The Northwest Connecticut Food Hub, a program of Sustainable Healthy Communities and the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG), launched in 2017 in Litchfield, CT. The Food Hub is now picking up food grown on 20 local farms (in Roxbury, Washington, Kent, Litchfield, Harwinton, Cornwall, and Warren) and delivering it to 20 food buyers (customers) including restaurants, schools, and grocery stores. Local farmers are involved in all aspect of the Hub's operations. 

The Hub is working to add 20 more customers in 2019 and came to BAV for financial support toward this objective. It has ample supply of locally grown food that farmers would like to sell through the Hub, but needed supplemental funding to support the staffing necessary to grow their customer base. 

​The Hub will also be actively involved over the next year in helping interested farms meet new food safety regulations and participate in farm-to-school programs. For more information please contact locelyn at NHCOG. To donate directly to the Food Hub click here. 

As reported - by Leslie Hutchinson of the Registered Citizen, Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - HARWINTON — Fresh produce from Litchfield County farms is reaching more customers this summer with the help of the Northwest Connecticut Regional Food Hub. The project is operated by the Partners for Sustainable Healthy Communities Inc., a nonprofit group, with support from the Northwest Hills Council of Governments.
The food hub program buys produce from participating farms and distributes it to clients, including restaurants, natural food stores and a private school.

The state is investing a lot of green — $3 million in financing — to get an indoor agriculture venture off the ground in Suffield.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Friday that Four Seasons Farm LLC, the project for which the state is providing financing, is expected to create 40 new jobs over the next two years. The money from the state Department of Economic and Community Development will be used to purchase equipment and machinery for the 10-acre indoor farm, which initially will grow millions of pounds tomatoes

Although the farm will be located in northern Connecticut, one of the partners in the project is a well-known New Haven County farmer

Joe Geremia, who runs seven acres of greenhouses in Wallingford, is one of three partners in the project. The other two partners are Henry Froese, a pioneer and expert in the building of greenhouse operations, and Herbert Soroca, chief executive officer of Stamford-based North Cove Capital Advisors, which works with emerging growth companies. 

Read more - 

As told by Ben Lambert - The Register Citizen: The group, which included elected officials as well as residents from area towns, discussed employment, regional development and future growth.

LITCHFIELD >> Local elected officials and residents gathered for a discussion of economic development in the region Monday evening, as the Northwest Hills Council of Governments held the annual “NWCT Economic Development Summit” in the Litchfield Community Center.

The tagline for the event was “Think Regionally, Act Locally: Jobs & Vibrant Main Streets.” A series of successful and ongoing examples of economic development in the region were discussed, including the recent Gilmore Girls Festival held in Washington; the opening of the Berkshire Country Store in Norfolk; a teaching effort that enabled business owners to receive a loan, then pay it off, as they bought the True Value hardware store in Winsted; recent recognition for KidsPlay Children’s Museum and Arethusa Farms; the NWCONNect initiative, designed to foster the possibility of fiber optic internet connections in the region; the planned food hub; and a planned Entrepreneurial Center at Northwestern Connecticut Community College.

The food hub, according to Bill Burgess, executive director of Partners for Sustainable Healthy Communities, is to be located in Torrington, and serve the area within 50 miles of the city. About $300,000 has been put into the project in the last two-and-a-half years, Burgess said, with another grant from the state Department of Agriculture recently obtained.

Here is what is happening in the "Food Hub" world - in New York City, where shoppers and diners can find delicacies from all over the world, there is hefty demand for food grown closer to home.

The taste for products from farms in the Northeast has led South Bronx-based Greenmarket Co., a nonprofit regional food distributor that serves as the middleman between farmers and buyers, to constantly expand the size and scope of its operation over the last half-decade.  Read more -