Community of practice

There are many commercial food hubs in BC that provide rental opportunities of shared-used kitchen spaces to food and beverage processors. The Ministry is committed to supporting the learning and collaboration of all commercial food hubs in BC.

The purpose of the BC Food Hub Community of Practice is to provide commercial food hub operators with collaborative learning opportunities around producer support, distribution, aggregation, and business sustainability. The Community of Practice includes a series of interactive online learning workshops, hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and facilitated by Tapestry Collective Co-op.

These sessions are open to BC commercial food hub administrators and managers and are free to attend. The sessions are also open to those interested in starting or in the process of opening a commercial food hub. See how to join the CoP below.

What to expect:

• Each session is designed for food hub operators to meet and learn from each other and to gather new information relevant to their food hub management and operations. Some sessions invite panelists or guest speakers, and all sessions involve connection and discussion with other food hub operators.
• Sessions are 90 minutes long and take place on Zoom monthly (with some exceptions during the summer and winter holidays). We also keep the Zoom session open for an extra 30 minutes after the main session for additional questions and discussion.

Past Community of Practice session topics:

• April 2023 session: Models of Food Hubs. This was an interactive panel discussion with Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub (Abbotsford), Kitchen Connect (Victoria), and The Stir (Kamloops), discussing how to define sustainability for food hubs.
• May 2023 session: Grant Opportunities and Grant Writing Strategy. This was a chance to discuss current grant opportunities and grant programs that have been successful for other food hubs. Members learned essential tips for grant writing from an experienced grant writer and shared strategies with other food hub operators in breakout room sessions.
• June 2023 Session: Financial Sustainability and Diversified Revenue Streams. Rob Hay and Sally Titasey from Valley Kitchen in Winlaw, BC, talked about how to design your commercial kitchen to maximize efficiency and revenue potential, how to reach financial sustainability by diversifying your space and services to tap into multiple revenue streams, and ways to create and build systems for value-added wholesale products.
• September 2023 session: Guest speaker Melanie Rupp talked about recruiting and supporting food entrepreneurs at different stages of business development. Melanie provided practical tips for food hub operators to draw on when recruiting entrepreneurs, supporting entrepreneurs growth at different stages of their life cycle, and building community partnerships.

Session feedback from participants:
“Hearing the operational stories and pitfalls and challenges ….and seeing the variety of food hubs in the province and their current state was very helpful to understand the provincial landscape.”