Frontier Food Hub
Food Systems
When food systems become fractured, stakeholder collaboration is reduced, and the system atrophies. Growth and sustainability diminish along with sales, community and ultimately, food security, creating food deserts that leave food buyers and small producers behind.
Increased need for emergency and supplemental food through food pantries, a lack of healthy food access, and local job loss requires sustainable and repeatable solutions.
NCFC’s programs, Frontier Food Hub and Southwestern New Mexico Seed Library, are designed to revitalize the frontier food system through on the ground programming, market driven engagement with local food producers and innovative, direct work with food pantries, low-income food buyers and other food system stakeholders.
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A Blueprint for Rural Prosperity: North Dakota’s SB 2097 and the Future of Frontier Communities
Rural America is at a crossroads. Despite comprising over 52% of the nation’s landmass, frontier communities remain on the margins of investment, infrastructure, and representation. North Dakota’s SB 2097, which establishes a Rural Community Endowment Fund, is a roadmap for […]
A Bold Step for New Mexico’s Frontier Communities
In an unprecedented acknowledgment of the challenges faced by New Mexico’s most remote residents, the state legislature has passed a Joint Memorial requesting the Governor to appoint a task force to assess and address the needs of frontier areas. This […]
Revisiting Cynthia M Duncan’s “Worlds Apart”
In *Worlds Apart*, Cynthia Duncan powerfully illustrates how persistent rural poverty stems from systemic underinvestment, perpetuating cycles of deprivation in places like Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and the U.S.-Mexico border. Duncan shows how this neglect, often enforced by local elites, […]
CASE STUDY
The Frontier Food Hub (FFH) emerged from critical discussions in the early days of the SWNM Food Policy Council, focused on pivotal questions: How can we ensure that frontier residents have access to healthy foods? How can we support the viability of remote farmers and ranchers? How can the food system enhance, rather than detract from health and wellbeing?
Supported by the SWNMFPC, the National Center for Frontier Communities (NCFC) conducted two pioneering regional studies: a Food Hub Feasibility Report and a Health Impact Assessment.
These studies provided NCFC the opportunity to engage directly with dozens of farmers and ranchers, gaining insights into their challenges and needs. A key finding was that access to sustainable markets in distant metropolitan areas was crucial; without it, expanding production for small-scale farms and ranches was challenging.
NCFC also collaborated closely with regional food pantries to evaluate food access issues in remote areas. By surveying nearly 700 food pantry residents and assessing the quantity and quality of food available, NCFC was able to better understand the myriad challenges and nuances of food access in the frontier.
Armed with insights from these studies, we launched the Frontier Food Hub in April 2018. Designed as a dual-purpose hub, it serves both the growing local food industry and the food pantry system. The initiative was met with enthusiastic support statewide.
Over the years, FFH has expanded to include more programmatic initiatives aimed at addressing the systemic causes of food insecurity in the region. Our commitment remains firm to our core belief: with adequate logistical, marketing, and technical support, our local food producers and pantries can better meet the shifting needs of the communities they serve.
To date, FFH has distributed over $1,000,000 to small farmers and ranchers, gained access to dozens of new markets, and saved them hundreds of thousands of miles in transportation. Additionally, FFH has distributed more than 1,000,000 pounds of nutritious local and bulk foods to remote food pantries in the region.
Continually engaged with the community, FFH is committed to advancing our mission to nurture and support a dynamic and robust local food system in the frontier.
We are preparing to publish a “Remote Food Systems Toolkit” to share the lessons we’ve learned. NCFC is available to support the launch, expansion, or enhancement of remote community food systems through technical assistance, resource development, strategic planning, and other services.