SPRINGDALE – Food hubs, the connectors designed to help farmers get their products to plates, have taken hold in Northwest Arkansas.

The concept is expanding into practice in the state as a solution to regional food distribution challenges.

The nonprofit Springdale-based Spring Creek Food Hub started two years ago.

“When we first started, we were part of lots of different markets and we have honed in our focus on those nonprofit wholesale institutions, realizing that was where we could make the biggest impact now,” said Spring Creek Food Hub interim director Nena Hammer.

Spring Creek collects food from several farms to coordinate larger wholesale orders.

“So we can have five different farmers growing bok choy and then collectively, they can fill the need for a larger institution,” Hammer said.

The food hub works with 60 to 65 farms across Arkansas; one of its larger clients is Fayetteville Public Schools.

“We aggregate and distribute product from those farms and we’re specifically working with wholesale nonprofit institutions right now, so public schools, hospitals, community health clinics, food pantries and other community-based organizations,” Hammer said.

Most of the farms Spring Creek works with are in Northwest Arkansas, though some are located in the Arkansas River Valley and Delta regions; the food hub works with farms of varying sizes, Hammer said.

Hammer said the current slate of partner farmers is enough for now, however, “As we grow, and as we get more of those large-scale markets on board, we will definitely need more.”

Spring Creek operates on an inventory-based model. Like a broker, Spring Creek purchases product from farmers and takes ownership of the product in the food hub’s warehouse.

“So a farmer is paid for the product when it is delivered and from that point on, Spring Creek takes responsibility for if it sells or if it doesn’t, that doesn’t rebound back on the farmer,” Hammer said.

“Farmers make deliveries and then Spring Creek distributes it to outlets from there.”

Spring Creek relocated its operations to the Market Center of the Ozarks in Springdale in April.

The food hub’s work now focuses more on education.

“Being a non-profit food hub, we are not a typical wholesale broker, there’s a lot more relationship building and a lot more education, both on the farmer side and on the market side,” Hammer said, adding Spring Creek works to ensure farmers can scale up sufficiently to participate in wholesale markets.

Spring Creek is confident they can sell the product farmers bring in, Hammer said.

“That’s where the production planning with our growers each season really comes in handy too, because at this time of year, we are looking at what markets we have for next year, what those market needs are, and building out production plans with growers that fit those specific needs,” Hammer said.

Farmer Bob Offerle gives a tour of his hydroponic farm, Ozark All Seasons, in Winslow in this October 2025 file photo. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Faye Hedera)

‘CUREATE’ CONNECTIONS

While not explicitly a food distributor or food hub, food-tech company Cureate connects local food and beverage manufacturers and growers to institutional buyers, a practice that keeps food local and helps farmers weather challenging economic times.

“What we really are is a buyer on behalf of our buyer partners,” said Cureate founder and Chief Executive Officer Kim Bryden.

As the food-tech company expands, it helps smaller farmers compete with larger food product suppliers.

“That’s what I am really excited about when I think about the future and possibility with Cureate, if we now have a consortium of buyers, we can start mapping the demand needs across buyers who may be in different sectors, it could be a school, a hospital, a convention center,” Bryden said.

Different food hubs help farmers cut expenses by providing a variety of resources, such as warehousing, transportation and delivery, education, marketing, contract management and some even provide supplies to farmers.

Winslow-based Ozark All Seasons Farm owner and U.S. Army veteran Bob Offerle harvests between 1,700 to 2,00 heads of lettuce a week and is able to plan his production season to fill larger wholesale orders. The farm operates year-round in climate-controlled greenhouses.

The farm in the mountains south of Fayetteville grows nine different varieties of lettuce, including red and green varieties of Bibb, Oakleaf and Sweet Crisp lettuces, romaine, arugula, kale, bok choy, microgreens, as well as herbs like basil, thyme and oregano.

“We are kind of like a lettuce factory, everything is on a schedule weekly, a lot of our customers have a standing order,” Offerle said.

“I’ve transitioned our customer base, I used to have a lot of retail outlets, we were in a lot of Harp’s stores and other locations, I’ve now gone the direction of wholesale,” Offerle said.

“Working with a food hub, they already know a certain amount of what they are going to need next year, so you already have somewhere for that product to go before you ever put a seed in the ground,” Offerle said.

Ozark All Seasons sells bok choy to Meiji Japanese Cuisine in Fayetteville and has sold produce to a few local retails outlets, like Richard’s Country Meat Market in Fayetteville and Allen’s Food Market in Bella Vista, but also fills larger wholesale orders to Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, Mo., to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Northwest Arkansas and in Little Rock, to the Walmart headquarters and several other outlets.

“A lot of those (orders) are made possible with the connection that we made with Cureate,” Offerle said.

“They have been able to connect us with some of these larger-scale wholesale customers,” he said. “So it’s been a nice transition to go into this world where there is a little more predictability with these customers.”

Customers put in food orders several days in advance using a procurement platform, a practice that gives peace of mind to the farmer, Offerle said.

“Working with Cureate, you’re in control of everything, you get your orders and process them, you fulfill and deliver the orders to the customers,” Offerle said.

Cureate does not warehouse or distribute food products, the company buys purchases the food order and the farmer delivers it to the customer, Bryden said.

“But because of that, we actually don’t take any cut from the producer and that’s a unique twist in the Cureate model versus a typical distributor, because a distributor will have to take margin from the farm, whereas for us, our service fee is paid by the buyer,” Bryden said.

In addition to marketing and contract management services, Cureate offers educational courses.

“Cureate Courses is our farm, food and beverage entrepreneurship program,” Bryden said.

“We don’t teach people how to farm or how to make a cake. We talk about the business side of running a farm, food or beverage operation.”

Cureate courses include finding positioning in the marketplace, targeting customers, both direct-to-consumer and wholesale, pricing products, ongoing distribution logistics to get products to market, branding and e-commerce, Bryden said.

Bryden is working to spread Cureate locations around her current home base of Northwest Arkansas into adjacent states.

The food-tech company recently connected with a buyer in Kansas City, Mo.

“My hope is that if geographically, Northwest Arkansas is a hub, the spokes out from it would be Little Rock to Memphis, Oklahoma City, the furthest south from this hub and spoke idea would be Dallas; that’s my Heartland idea,” Bryden said.

Farmer Bob Offerle shows off the plants at his hydroponic farm, Ozark All Seasons, in Winslow in this October 2025 file photo. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Faye Hedera)

HOW IT WORKS

Food hubs form the connective tissue in local food systems, said Amanda Philyaw Perez, University of Arkansas Extension associate professor and food systems specialist.

“They help small and mid-sized producers access markets they might not reach on their own by offering aggregation, distribution, marketing, and logistical support. This can reduce overhead costs and increase efficiency.”

Perez said the concept of food hubs is being discussed widely within Arkansas and nationally as a potential solution to regional food system challenges.

Food hubs create entry points for small farms and food businesses, increase local food access, offer a larger portion of “food dollars” to farms and food businesses and boost domestic production and food system resilience, Perez said.

But food hubs also have high startup and operational costs, challenges with maintaining a consistent supply and demand and recruiting skilled leadership and staff, and navigating organizational, regulatory and food safety requirements, Perez said.

Food hubs can increase local food access by aggregating food products from small to mid-sized farms and distributing them to underserved communities, schools, hospitals and retail stores.

“By shortening the supply chain and reducing logistical barriers, food hubs make it easier for institutions and consumers to source nutritious food locally,” Perez said.

“They also support local economies by keeping food dollars within the region and providing stable markets for farmers, which can lead to more consistent production and availability.”

Financial support for this coverage came from the Community Journalism Project.