Anthony leads a food hub development, sponsored by the Wallace Center
Beginning in the November, 2014, SCALE worked with the Wallace Center in Washington, DC, Common Market in Philadelphia and Matson Consulting in North Carolina to develop a day-long Food Hub Training designed for emerging and early stage food hubs. With Matson Consulting in the lead, the four groups collaborated for several months, completing the curriculum just in time for the first training which took place in February, 2015 at the Georgia Organic Growers Conference. Anthony Flaccavento of SCALE, Inc and Haile Johnson, Co-director of Common Market, delivered the first training together. Since that time, ten additional trainings have taken place, each led by either Anthony or Haile, in West Virginia, Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, and several other states. The training provides a comprehensive, if somewhat brief look at different food hub models and strategies, marketing and production issues, infrastructure and finance, and other key dimensions of food hub operations. Grounded in the considerable hands-on experience of the trainers and case studies from many other food hubs, the course is enabling food system planners and operators to take a realistic look at both the opportunities and limits and challenges food hubs present. The final scheduled training will take place at the National Good Food Network Annual Conference in late March, 2016.