I don’t want to do this anymore,” Tami Serandos told her husband one day. After building a career in the corporate world, she needed a change. “People say I make good cookies… let’s find out if they’re just being nice or if I actually do.”

So in 2017, she started baking cookies out of her home kitchen. She sold the first batches at the Abbotsford Flea Market. “We threw a few bags down, and it just blew up from there.” As it turns out, Serandos does indeed make good cookies. So she named her business, ’That’s a Good Cookie.’

Within two years, Serandos’ home kitchen couldn’t keep up with the craze for her cookies. Long hours were leaving her a lot of mess to clean up and little time to spend with family. Her husband was a big help: “He would stay up until midnight cleaning, just scouring the kitchen for me. Then the man was getting up at five a.m. to go to work,” she says.

For a time, she operated out of a local bakery’s kitchen on Sundays. But when a regional food retailer agreed to carry three of her shortbread flavours in 2023, she was on the hunt again for a larger, commercially licensed kitchen. That’s when she found the Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub.

Launched at the Abbotsford Flea Market in 2017, Tami Serandos’ That’s a Good Cookie quickly outgrew her home kitchen. By 2023, with a regional retailer carrying her shortbread, she moved production to the Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub.

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Modest building, major utility
The Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub is a simple, white concrete building located in downtown Abbotsford, just off Highway 1. If you weren’t looking for it, you’d likely miss it.

When Serandos walked into the facility for the first time, she knew she’d found a home for her business. Inside is an expansive, high-ceilinged workspace. Rows of stainless steel worktables gleam under industrial lights. Shelves with dry goods and other supplies line the walls. In every corner, commercial-grade appliances hum and clatter, filling the room with a steady rumble.

Throughout the week, nearly 30 businesses — caterers, food trucks, meal-prep service — prepare, package and store their products here.

There’s half a cow in the walk-in fridge and an intimidating supply of habaneros in the walk-in freezer. In the kitchen, Serandos bakes shortbread while Adrian Beaty, chef and owner of Salt & Thyme, simmers chicken stock in the tilt kettle. It feels like the engine room of food entrepreneurship in the Fraser Valley.

The food hub is a state-of-the-art, shared-use food and beverage processing facility. Similar to a commissary kitchen, businesses such as That’s a Good Cookie can access the services, space and specialized processing equipment through monthly memberships.

It’s one of 13 food hubs that make up the BC Food Hub Network. Launched by the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food in 2019, the initiative aims to support the development of the food and beverage processing sector.

The Mission Community Skills Centre Society successfully bid for provincial funding to cover start-up costs for the food hub in 2021. It opened its doors the following year.

“You couldn’t have all of this in your own kitchen and have it be affordable,” explains Beaty. Beaty has operated a food truck and restaurant in Langley for 22 years before joining the food hub.

He joined the food hub last year to downsize. With lower overhead costs, it has allowed him to continue his line of prepared foods and in-home meals until construction is complete on the new kitchen he’ll be relocating to at Central Park Farms. “A lot of people who haven’t worked in or had commercial kitchens don’t realize the cost. The garbage, food vent cleaning… are all hidden costs on top of a lease. It’s insane.”

Flexibility is key. Food hub memberships start at $450 per month, with options for additional storage as businesses grow. Members use an app to reserve their preferred appliances and access the facility 24/7. Serandos has been known to be there at 2 a.m.

With different lease options, food hub members have an easier exit if things don’t work out. “When I started, there wasn’t something like this, so you just jumped in, signed that five-year lease and hoped for the best,” Beaty recalls.

The food hub also takes care of cleaning and maintenance. That’s a win for Serandos and her husband. “He no longer has to stay up until midnight to clean the kitchen,” she says with a laugh. “Somebody else is making sure all the deep cleaning is done. Somebody else is monitoring the building,” Serandos explains.

Melissa Magnusson, owner of Local Preserve and facility manager at the Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub, helps guide small food businesses through everything from food safety approvals to production planning.

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Helping is their jam
Helping is where Melissa Magnusson comes in. She started working at the food hub as its cleaner. When the facility manager position opened in January, she jumped at the opportunity. “This is totally my jam,” Magnusson says.

With the help of a part-time assistant, Magnusson oversees the day-to-day operations of the facility. She also brings on board every new member that walks through the door and answers their questions. Each one is different. “I listen to what they need and work off of that,” she says.

Magnusson worked in the food industry for decades, including as a certified chef starting in 2012. She also owns a jam, pickle and preserve company called Local Preserve. When Local Preserve is at the Mission City Farmers Market, people with a business idea often approach Magnusson with questions like, “How do I sell my product? How do I get Fraser Health approval? How do I test my product?” She directs them to the food hub.

Having gone through the process herself, Magnusson knows how hard it can be for small-scale businesses to get started: “There’s so many things you wouldn’t think of, so many hoops to jump through,” she says.

Magnusson helps guide new businesses through these hoops, providing advice on food safety approvals and training or production planning. She’ll also connect food hub members with resources offered by the Small Scale Food Processors Association.

Not every business owner Magnusson works with wants to be in the kitchen themselves. “Say you want to make something, but you don’t want to do the dirty work… ” she can help with that.

A farmer approached the food hub wanting to reduce waste by preserving produce they are unable to sell at the farmers’ market. Magnusson flash-freezes or freeze-dries this leftover produce so the farm can sell it as value-added products under its branding through its community-supported agriculture (CSA) program or at the farmers’ market in the off-season. This is an example of one of the food hub’s small-batch “co-packing” contracts.

The food hub is a launchpad for new businesses to get started and grow with mentorship, training and other resources. “Working with businesses, entrepreneurs to find ways to make them successful, that’s the ’meat’ behind our food hub,” says Aaron Davis, business development manager at the food hub.

For those wanting to get a taste of the action, the food hub also offers public food-processing workshops such as canning, pickling and sourdough-making, and it sell its own line of blueberry- infused sauces and preserves.

Hub for the holidays
“It’s not just a kitchen, it’s a community,” Serandos says. “The first vendors that were here [when she started in 2023], we were all cheering each other on… we all wanted each other to succeed.”

Serandos didn’t know what to expect for her first Christmas after partnering with the regional food retailer. When the season arrived, it hit like a snowstorm. She was quickly buried in orders from multiple stores for cookie variety packs.

“Every vendor put their business to the side,” Serandos recalls. One food hub member said, “Well, I can’t bake cookies, but I can package them.” A second member offered to dip cookies, while a third stuffed them. “It was an amazing experience.”

“And that’s something that’s very unique to the hub,” Serandos explains. “Because of that open environment, because people aren’t tucked away in separate rooms, you get to know each other and you get this real family feeling.”

David Bowler, founder of Golden’s Goods, crafts his handmade oat drinks using locally sourced ingredients, including oats from Chilliwack and honey from nearby farmers.

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Small but mighty manufacturing
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, there are approximately 3,200 food and beverage processing businesses in B.C. Of these, most are small businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

Despite their size, small food-processing businesses can have a big impact. When you spend money at a local business, that money has the potential to be re-spent in the community, contributing to stronger local and regional economies.

Follow food hub member David Bowler of Golden’s Goods, as he picks up ingredients for his hand-crafted oat drinks (dairy alternative) from local suppliers, to see this multiplier effect in action.

Bowler started his business at university. He ran focus groups on campus to test his product and the business concept performed well in a Canada-wide pitch competition. “I was just trying to find a way to make my education more practical and I was allergic to dairy.” From his home kitchen to the food hub, Bowler has always prioritized all natural, locally sourced ingredients for his oat milk.

Bowler sources his oats from Anita’s Organic Mill in Chilliwack and his water from Ripples Bottled Water Co., a local water distributor in Abbotsford. He prints his labels at a local print shop, too.

One day at the farmers’ market, “there was a lavender farmer on my left, I looked to my right and there was a honey vendor. I thought, ’whoa, those sound good together.’” His best-selling Honey Lavender Oat Drink was born.

Shorter supply chains generally have a smaller carbon footprint. By sourcing and selling largely within the Fraser Valley, Golden’s Goods’ ingredients and end products travel a shorter distance with fewer handling steps than its international competitors.

Local supply chains can also be more resilient. “I haven’t felt the [U.S.] tariffs, my supply chain is totally fine,” Bowler says. There are still challenges, like inflation and rising costs. “But access to ingredients? I’ve never had an issue because everything I buy is Canadian, B.C. or local. I think it’s important to buy stuff from B.C. It lowers our carbon footprint, it supports the local economy and it reduces waste.” When people process food in the communities they live in, they’re more likely to ensure their product benefits their community.

Even Bowler’s business name is locally inspired. “Golden comes from my love of the Golden Ears mountains… as I drive to the kitchen, I see my favourite peaks.”

The food hub is a launchpad for new businesses to get started and grow with mentorship, training and other resources. “Working with businesses, entrepreneurs to find ways to make them successful, that’s the ’meat’ behind our food hub,” says Aaron Davis, top right, business development manager at the food hub.

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The missing middle
As Davis points out, the Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub and other food hubs are a great start. “We provide 30 local entrepreneurs with the support and the space to create successful busi- nesses to feed their neighbours. That’s amazing.” He pauses. “But now what?

“[Food hubs] are built to allow people to be successful at farmers’ markets and e-commerce, but if they want to scale up to get into [major food retailers such as] Save-On-Foods, they still are going to need way more investment, way more infrastructure,” Davis says.

Save-On-Foods needs a consistent, reliable supply of products in sufficient volumes to meet customer demand across Metro Vancouver or all of B.C. “We’re talking about thousands and thousands of granola bars… You’re not going to do that with manual labour. You’ll have to scale up with automation, and none of the food hubs are built for that level of automation.”

To scale up to supply to major food retailers, small food-process- ing businesses need to either invest in their own manufacturing facility or ask another business to do co-packing (manufacture for them). As Davis explains, “You can go to Heinz and say, ’Hey, you have a ketchup factory in Ontario, I want to make another kind of sauce that uses all of the same equipment. Can you process this for me when you’re not processing your ketchup?’”

But most businesses can’t afford a multi-million dollar manufacturing facility. And options for co-packing are limited. When businesses get to this stage, they often stay small or sell out to larger businesses.

“We call this the missing middle: the difference between a business being able to succeed out of a shared-use kitchen and scaling up to supply to even a regional food retailer. The gap is so big, almost nobody gets through,” Davis says.

Improving access to co-packing is one of 10 recommendations in a recent report by the Small Scale Food Processor Association to help small food-processing businesses get into larger grocery chains.

But not every business needs to scale up. For Serandos, it’s about balance. “Yesterday, I went in and I think I did 2,000 cookies, and I was in and out in six hours,” she says. This schedule allows her to pursue her business goals while still leaving time to spend with family and work through her 150 hikes per year. When it comes to the food hub: “It’s a kitchen that I’m not concerned about outgrowing.”

In the market for maple leaves
This past year, many people have been thinking more about where their food comes from. As Davis reflects: “We have this big economic war, and people are like, ’I’m going to buy Canadian.’ And the story of buying Canadian wasn’t that people went to buy a car and said, ’Boy this is hard, I can’t find a car that was made in Canada.’”

“It was that people went to grocery stores and said, ’Huh, there is no Canadian food’… It was so hard to find that grocery stores had to put labels on it.”

Products made at the food hub aren’t just made in Canada. They’re made by our neighbours — business owners and their families, both the ones they went into the food hub with and the ones they made there.

Fraser Valley Artisans Food Hub
2570 Cyril St., Abbotsford
fraservalleyartisansfoodhub.com | @fraservalleyartisansfoodhub

Golden’s Goods
goldensgoods.ca | [email protected] | @goldensgoods

That’s A Good Cookie
thatsagoodcookie.ca | 604.799.4164 | @thats.a.good.cookie

Salt & Thyme
www.saltandthyme.ca | @saltandthyme_fraservalley