What Is the Pop-Up Food Hub, Anyway?
One of FRESHFARM’s core programs is our wholesale distribution arm, The Pop-Up Food Hub (PUFH). This program leverages our farmers markets to unlock wholesale opportunities for small farmers and connect them with underserved individuals and community organizations traditionally excluded from the local food system.
To better understand how this program furthers the FRESHFARM mission to build a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient food system in the Mid-Atlantic region, we sat down with FRESHFARM’s Director of Food System Resiliency & Innovation, Caron Gremont, for an in-depth discussion about the PUFH and the communities it serves.
FRESHFARM: What is a food hub, and how is the FRESHFARM food hub different?
Caron Gremont: A food hub, as defined by the USDA, is “a centrally located facility with a business management structure facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produced food products.” So usually when we think about food hubs, we think about the place, i.e., the building or the warehouse. However, warehouses are expensive and hard to come by in our dense, pricey city.
FRESHFARM realized that we can do much of these food hub activities—aggregation, coordination, marketing, and distribution—during some of our farmers markets and get fresh produce into the hands of local partners the same day. We started the PUFH in 2016 and have grown the program and our impact steadily ever since.
The way the PUFH works is simple. We place wholesale orders with small farmers on behalf of local community organizations serving food-insecure communities. Then, our team meets these farmers when they arrive to the Washington, DC, area for FRESHFARM farmers markets. We pick up the produce from farmers at our markets and aggregate and pack the orders, often under a tent at the market itself—this is the “pop-up” part of how our food hub model works! And we usually deliver the food the same day. Our model relies on people power rather than large warehouses and storage, and allows us to lower costs, shorten supply chains, and reduce environmental impact.
FF: Can you give us a real-life example of how this works?
CG: Two farms we work with are Mickley’s Orchard, located in Adams County, PA, and Barajas Produce, located in Westmoreland County, VA (each farm is about 100 miles from the city). Both farms sell at FRESHFARM CityCenterDC Market on Tuesdays. We place orders with each farm on Fridays and collect these orders on Tuesday before market opens. We aggregate and pack the produce into more than 100 bags on site at the market and get that food out to customers and community nonprofits. Not only does this model save us money on a warehouse, it also helps farmers by guaranteeing a base of sales before the farmers market even opens, which is especially impactful for the farmers on weekday farmers markets when sales can be variable.
FF: What are some of the food system benefits of running a food hub this way?
CG: Our food hub model is a real multitasker. It creates new wholesale channels for farmers, which supports the local food economy. We work with over 40 small- and mid-size farmers, 26% of whom identify as Black and Brown, growing food within 200 miles of Washington, DC. We help farmers get the most out of their trip to the city, guaranteeing a base of income and diversifying revenue streams so that farmers markets can be both retail and wholesale opportunities. For our partners placing the orders, they are getting incredibly fresh produce, oftentimes the day after it is harvested.
FF: What kind of organizations are placing orders with PUFH?
CG: We are one of the only nonprofits connecting local, small farmers with community organizations across Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia, that are traditionally excluded from conventional, larger food hubs and wholesale channels. We offer wholesale pricing set by farmers, no minimum order size, and a $5 delivery fee regardless of order size, which makes working with us very accessible. This means that a home-based Early Childhood Education center ordering for five children gets the same access to services, produce, and pricing as a Virginia-based food bank serving thousands. (Read about Food For Others, one of our PUFH partners.)
Currently, we collaborate with 70 partners—including schools, health clinics, Early Childhood Education centers, and senior centers—to deliver local produce at wholesale prices, improving food access and security for the community. Our school partners include the 21 FoodPrints partner schools in Washington, DC. Another advantage of the PUFH is that farmers can operate within the trust FRESHFARM has brokered and long fostered with local community institutions.
In addition to community organizations, in the past few years, we’ve worked with several restaurants, including Surfside and Millies, which are owned and operated by Georgetown Events. Not only are these restaurants supporting local farmers and the regional food system, but their purchasing also helps underwrite our work to ensure communities have access to local produce.
FF: What’s the economic impact of the PUFH?
CG: The PUFH is growing. In 2024, we doubled our impact and helped small local farmers generate more than $1 million in revenue—that’s 400,000 pounds of beautiful local produce—and moved that produce to more than 117 local nonprofit partners serving vulnerable communities in the Washington, DC, region.
We hope 2025 is equally impactful. However, right now, many nonprofits —FRESHFARM included—are navigating an incredibly precarious funding landscape as changes at the federal level destabilize traditional sources of support. While USDA grants have historically been a cornerstone of our food access work, the current freezes and uncertainty have left organizations like ours in limbo. At the same time, demand for our programs is rising dramatically, especially in Washington, DC, where mass federal layoffs are pushing more families into food insecurity. We’re doing everything possible to stretch resources and meet the need, but we can’t do it alone. This is a critical moment for community members, funders, and partners to rally behind local food access. Every dollar helps support local farmers, keep our food hub thriving, and get fresh, healthy food on the tables of those who need it most.
FF: How does the PUFH fit into FRESHFARM’s goal of creating a strong and resilient local food system?
CG: The PUFH keeps farms, families, and our earth resilient and strong! Our model saves resources; we don’t need big buildings like traditional food hubs and wholesale operations. We shorten supply chains, lower costs, and reduce environmental impact by popping up at farmers markets to aggregate and pack produce and deliver it the same day. We help keep food close to home. Food doesn’t have to travel far in trucks. The PUFH helps food go from the farm to the market to people in our town on the same day. Finally, we help local farmers sell more; small and mid-sized farms can sell to large institutions like schools and restaurants by working with us. And by creating new revenue streams for farmers, we help turn sustainable practices into sustainable incomes.
