the Produce Safety Alliance Growers Training Certification. This course is available through OSU FAPC for $25 and you can register by signing up for a date on their events calendar. If you are having trouble locating a class and/or would like assistance covering the cost of the course, please reach out. These courses NEVER EXPIRE, so if your farm has had one any time in the past you can use that certification to meet requirements. If you cannot find your certification and it was from longer than 5 years ago, you may need to retake the class.
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If you are growing any type of fresh fruits or vegetables please call us, as right now we could use more of everything! Popular products are tomatoes, carrots, ANY type of fruit, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, collards, so much more.
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You will be paid for your product on a weekly basis via ACH direct deposit transaction to your bank account. We strive to pay our producers the highest price possible while keeping in mind our buyers’ cost considerations. As a nonprofit, we are not here to maximize our profits, we are here to assist producers and buyers to build a stronger, more resilient, local food system. Price conversations happen during annual production planning with both producers and buyers to arrive at viable prices for our producers.
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At this time, we are selling all products in wholesale boxes (either ones producers already have or we have some we can provide if needed). Depending on the product, they can be packaged either bulk loose, bundled, or in smaller containers (like cherry tomatoes). This will be discussed on a product by product basis but overall, everything will be packed for wholesale.
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It is true you can often fetch a higher sticker price at farmers markets than you will selling directly to us in wholesale quantities, and several of our producers sell at farmers markets AND through us. We are very good at buying up larger quantities of whatever you have in bulk, while farmers markets generally speaking there is a limit to how much you can sell of any particular product. Our goal is to take as much as you have of whatever we’ve agreed to move, so you don’t have to worry about whether or not you will sell something if you grow it. Additionally, you do not need to set up a booth, display product, or provide staffing for an event. With one drop, you should be able to move as much product as you want in an hour or less, which can often end up making you more money, even if the sticker price per lb is lower.
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At the beginning of the season, we ask all producers who are interested in selling with us to sit down and take their best guess at how much of what crops they would like to grow and sell for us in the coming season. This gives us something we can work with when approaching buyers to try to find as much of a match as possible between products grown and products purchased. We understand that each week will likely not match exactly with production plans. Growers are able to upload the actual quantity they have available on a weekly basis. We do our best to work with flexible buyers so we can accommodate changes that inevitably occur, as well as have multiple producers growing the same things so that there is some overlap and risk reduction in case anyone has a crop failure.
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Each week you will get an email from your Local Food Marketplace account with a “Pick List” of exactly what you need to harvest/deliver for that week based on what product sold from what you had listed as available.
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We understand that many farms in Oklahoma also require infrastructure investments in order to achieve a scale that is viable as a long term farm business. To date, we have helped many of our farmers secure grant funding, and we also offer help on farm for farms within a certain radius who are beginning farmers. We are always looking for additional resources to help support our producers, as this is a central part of our mission.
Funders & Partners
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The best way you can support right now is by making a donation to our organization. Donations help with everything from packaging costs for producers, to prescription produce for those who can’t afford it, paying for deliveries of produce to rural locations and so much more.
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Our biggest areas of impact are our producer payments and fresh food delivered to low access areas. If you sign up for our newsletter you can receive quarterly updates about what other areas we are impacting, or check out the Metrics Dashboard on our website for some additional statistics on just what we are up to!
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Our primary beneficiaries are local farmers, particularly beginning farmers and farmers of color, and organizations impacting fresh food access. (i.e. foodbanks, tribes, schools, farmers market stores, etc).
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A food bank receives food donations, makes food purchases, and delivers food to those in need. We, as a food hub, aggregate and deliver LOCAL food on behalf of local producers. Our nonprofit food hub prioritizes delivering food to those in need and for this we partner with the Regional Food Bank and other organizations.
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Yes, your donation will be tax deductible, and no amount is too small! Your donation will go to delivering produce to remote locations, paying staff members to support producers and build relationships with schools, purchase packaging for small and beginning producers and much more.
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At this time, we have no organized volunteer program, but there are some specific needs and services we are looking for on our “Needs List” as well as “Who We’d Like to Partner With”. If you are able to help with any of these, that’s great! Simply telling others about our efforts is a tremendous help. You can sign up for our newsletter and keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to get involved.
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We are always open to building our network of partnerships, please send us an email outlining how you’d like to work together, or to set up a brainstorming session!
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These are always evolving but see our current “Needs List” for what we are looking for at the moment! Again, sign up for our newsletter to see what we need on a quarterly basis.
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Our vision for the future is a diverse and resilient food system that is equitable, accessible, and transparent, providing healthy food to all. Our vision for a just food system is one that pays people fairly, is centered around the needs of local communities, and takes care of the planet in the process. We are attempting to run our nonprofit organization to cover as much of the operational costs as we can to achieve this vision without compromising our mission. Until then, we will continue to supplement with donations and grant funding to continue to offer the advocacy, education, and additional resources necessary to build the food system of the future.
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