The contents of this website, developed for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, are designed to support a growing interest in the development of food hubs in British Columbia. The website offers important information for food hub management, and in particular, for emerging food hubs.

The purpose of the BC Food Hub Network is to foster growth and innovation in the processing sector through improved industry access to facilities, equipment, technology, technical services and business supports. The Network is being developed in collaboration with industry, communities and post-secondary institutions to build provincial food and beverage processing while serving the regional and sector diversity of the province. Its mission is to help B.C.’s food and beverage businesses grow, innovate and commercialize. The BC Food Hub Network supports the Minister of Agriculture and Food’s Mandate Letter Commitment to “expand the Grow BC, Feed BC and Buy BC programs to encourage greater food security and local business growth.”

In our terminology, food hubs refer to shared-use food and beverage processing facilities (shared use kitchens) that offer food and agriculture businesses access to commercial processing space and equipment. Food hubs may also offer expertise and other resources to support business development. (Shared Use Food and Beverage Processing Facilities in B.C., MAFF).

Traditionally, the function of food hubs was management of the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of food products, primarily from local and regional producers, independent of processing. Some B.C. food hubs may retain this function as well. Food hubs are distinct from community kitchens, typically found in community centres, neighbourhood houses or churches. These kitchens are normally provided for community groups or catering businesses but their primary purpose is to serve social and community objectives.

The website includes information on three key areas:

Operations
Includes Standard Operations Procedures (SOPs) and other key documents organized within the the context of the seven Prerequisite Programs. Most documents are provided in editable forms that can be amended to reflect the needs of individual HUBs.

User Agreements
Sample HUB Management-User applications, agreements and appendices. All these documents can be adapted for use by individual Food Hubs. Our approach has been to create a base contract, with the addition of appendices that can be modified over time as conditions change.

Insurance
Information on general insurance, affordable insurance options and cyber insurance, as well as risk management tips for HUBs

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