Inside the Food Hub

In this episode of Under The Green, we talk about the inspiration behind the Food Hub, the purpose it will serve, and the hopes for how it will support local farmers, improve food access, and strengthen our community once it’s up and running. This conversation gives a behind-the-scenes look at the why before the doors officially open.

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Inside The Food Hub - February 4, 2026

00:00:05 Chastity Elliott: Welcome back to Under the Green, the podcast that takes you inside the programs, People and purpose behind the Randolph County Agricultural Center. Today, we're stepping into one of the most exciting pieces of what's coming next, the Food Hub. Now we want to be up front. The Food Hub isn't operational yet, but that's actually what makes this episode special. This is our chance to share the why behind the Food Hub. What inspired it? What it's designed to solve and what we hope it will mean for local farmers, families and our community as a whole. I'm joined today by Sophie, our local foods agent who's helping bring this vision to life. Sophie, thank you for being here. Let's dig on in. And the first thing we want to do is let you introduce yourself to everyone. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. So my name is Sophie Farlow. I'm the local foods agent here, and I've been in this position for about three and a half years. I graduated from NC state with both my bachelors and Masters in Extension, and I am now continuing my PhD there as well. I've lived in this county pretty much my whole entire life, raised here, so excited to really work in this county and give back to the community that gave so much to me growing up. Yes, we're lucky to have you, Sophie. I'm glad you're part of my team. we're going to just dive right on into the questions. And the first one I have to admit, when we started down this whole path of, you know, asking for money to build this facility from the this state and having to do the the grant work, all of those things. I had to be educated on what a food hub was. I had no idea what it was, never heard of it before. I knew farmers markets. That is all. That was my base knowledge. So I learned a lot in this journey, and it's taking a long time to get to this point where I feel like I have a a pretty good grasp of what this is. and, Sophie, I know you have done a lot of research too. So for someone hearing the term food hub for the very first time, What is a food hub? Yeah. it took me a long time myself to really fully grasp what is a food hub, because when you think about a food hub, there are different models all across our state. a food hub generally is a location, a centralized location to where local and regional producers gather those products, and it really connects those products and farmers and producers with wholesale, retail and institutional buyers. and by institutional, I mean like schools, hospitals, businesses like that. And so it really serves as a bridge. And by it I mean Food hub serves as a bridge that helps small farmers access larger markets. And so just a place to where local food is gathered and then distributed out into the community through various ways. What inspired Randolph County to create a food hub and what needs or challenges did we want to address by going down this path of of creating this for our community? of course, agriculture is a Really big, important part of Randolph County. And so in thinking about the ag center and what it will supply for our community and support, there is something that came up that really has been focused on in the past, but we really want to take it to the next level. And that's addressing food access and food insecurity within our county. We have a pretty large percentage of individuals that are food insecure, and a lot of children that are food insecure. And so by bringing a lot of those products to one location, it is going to allow us to reach parts of the county and allow people to come in and really participate in the local food scene that may have not been able to otherwise. And so, you know, when, when thinking about all of these grants and, and various things to get us to where we are today, we've really gone back to that food access, food insecurity and all of the projects and opportunities that will come along with the Food Hub to really get in the community and allow everyone in our community the opportunity to access local food, no matter who you are or where you are or what your situation is. That really sums up even part of my next question that I had. So I'm going to ask the second part of the question because you stated the purpose already and it's fantastic, but how would you say it fits into the bigger mission of this ag center? Sure. You know, I keep going back to the phrase when we were just in the beginning stages of this ag center, and we always had this phrase. It was built for the community by the community. and I think that goes for the Food Hub as well. You know, you think about all of our major holidays and party birthday parties or celebrations. What normally happens at all of those gatherings, what really surrounds that? We eat. We eat. And so food is a really great way to connect with each other. And so the whole ag center, in my mind is about connecting, not only from what we do with education, connecting our community members with, research based information, but it's also just connecting the community. I think, it's one of the things that I love most about my job is I get to connect with members of our community. And so that goes to to say for the Food Hub as well, is that, it's all about connection. It's about connecting our producers with individuals that eat that food. And so, of course, children. it's very important for me to, to teach them where their food comes from. And so that's a whole, a whole nother aspect of the food hub as well as bringing in children and, and how that will support some of my programming And we can get into that a little bit later on. But for me, in one simple word connection, really connecting our community to local food and really helping them understand where their food comes from and how important agriculture is in Randolph County and beyond. Yes. this is only our third episode, but that is a word that you will probably hear over and over and over again because it's what we're about here. We're about connection. And the other words you're going to hear a lot is education. Those are the two things that we are here for and we thrive on. We want to connect with you and we want to educate you. You know where your food comes from. It's not just a grocery store, right? You know, there's people out there, hard working individuals. Growing our food, so you can experience it locally or, you know, it gets shipped off and made into other things. Breads. Those type of things. So our food hub, Who will it serve once it's operational? So yeah, there's there's a lot of different opportunities with the Food Hub to serve a wide variety of individuals. Like I said, from our young children, I work with a program called Farm to Early Care and education, which seeks to bring local food into local child care centers. And so I think that's a great opportunity to really participate in that program, because it's going to allow us to bring in a lot of different products from a lot of different producers, and introduce maybe some even new foods for those children. So all the way from, our young individuals to our older adults as well, it's really for anybody and everybody. Well, on the farmers side of things, farmer and producer side of things, what do you hope they will gain from being a part of the Food Hub? It's just another market opportunity. You know, we have individuals who already have storefronts or already go to farmers markets or, have those kind of supply chains already nailed down. But this is simply another market opportunity. just because you sell at a farmer's market or you have your storefront doesn't mean that you can't sell at the food hub as well. It's just an additional market opportunity for you. And so I think, just really kind of getting in here and, and using it to to further push their product and really get it out in front of of more eyes that may not have had the opportunity to do so before. Have you had a lot of interest from our local farmers and producers as we've built this building? We've moved in. We've, put the word out there that this is going to exist. Have you had a lot of interest? I have, I have. and I think there are a lot of people who are excited about it. I've been getting phone calls and emails, and I've been keeping an interested parties list. And, you know, there are even some individuals who reached out initially after learning about the food hub. You know, this has even been goodness, a year and a half, two years ago, when all of this was kind of first starting and starting to get out into the community, and those individuals still check in with me periodically to to be like, hey, where are we at? How's it going? You know, when do you think we're going to launch? And so, yeah, there are definitely people who are interested and excited about it. That's super exciting. And I know, in the early days, I helped you build out this very large, detailed, survey that we put out there. And we had we had an incredible feedback on that. We did. Yeah. People telling us, hey, we want to be a part of this and we want to sell there, or we want to shop there. And this is what I'd like to see in it. Like we did this huge needs assessment. We did. It really helped us and leadership navigate which direction it needed to go. So I'm really glad we did that. It took a lot of time, but I'm glad we did that. It did? Yeah. Me too. with that, what about the community members on that side of things? What do you hope that they will gain from it? In the same sense that, you know, our our farmers, our producers are going to have another market opportunity. The food hub is going to be another market opportunity for our community members. And the the model that this food hub is closely following. It is going to allow those individuals who may not have the time to go to a farmer's market during the weekday or the weekends, and it may be more convenient for them to to swing by and pick it up from the food hub. But I think it's really just allowing them another opportunity to be able to see a lot of different products from a lot of different producers. You know, even outside of Randolph County, because this food hub will reach outside of Randolph County, it will source from one hundred mile radius. And so that's, producers, individuals who are selling. So we may get a lot of different products, a lot of different products that, you know, we may not have really seen here before. And so I think that's another really cool thing is just getting to experience maybe different things that you haven't before. So there again, she's already one step ahead every time because she's already answered my next question with what she just said, which was just kind of leaning into what makes a food hub different than a traditional farmer's market. And she talked about, having that central location to come and pick up things. So in my mind, this is how I picture it. Okay. I'm just this kind of person is I am an avid blank To-Go shopper, Walmart food line, Lowes Foods, whatever. I am an avid shopper. Like I roll up there at least once a week and I love it. I love that service. I had a young child. I didn't have to take them into the into the store and here, mommy, I want that cereal. I want that cereal, I want that. I didn't have to do that. And it really saves me a lot of time. It saves me a lot of effort and money, because then I'm also not going in hungry and shopping and getting things I don't really need. So in my mind, I kind of equate this to a whatever fill in the blank to go, where I'm going to pick out some things online. I'm like, I love these cucumbers from this person, but I love this bacon from that person and this from that and so on and so forth. And then they just tell me a day that I come and pick it up, just like my Food Lion, Lowe's Foods, whatever. But the benefit is it's coming from all different places, right? So if Food Lion is out of my absolute favorite seasoning, they can't and won't go to Lowes Foods and shop it for me. You know, they're just going to say I'm out of it. But with this model, the way that we're looking for it to go, you're you're shopping for everywhere. You're not going to have to go without your favorite seasoning. Right? So I'm looking forward to it on both ends as a producer and as a consumer. So let's just kind of look at the future. What would you say success would look like in the first year for the Food Hub? I really think launching is one of the biggest tasks as of now is, getting everything set up on the back end because we are utilizing a software to essentially host the food hub because it is an online marketplace. And so getting that software up, which is phenomenal, to get that set up and get ready for launch and just onboarding producers. And I think in the first year, it's going to really be a lot of going out into the community and saying, hey, did you know about this? Hey, did you know that we have this food hub and this is what it's about, continuing, my job, as, an educator to go out into the community and, and educate people about, you know, what is a food hub? What does it entail? You know, how could it benefit you and your family and your community? I honestly really think success is launching and onboarding producers and continuing to get out into the community, because this model is going to take a little bit to build, it's going to take a little while to really run what we ever consider full capacity because with this model, it can grow. It can grow up to upwards of more than one hundred producers that are hosted on this site. And so it's going to take a while to get there. But I think in the first year it's really just building it and building those connections, continuing to build those connections that have already been made and just really getting out into the community and letting people see what it's all about. Absolutely. And one thing worth noting is that, yes, this is taking some time. everyone of course, would love for those doors to have been open as soon as we walked in this place and everything up and going, but this is so brand new. There's nothing like this in our county. we're still learning about it. Everyone involved. I mean, there's multiple county departments involved. It's involved, county leadership, commissioners, everybody. So we're all wanting to make sure that we're giving it the best shot possible and that we're doing things right the first time. So that's why it's taking a little bit of time. And so that is a phenomenal first goal. Let's just get it rolling. and then we can definitely move into our role of not recruiting but educating. Right. Exactly. And you know we'll say with that too, in all of my research and conversations that I've had over the years, there has been a common thing that that everyone has told me, it will take time. Don't expect to open the doors and automatically you're flooded with product or you're flooded with customers? it takes a while to build something like this. And, one of the food hubs that we are closely modeling, it took them a number of years to get where they are, but now they have so many producers and such a wide reach and are, just absolutely phenomenal. it's it's going to take a little bit for us. And I think that's important, to remember. I know I have to, to tell myself sometimes good things take some time. once we're open and we're operational, what do you hope this food hub becomes known for in Randolph County? I'm going to go back to connection again. Like you said, you all are going to hear that word so many times over. But I think it's really the basis of a food hub model is connection, not only connecting producers to consumers, but also making that connection between where does my food come from? I would love for this hub to be known, for bringing people together over food and really focusing on, some of these needs in our county. again, going back to food access and food insecurity, that's something that is very important to me. And so focusing on some of those aspects and really getting into all of the corners of our county and really figuring out how do we get local food into the hands of all citizens of Randolph County and beyond? What's the biggest opportunity you see for this project long term? I'm going to go back again to food access, food insecurity. I think one of the biggest things that the projects that we could focus on is, really helping to address those challenges and barriers within our county, whether it's, transportation, whether it's, having the resources to be able to actually purchase local food. And having different programs, whether it's double up food bucks, whether it's, like a misfit produce program or, donation stations, different projects like that to Again, really reach into our community and allow everyone the opportunity to partake in fresh and healthy local food. Well said. Well, Sophie, this concludes our time. thank you for giving us a behind the scenes look at the heart of the Food Hub. Not just what it will be, but why it matters. It's clear this isn't just about food. It's about connection. It's about supporting local farmers, improving access and building something that strengthens Randolph County from the ground up. And to everyone listening, thank you for joining us for this early look at what's coming. This food hub may not be operational yet, but the mission is already in motion and we can't wait to share updates as it grows. Next time on Under the Green, we'll be stepping into the commercial kitchen, what it's for and who it serves, and how it's creating new opportunities for our community. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time right here under the green.