Project Announcement: October 2025
Q & A — Below
EVENT 10/26: Tastings, Short Films, Community Conversations
Previous News
2019 Reformer Article: Great Falls Food Hub opens in Bellows Falls, 2019
LOCAL FOOD MATTERS: Q & A
WHAT IS LOCAL FOOD MATTERS?
A community-collaboration focused on steps we can take to create more resilient food infrastructure to sustain farms and healthy, locally sourced food and food products.
The project invites the community to talk, share their ideas/input and participate in events, meetings, surveys and focus groups. We are interested in collecting information and ideas that relate to the whole system and focusing on different areas of that system in phases.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE
To spark conversations with owners of farms, restaurateurs, makers of products that use local ingredients and others invested in improving our local food system and its resilience. Questions will be asked to gather information about priority needs, shared concerns/challenges, emergency preparedness, community food storage/production facilities, access to/distribution of locally sourced products that can be efficiently produced in our region for economic benefit to all. In addition to growers and food producers, the project will engage public school districts and those who operate food shelves, and serve people with limited food access.
WHO IS BEHIND IT?
The Great Falls Food Hub (GFFH) and Great River Cooperative (GRC) are working together to launch the effort and invite community participation. As projects of the Sustainable Valley Group, a regional nonprofit development corporation, they received funding for community engagement as part of a pre-development grant. Rather than allowing those dollars to bypass more local labor and resources, they hired a team of 4 people to generate a feasibility study that focuses on in-person, community involvement in addition to information collection.
WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO DO? WHAT’S THEIR AGENDA?
The Great Falls Food Hub, GRC and Sustainable Valley Group want to test the feasibility of their ideas, and gather new ideas on how we can create a stronger, more resilient local food system. One aspect of their efforts is to increase public engagement, partnerships and collaboration around growing, processing, producing/manufacturing and the distribution of food, locally. Since the GFFH and Our place are already located near the Great Falls Train Station, that is being considered as a location where a future, local farms first development could be built.
WHAT IS THE GREAT FALLS FOOD HUB (GFFH)
The Great Falls Food Hub is an incubator space for growers, food producers/manufacturers and potential restaurateurs. It has a commercial kitchen, cooler/freezer storage and a pre-development grant to investigate other ways it can serve local farmers and growers.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT FALLS FOOD HUB (GFFH)
A seed that was originally planted by a Post Oil Solutions group in 2009 and furthered by South Eastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) and other volunteers for almost a decade, The Great Falls Food Hub opened in 2019 and is among the many shoots of the initial local food system seeds that were planted through potlucks, education and pre-covid community building conversations.
WHO IS USING THE SPACE?
Great Falls Food Hub’s facility is being utilized by food producers/manufacturers like Smokin’ Bowls, C&K Foods, 7 Balls Brewing. Finallie Ferments, Rolling 802 Smoke and Ocreemo grew out of the space exemplifying how it can serve as an incubator.
IS THE GREAT FALLS FOOD HUB AT CAPACITY?
No. The GFFH is an incubator space that is providing limited, shared resources to serve the community. Its goal is to facilitate business-growth so that a flow of users can be supported and some space is there when a new business needs it to get off the ground.
CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THIS FUNDING?
Funding for this public engagement program is through a pre-development grant given by the USDA Rural Development as part of an initiative to help all people get affordable, fresh, and healthy food close to home. One of the goals is to examine the feasibility of different ideas and proposed projects that could bring economic benefit to small farms and local businesses. Out of 193 applications, only 45 were awarded funds as part of a competitive process to strengthen the local and regional food systems we all count on through the Healthy Food & Financing Initiative.
WHAT IS A FEASIBILITY STUDY?
Research to determine if a project is needed, and if it is practical socially, physically, and financially. This study will explore the feasibility of creating a more accessible, local food ecosystem in the Great Falls region that includes 1) demand 2) scale, equipment and facility to meet demand 3) cost and design to meet requirements and 4) likelihood, means and methods of funding and building the supply chain.
WILL THERE BE AN EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT TO THESE EFFORTS?
Yes! People will be sharing various ideas, thoughts and information during meetings, focus groups and gatherings. But, more formally as ongoing programs, Maybe! What happens after the feasibility study depends upon the community responses, interest and capacity.