It ranks among the noblest of mealtime challenges: eating locally produced foods. Best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver chronicled her attempt at doing so in the 2007 book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. But not everyone can pull up stakes and go live on a farm like she did. As general manager of Maine-based Unity Food Hub, Matt Tremblay ’03 aims to make the joys of eating local more attainable for more people.

“Maine has some of the highest growth in new young farmers,” says Tremblay, a native of the state himself who completed a Finance degree at Bentley. Indeed, census figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show a 40 percent increase in Maine farmers aged 34 or younger between 2007 and 2012. Nationwide, the increase was 1.5 percent. “A lot of these farmers and producers are looking for outlets outside traditional farmer’s markets, which are getting more mature and crowded.”

The alumnus and his colleagues at Unity Food Hub help growers find new routes to nearby dinner tables. The organization launched this summer, founded through the Maine Farmland Trust (MFT), a nonprofit established in 1999 to protect farmland. The hub gathers food from Maine-based farms (50 and counting) to distribute through several channels, including farm-share programs, on-site sales, and wholesale avenues like mainstream markets and restaurants.

“It’s good for the farms, but it’s also good for the everyday person,” says Tremblay. “[Consumers] have an opportunity to access food that is fresher, and they’re supporting their local economy as well.”

Back to the Future

Food hubs are still fairly new as a concept, but they’re gaining traction. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there were close to 300 hubs operating across the country as of 2013. They vary in structure and business model — ranging from nonprofit to for-profit to some mix of the two — but most, like Unity Food Hub, focus on aggregation, marketing and distribution.

  

The food hub concept is basically how our food system worked many, many years ago.

Matt Tremblay '03

“The food hub concept is basically how our food system worked many, many years ago . . . its focus was local and regional, but over the years the whole distribution system changed,” he explains. “So really we’re looking back in creating this model to support farmers and provide access for more people to purchase local foods.”

Tremblay arrived at Unity with experience in several agriculture-related roles. These include assisting farmers as a commercial loan officer at Farm Credit and advising Capitol Hill lawmakers on agricultural policy. He attended L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Md., and, in 2011, joined a startup agriculture-focused nonprofit near Washington, D.C.  The venture’s many ambitious goals included establishing a food hub, but it never reached a financial position to do so.

Promising Prospects

MFT hired Tremblay in May 2014 to get Unity’s food hub off the ground. Already, his second foray into that world has been a very different experience.

When Tremblay assumed GM duties, MFT had already purchased a former grammar school in Unity (pop. 2,099) to renovate as the food hub’s home base. There was also a business plan. MFT would provide startup and working capital for Unity Food Hub, with a goal of reaching profitability in three to five years.

The building renovation occupied much of Tremblay’s first year on the job. But he didn’t want to wait for an official opening to test their concept. In fall 2014, he oversaw the soft launch of two food hub programs. One was a grant-funded community farm share for low-income seniors and those receiving Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, which provided local food at a 50 percent discount. The other program was a workplace farm share, where employees of MFT and another local business could sign up for a weekly on-site delivery of local produce, meat or dairy.  

“We learned a lot and it’s really set us up to be in a good place for this upcoming season,” he says. “We’ll be expanding the workplace share program. We’ll continue doing the community farm share, but in a different way going forward.”

One the biggest challenges is logistics, and Tremblay says they’re still fine-tuning how to handle food distribution efficiently and keep costs as low as possible.

“In the food distribution business, whether you’re a large player or small, you’re dealing with low margins and the need for high volumes,” he explains. “Some of the biggest costs of distributing food involve your transportation. And Maine is a big state.”

Setting prices requires a similar balancing act. “We want to pay the farmer the most the market can bear while also maintaining our profitability. This is a long-term proposition. If we try to drive the price too low, then farmers won’t be successful and we won’t be in business.”

  

We want to pay the farmer the most the market can bear while maintaining profitability.

Matt Tremblay '03

Finally, there are the typical challenges of working on a startup, including having to create policies and procedures from scratch.

So far, Tremblay is energized rather than daunted by the many tasks at hand.

“One day I can be trying to think about what our long-term food safety policies are going to be, the next day I’m in the truck making a delivery,” he says. “It’s a good challenge, something new every day.” 

CONNECT WITH MATT:
unityfoodhub.com

Deblina Chakraborty is a writer and editor based in Atlanta, Ga. Connect with her:

Photos by Chris Conti