Eating local: Region Roots supports farmers, expands local food access
NWI Times | Molly DeVore | Jan 15, 2023
DEMOTTE — The dry grass along the highway was a faded yellow color, and the surrounding corn fields laid bare, but inside Dan and Julie Perkin's high tunnel, there was an explosion of bright greens.
"This is my combine," Dan joked as he stuck a cordless drill into the hand-held greens harvester.
The drill spun the macrame brush, which quickly swept the fresh spinach leaves into the basket. Designed specifically for small-scale operations like Perkins' Good Earth Farm, he said the tool makes harvesting much more efficient. For small-scale growers, efficiency is everything as farmers have to wear an array of hats: marketer, sales associate, distributor, chef and, of course, producer.
Region Roots Local Food and Farm Hub is working to take some of those responsibilities off farmer's plates.
"One of our goals was not to leave the farm," Dan said. "That's the beauty of that system (Region Roots), they take care of the delivery and the logistics. It's hard enough farming."
Launched by the NWI Food Council in June 2021, Region Roots virtual food hub connects restaurants, schools and other wholesale food buyers with local farmers and producers. Region Roots works with about 25 producers. In the initiative's first year, the hub moved over 20,000 pounds of produce, meat, cheese and grains, supporting over $45,000 in farm sales. Anne Massie, local farmer and president of the NWI Food Council, said Region Roots is on track to double those numbers this year.
"We are trying to really rewrite what a healthy local food system looks like for Northwest Indiana," Massie said.
Though Region producers have been discussing the creation of a food hub since about 2011, a formal business plan wasn't created until 2020. When the pandemic hit, Massie said, cracks in the traditional food system were laid bare. Grocery store shelves were empty, and farmers couldn't market products the way they used to.
The hub started as a place where farmers could buy produce from one another, but with a steady stream of grant funding, Region Roots has been able to grow.
Helping farmers
When Dan and Julie Perkins first launched their CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, program, they had to juggle raising young children, building a customer base and maintaining a farm, all while Dan worked full-time with the Jasper County Soil and Water Conservation District.
"We had a few years where we just kept saying, 'This is not sustainable,'" Julie recalled. "I don't know how many small farms can actually pull this off."
In 2019 they were able to start farming full-time. Now they operate a four-season CSA, an on-site farm stand, a small grab-and-go restaurant and an Airbnb. Diversifying income streams helps spread the financial risk, Dan explained.
Julie said Region Roots has helped eliminate a lot of the "busy work" that comes with running a farm: invoicing restaurants, delivering orders and communicating with customers.
"We want to be growing, not driving," Dan added.
Wholesale buyers can shop for ingredients on the hub's website. Every week, buyers place their orders by Tuesday evening, farmers harvest Wednesday and Region Roots drives around collecting and delivering orders Thursday.
"Farming is one of the riskiest businesses, if not the riskiest business, to get into, and farmers often find themselves doing the job of four or five people to hold up their business,” Massie said, noting that 85% of farmers in Indiana have an off-farm job, "which makes it hard to recruit new farmers. The food hub is intended to take the burden of marketing and distribution off the shoulders of farmers.”
Selling products wholesale can be especially difficult for small-scale farmers, Massie said. Growers have to meet specific certifications, undergo rigorous audits and can't always meet the high volume of products restaurants need. Under the Region Roots model, smaller businesses that want to support local growers can patch together orders using multiple farmers.
Producers set their own prices, and the hub adds a small markup to cover costs. Massie said larger wholesale distributors sometimes take 25 or 40% of the sale price, meaning producers make a smaller profit.
Supporting local
Dan pointed to a row of green and purple Salanova lettuce in the back of the high tunnel.
"This is the exact same lettuce that they grow in California that you typically see in stores, it's just we can also grow it in Indiana," Dan said.
He said that much of the produce transported from California is already weeks old when it arrives on grocery store shelves. Most of the food sold through the hub was harvested within 48 hours, meaning it tastes fresher and lasts longer.
Strengthening Northwest Indiana's local food system would also benefit the broader economy, Massie said. One of her "favorite statistics to throw out there is that 98% of fruits and vegetables in Indiana are imported into our state," she said. Massie said the figure is especially "astounding" because according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Indiana is the eighth-highest agriculture-producing state in the country.
Anna Martinez, who works for Region Roots connecting producers with buyers, said Hoosiers spend about $14 billion on food expenses and an additional $10.5 billion eating at restaurants every year. If even just 10% of household food expenses were shifted to local purchases, some $2.5 billion would be added to Indiana's food and farm economy, Martinez explained.
"We believe that local food is the best kind of food and supports our local economy and creates a more resilient community," Massie said, adding that the ultimate goal of the hub is to make it "easier to choose local."
Region Roots received a READI, Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, grant from the Northwest Indiana Forum and now has funding for the next five years. Massie said they are looking to increase their staff, buy an additional truck and potentially establish a brick-and-mortar hub.
While the local food hub trend is growing in popularity, Massie said, the majority of hubs have been around for less than five years. According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 212 food hubs and 234 local food policy councils in the U.S. in 2018.
“We want to build something that will last for generations," Massie said.
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