East End Food Looks for Community Support as It Enters Next Fundraising Phase for Food Hub

For the past several years, East End Food, formerly known as East End Food Institute, has been on a mission to transform the way the region produces and accesses food.

To make that dream a reality, the nonprofit organization — which connects local farmers and producers with the community to promote sustainable food systems and “foster nourishing relationships for everyone” — has taken a multi-pronged approach. But its marquee project in that effort has been the plan for creating the East End Food Hub in Riverhead.

The food hub is an ambitious and exciting project that East End Food Executive Director Kate Fullam said has the potential to “shape the future of the community food ecosystem.”

When completed, the multi-use facility will serve as a center for the aggregation, processing and distribution of local produce and products, supporting hundreds of small businesses with the goal of improving access to local food for everyone.

East End Food has already secured $1.3 million in grants and private donations to start construction on the hub, and will be offering tours of the building under construction this fall.

The first phase of that estimated $3 million project was designed by Garnett DePasquale Projects, and will include a 5,000-square-foot building renovation to house a year-round farmers market and community kitchen where East End Food will be able to offer a wide array of education programming.

On Sunday, August 20, in Sagaponack, East End Food board members Evan Mason, Sheri Sandler, Mark Smith and Peter Treiber Sr. hosted a fundraising dinner to launch the capital campaign to help fund the remaining cost of that project.

Executive chef Michael Rozzi of the 1770 House in East Hampton and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, curated a three-course dinner with wine selections from nearby Channing Daughters Winery. The first course was Balsam Farms street corn soup paired with 2017 L’Enfant Sauvage Chardonnay and 2021 Rosato di Cabernet Franc, followed by North Fork Seafood roasted fluke with 2020 Heart Red Blend. The Milk Pail peach shortcake with 2021 Moscato Petillant Naturel rounded out the meal.

Ingredients from Amber Waves Farm, Carissa’s, Goodale Farms, Mecox Bay Dairy, Stone’s Throw Farm and The Hoppy Acre were also featured.

Fullam spoke earlier this week about what the food hub can mean for the entire East End community and even towns farther west, and why East End Food is hoping more community members can get on board and support the initiative to complete the first phase of construction.

“The food hub project is at a critical point where we need community support,” she said. “We need another boost of funds to get the project across the finish line. We’ve already raised $1.3 million and have some recent multi-year commitments from supporters of ours, but we’re really looking to the community to activate and become stakeholders and investors in the future of our food system and get the project completed so we can move into Riverhead in early 2024 and be ready for the next harvest season.”

Fullam said that the hub will not only turn local produce into products for farmers, but will also be a key supporter of small-scale producers who want to launch their businesses and need access to a facility to help them do that.

By doing that, the hub will enable more people to access locally grown food, which she pointed out has multiple benefits — local small business owners will get more support, fewer large trucks bringing in food from far-flung locations will mean less pollution, and access to more local food and ingredients will cut down on the need to rely on less healthy, processed foods.

East End Food has been working to ensure SNAP benefits can be used at the hub and has partnered with other community-minded food organizations to create programs that will allow community members to stretch their SNAP dollars at the farmers market, essentially giving them a 50-percent discount every time they spend on produce, seeds, herbs and fruit-bearing plants.

“It’s good for the local economy, it’s good for the environment, and it’s good for health,” she said of what the hub will provide.

Fullam also pointed out that the supply chain issues and food shortages people experienced during the pandemic highlighted the need to invest in supporting local producers and bolstering local food systems.

“The pandemic was a time where people really came to terms with the fact that the food system the way it operates currently is really precarious,” she said. “When there’s an emergency, those systems can break down, and what we need to do is invest in regional food systems as a security issue so we have access to food that’s not so reliant on a centralized, very high volume style that really takes money out of our communities as well.

“We’ve lost a lot of farmland on the East End because the economics of farming and growing food has become unviable,” she added. “We’re really taking a risk by not investing in local food.”

On the bright side, Fullam said that what East End Food is proposing with the creation of the hub is a “real and viable solution” to that problem.

“We took a big chance on this project to serve the community because we saw a need for it,” she said. “Now we’re looking for the community to back us up and support us.”

Campaign donations are encouraged at all levels via campaign.eastendfood.org and supporters can reach out directly to learn more at info@eastendfood.org.

East End Food 
Launches Passport

Earlier this month, in another effort to support local food producers and the local food economy, East End Food announced the creation of the East End Food Passport, a free print and online guide inviting visitors to explore the tastes and talents of the region’s best growers, producers and industry leaders. The Passport features a directory of East End Food’s 160 farm, food and craft businesses and a calendar of weekly agri-tourism events for the 2023 season.

Visitors are invited to explore the newly updated East End Food website when making travel plans, and can plan a “foodie getaway” with the digital version of the East End Food Passport. The passports share where travelers to the region can learn about local food and beverage businesses and area farms, browse upcoming events and plan their culinary exploration of the East End.

For more information, visit passport.eastendfood.org. The passport and website updates were supported in part by a Market New York grant from Empire State Development and the state’s division of tourism, awarded through the Regional Economic Development Council initiative.