Back to Our Roots‚
Building a Local Food Economy
by Kelly Ferry
everal groups in Portage County are working on projects to build a stronger local food economy. Growing interest in food entrepreneurial endeavors is fueling the need for a centralized processing and distribution system. Out of this need the Portage Local Food Project formed, to explore the feasibility of a community kitchen, which would be a licensed commercial kitchen that value added producers and bakers could rent space in for storage and production. The group is now working with Kent Social Services, who is upgrading their kitchen to meet health code in order to support this idea, with the hope of beginning to rent the kitchen in the very near future.
On a larger scale, some possibilities for a Portage County Food Hub might include a distribution warehouse where small producers can bring their produce to pool together to meet the purchasing needs of restaurants, school cafeterias, institution cafeterias, and grocery stores. It could also include a licensed commercial kitchen equipped to do baking, canning, and flash freezing. 
The creation of a Portage County brand could add value to such an organization, with retail space to showcase that brand and the individual local brands. The Food Hub could also act as a business incubator, offering support for legally structuring a small food business, health codes, marketing, packaging and labeling.
Another area of local and national food production growth is the Farm to School movement. Ohio State University Extension agents were recently assigned the task of building the relationships and helping districts get the process started. They are developing print materials and training programs that school districts will be able to adopt as they work to bring locally grown produce into school lunches across Ohio.
If you are interested in learning more, or getting involved, please contact:
Kelly Ferry is a copywriter and Kent‚ Haymaker Farmers Market manager. She lives in Kent with her husband and two children, where she grows much of her own food and is always dreaming up new ways to build the local food economy.
