system-wide hubs While cultivating more food in Northampton is an essential part of providing local food to its residents, another component is the post-cultivation hub facilities needed for processing and distributing food. Hubs are integral to an efficient local food system. They help ensure the accessibility and availability of local food and enhance the economic sustainability of the system. When feeders and hubs work efficiently together, the potential for the four districts to produce food for Northampton is greater than might be expected at first glance. Northampton’s hubs would ideally be visible and accessible to attract public attention and be convenient for farmers to bring produce to. They could receive food from feeders for processing and distribution or re-cycle post-consumption food wastes. By design, hubs would connect multiple community
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Figure 16. Prototypes to demonstrate and test possibilities
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Figure 17. Prototypes are replicated at feeder sites
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Figure 18. Prototypes and feeders send food to hubs Feed NorthamptoN sysTem-wide hubs
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resources, provide educational opportunities, and adaptively reuse existing infrastructure when possible. For example, a hub could operate expensive machinery that is critical for processing and making storage-ready food, like a dehydrator or a chicken plucker. If the hub’s equipment were accessible to small and large farm operations, this could make more food grown in Northampton available for consumption. Hubs could also make farming easier by taking on the responsibility that farmers have to process and package their products. For instance, an apple farmer might grow and harvest her apples then tally the total weight, determine how much apple sauce, cider, and apple butter she wanted then deliver her apples to the hub, pay a fee and receive her processed goods at the end of the day.
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Figure 19. Hubs process and distribute food throughout Northampton and support feeders with resources like compost