Giving Compass' Take:

• Race Forward’s Racial Equity Implementation Guide can help food hubs become change agents for racial equity. 

• How can funders help to create and improve food hubs? Is there a food hub in your area that needs support? 

• Learn more about how philanthropy can support racial equity


The term “food hub” is relatively new, but networks of individuals have informally connected small producers to buyers for generations. This is especially true among producers of color who were often shut out of mainstream markets.

At their core, food hubs are businesses or organizations that manage the collection, distribution and marketing of food products — primarily from local and regional producers — to strengthen and satisfy wholesale, retail and institutional demands. Food hubs reinforce transparency throughout our food system and increase the financial success of farmers and suppliers.

In the 2015 National Food Hub Survey, Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation learned many food hubs share a general commitment to diversity and racial equity, but they struggle with translating those values into daily operational decisions. Wanting to change this, Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation and The Center for Social Inclusion (now: Race Forward), partnered with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Surdna Foundation to develop a simple, accessible and easy-to-read racial equity framework to help food hubs deepen their racial equity practices.

Race Forward’s Racial Equity Implementation Guide (REIG) helps food hubs implement three steps of an ongoing process to explore and dismantle long-held beliefs:

  1. Identify general areas of food hub operations.
  2. Introduce the core principles of a racial equity framework.
  3. Use the principles as a lens to examine each area of food hub operations.

Read the full article about food hubs and racial equity at Every Child Thrives.