After 5 years of operating a nonprofit grocery food hub in an historic food desert, we are proud of the impact it had on our community and our successful transition of that space back to the community for the next neighbor-led initiative. The experience gave us first hand understanding of the challenges and the gaps that our food system faces both from the retail and the nonprofit sectors.

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Looking again at our mission and the food system needs and the current environment, it became clear that our team needs to focus 100% of our efforts and finances to fully leading systemic food systems change. We have committed to creating a strong foundation of support for all food access entities, to keep small grocers in business, to empower new grocery entities to serve historic food deserts, and to support nonprofit food access initiatives.

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To begin this work, we are building a Buying Collective and Collaborative Food Exchange to leverage shared purchasing power to overcome systemic supply chain barriers and build a sustainable, community-controlled food system.

Key Objectives

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• Foster and Lead Collaborative Action: No one organization can or should do this alone. We need each other for operational and systemic efficiency, buying power, and to identify and fill systemic gaps.

• Lower Procurement Costs: Aggregates order volumes across multiple neighbor-led grocery initiatives, local pantries, and small food enterprises to negotiate wholesale rates, bulk discounts, and better pricing terms from suppliers.

• Strengthen Regional Food Infrastructure: Connects local food projects, urban growers, and small regional distributors into a unified logistics network, making fresh and healthy inventory easier to source reliably.

• Enhance Food Access & Equity: Directly reduces food costs for grass-roots initiatives, allowing them to offer affordable fresh produce and pantry staples to residents in neighborhoods across Greater Cincinnati with little to no fresh food access.

• Foster Economic Autonomy: Empowers community-based food entrepreneurs and neighborhood initiatives with the supply chain stability needed to stay financially viable and independent.