A Helpful Hub
Everyone knows we should eat local. That’s the easy part. But few people realize how hard it is to make this happen. After all, if it were so easy, wouldn’t we all be doing it already?
That’s where Stephen Evans comes in. He’s spent much of his professional life immersed in the food system and he’s seen it all. After five years of managing the Abbotsford Growers Co- op, he knows every pain point: perishability, refrigeration, warehouse space, equipment investment. To hear him describe it is to thank your lucky stars we get to eat at all.
But Evans has created a solution, one that will make things easier for everyone on the local food scene — from farmers to foodies to makers. His answer is the Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub.
This hub is the latest addition to the “B.C. Food Hub Network” initiative from the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. The network was developed to “expand the Grow B.C., Feed, B.C. and Buy B.C. programs to encourage greater food security and local business growth” in the province. Its mission to help “B.C.’s food and beverage businesses grow, innovate and commercialize” is anchored by a dozen “regional food processing and innovation hubs.”
But what do food hubs have to do with you eating local? A lot, actually. They create a larger market for local farmers to sell their agricultural products close to home, because they provide local farmers, makers and producers with the logistical infrastructure to establish the food business of their dreams — or scale up. It’s like building the house so that everyone can come home.
Alice Grey, founder of Mindful Monk, feels like she’s finally come home since moving her business production to the Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub. She knows all about the weary journey to find a facility that can help make a delicious dream come true. She has experienced the ups and downs of several locations, struggling with equipment malfunctions and overworked landlords.
The Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub is different.
“It’s so clean,” Grey enthuses. “Absolutely pristine. And the kitchen temperature is always set to 68 degrees, which is the perfect temperature for chocolate. Most kitchens are much warmer than that. In the past, I’ve been in locations where I couldn’t even work for the day — it was just too hot for the chocolate.”
Not working for the day isn’t an option for this new “mompreneur.” After all, if she can’t make fudge, then she can’t fulfill her “goal of helping others live their best life.” This goal, which is guided by her mission to “Make Fudge, Sell Fudge,” was inspired by her own experience of gestational diabetes during her first pregnancy. After recovering her health post- partum, she didn’t want to go through that again with her second pregnancy, so the quest for the perfect snack was on.
Her second pregnancy was healthy, thanks, in part, to the fudge she’d invented. When friends and family raved about the not- as-sweet treat and begged for more, Mindful Monk was born.
This “functional fudge” is sweetened with monk fruit juice, which studies show does not cause inflammation like sugar does. It tastes delicious while providing both satiation and long-term energy.
Grey may have stumbled onto the perfect snack. She’s definitely developed a perfect method for creating her truffle-like treats using liquid monk fruit as the sweetener. But the perfect snack isn’t enough. To expand her business, she also needed the perfect kitchen.
The Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub now provides an anchor for her business.
“The personalized attention, support and collaboration are unbelievably helpful,” she says. “They really listen and always follow through. This is what I’ve been looking for all along.”
With Mindful Monk becoming more established on the local scene, Grey’s functional fudge is in high demand. She’s become a beloved presence at farmers’ markets and artisan fairs, where she’s “enjoying the experience of connecting with consumers.” These experiences culminated in Grey showing off her Mindful Monk treats at two prestigious events at The Pipe Shop in North Vancouver’s Shipyards: the Vancouver Etsy market in September, and the Wine and Cheese festival in early November. In makers’ terms, she has arrived.
Success stories like these are exactly why Karen McDiarmid, a member of the Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub’s board of directors, does what she does. As manager of the Mission City Farmers’ Market for the past several years until her recent resignation to expand her farm business, McDiarmid thrives on facilitating experiences such as Grey’s.
“The hub helps new small-food producer entrepreneurs by spreading out huge start-up costs with a shared facility,” McDiarmid explains. “We offer a cost-effective solution to share commercial kitchen resources, opportunities to support each other, and make connections to grow their business. Who wouldn’t want to join?”
Many do want to join — even trying to make tenancy work against the odds. This was the case for Hunters’ Dale, a mother-daughter business team that cultivates ultra-fresh microgreens and mushrooms. After almost three years of small-scale production, they’ve made tremendous progress. Hunters’ Dale now delivers to more than 100 households every week. It serves most of the independent food retailers in Mission, Abbotsford and Chilliwack, plus 15 restaurants in the area. The Hunter women have the vision and drive to do more, but scaling up requires space — the Lower Mainland’s most precious commodity.
Although the Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub doesn’t have the square footage Hunters’ Dale needs, Alex and Kim have taken a tour and chatted with Stephen Evans about how their business might fit into the facility’s operational structure.
Like the ideas man he is, Evans — the innovator behind the hub and start-up guy responsible for its existence — spitballs. What about growing in a shipping container out back, with space to harvest and refrigerate product inside? What about a traditional greenhouse on site? (It was later learned that Abbotsford zoning bylaws do not allow agricultural production in commercial areas.)
The Hunters would like this to work. The hub’s central Abbots- ford location is ideal. The price is right. But each potential solution comes with its own drawback for their specific business’s unique needs. They spin the pros and cons like a Rubik’s Cube, trying to make everything line up. It will not.
Nevertheless, Evans wishes the Hunters well and pledges to do whatever he can to support their search for the perfect location. As a food lover first and foremost, Evans is genuinely distressed that the hub can’t meet Hunters’ Dale’s business needs.
His connection to food production is home-grown. “My mom was an amazing home cook — she made everything from scratch,” he explains. “She’s one of my inspirations for this project. I imagine so many moms out there with special dishes they’re famous for among friends and family. The Fraser Valley Hub gives them a place close to home to bring their specialties to a wider audience if they want to.”
Although the facility isn’t a fit for every local food-related business, many have found a happy home there. Food truck legend Wingerz now prepares 300 pounds of wings at the hub every week. And Chef Pieter, a cult favourite whose gourmet dips ranked first in Vancouver Magazine’s “Eight Favourite Products at the ‘From The Ground Up’ Trade Show,” has also joined the hub food community.
For Evans, this is what it’s all about. “Here in B.C., we have great chefs. We have an amazing variety of local food commodities,” he says. “And now we finally have a network of local food hubs to profoundly change the food supply chain. Regional food hubs are the instrument for transforming our food economy to support local. I hope every grandma, recent immigrant, young person, local chef and mom will make use of these tremendous community assets. We’re all in this together for the B.C. food system.”
The Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub exists “to help local farmers and food producers add value to their products, leading to a more resilient food system in B.C.” By providing services that include ag-food business planning, product life-cycle management, a shared-use kitchen and traceability technology, the hub makes it possible for those with food to share make that leap from dream to reality.
And they do it all for you — so you can eat the local treats you love.
Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub
2570 Cyril St., Abbotsford, B.C.
fraservalleyartisansfoodhub.com | 604.746.5682 | @fraservalleyartisansfoodhub
Hunters’ Dale
huntersdale.com | 604.506.3253 | @hunters.dale
Mindful Monk
mindfulmonk.co | 672.513.7474 | @mindfulmonksnacks
