7 min read

How This Food Hub Secured Funding & Expands Local Food Access with Local Line

Discover how Region Roots scaled their food hub operations, improved logistics, and secured USDA funding with Local Line's robust reporting features.
Farm fresh produce such as beets and carrots with region roots food hub logo
Written by
Lisa Pham
Published on
October 10, 2024

Region Roots, a wholesale and community-based food hub in Northwest Indiana, partners with small and mid-sized farmers to reshape the local food system—one order at a time.

Their team turned to Local Line, a farm and food hub e-commerce tool, to help their suppliers thrive while getting food to vulnerable community members. Local Line has become an important member of their team. When applying for a critical USDA distribution grant, Local Line’s robust reporting and analytics directly led to their success in securing funding. 

We sat down with Virginia and Anne to learn more about how Local Line has become integral to their everyday operations, enabling farmers to connect with more members of the local community.

Supporting farmers and delivering fresh food to those in need

Founded in 2016, the Northwest Indiana (NWI) Food Council is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating a just, thriving, and regenerative food system. 

In 2019, the NWI Food Council was awarded a USDA Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) grant, which allowed them to hire a value chain coordinator to expand market access for local farmers. At the time, Virginia (now co-executive director) took on this role. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, local farmers banded together to keep food flowing to their communities. With farmers spending too much time on logistics, Virginia and the Food Council recognized an opportunity to support farmers by handling the fulfillment complexities so they could do what they do best: farm!

After a year of research and securing funding, the NWI Food Council launched Region Roots in 2021 as a solution. Today, Region Roots runs as a wholesale farm and food hub across Northwest Indiana.

“Region Roots is the extension of our mission; it’s a mechanism for achieving it. With all of our programming, we really try to equally prioritize Farm Viability alongside food access or food sovereignty, and the hub has been a really cool way for us to put that into action. We are a non-profit, so we're able to get grant funding to pay farmers a fair price, a living wage, price for their food–while getting food out to vulnerable community members like kids, first-time moms, toddlers, and senior citizens often dealing with food insecurity.” - Virginia, Region Roots

Region Roots has forged strong partnerships with schools, healthcare providers, and local food banks, shifting more toward institutional procurement. The hub works with 40 active vendors, a number that continues to grow as more farmers see the benefits of participating.

Using a hybrid model, all orders are placed online through Local Line, while pickups and deliveries occur in person. Certain partners make deliveries up to four times a week, with larger orders aggregated in their small warehouse space on Anne’s farm, Grounded Earth Farm.

Overcoming logistical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unforeseen challenges, as schools and hospitals—their two key markets—suspended operations. “We needed to pivot quickly,” Virginia recalls.

While farmers were coming together to keep communities fed, there was an urgent need for a streamlined system that would allow farmers to focus on farming while the hub handled the logistics.

“We wanted to help solve the logistical piece so that farmers could focus on farming rather than managing the complex logistics.” - Virginia, Region Roots

After extensive research into farm e-commerce platforms, Local Line emerged as the ideal solution. Local Line checked off all the boxes for Region Roots with streamlined logistics, simplified communication between farmers and customers, and robust reporting and metrics. Further, Local Line’s affordability was a huge benefit as they operate primarily based on grant funding.

Managing different customer segments with one sales tool

One of the standout features was Local Line’s flexibility in creating multiple price lists with customizable pricing structures. “One of the reasons why we went with Local Line is the flexibility of having so many different catalogues.” Virginia shares. This allowed Region Roots to serve various buyers—nonprofit partners, schools, and for-profit customers—each with tailored pricing and delivery terms.

“The price lists allow us to have different markups depending on the end customer. We often add a lower percentage for our non-profit partners and our farmers who are buying than we do for a for-profit business or some of the larger institutions. ” - Virginia, Region Roots

Another significant advantage was Local Line’s vendor management tools. Suppliers could manage their own listings, allowing farmers to update their offerings without needing constant administrative support from Region Roots, saving time and reducing errors. “The ability for vendors to manage their listings and maintain transparency and identity with their products is huge,” mentions Anne.

Securing grant funding with Local Line’s reporting tools

Local Line’s reporting and analytics tools are invaluable for Region Roots. Being 90% grant-funded, Local Line’s robust reports and dashboards helped them secure a USDA Local Food for Schools grant. $6 million was allocated to the state of Indiana, and after applying, Region Roots was only one of the two distributors to receive this funding.

“We were one of only two distributors that got funding from our state to do this, and that was because we could do the metrics and the reporting of these sales. There were other smaller startups and farm-type aggregators that wanted to participate but couldn’t as they didn’t have robust enough reporting and tracking. We wouldn’t be in this position to access that funding without Local Line and its reporting capabilities.” - Anne, Region Roots

Beyond grants, Local Line’s reporting tools have significantly saved their team time. They can run reports and track orders to streamline day-to-day operations, helping the hub manage orders, track pickups, and ensure seamless service for their customers.

👉 For more ways on how Local Line can help your food hub streamline and automate pesky day-to-day operations, check out our article: Increase Your Food Hub Efficiency with These Local Line Features

Local Line’s constant feature updates and responsive support have also been crucial as Region Roots scales. Whether it’s new functionality to support variable-weight items, workarounds for specific operational needs, or using Local Line videos to assist with onboarding, Local Line continues to be a trusted partner.

“Local Line’s rapid response and constant feature improvements have been a key point of loyalty for us. We’ve created a lot of tickets for new features or improvements, and they always seem to happen. Even when we don’t have a perfect function right now, Local Line helps us with workarounds until something that makes us more efficient is rolled out.” - Anne, Region Roots

Advice for food hubs considering Local Line 

Usually three of Region Roots’ staff members spend 25-30 hours per week in Local Line, making it a critical part of their workflow. Because of this, Region Roots offers valuable advice for other food hubs or wholesalers considering Local Line: “Take the time to learn the platform thoroughly. It’s intuitive, but understanding both the farmer and buyer sides can make your operations much smoother.” 

What’s next for Region Roots?

Region Roots plans to continue expanding its operations with Local Line as a core partner. They aim to establish a permanent brick-and-mortar hub to further streamline fulfillment and offer new services. With Local Line’s ongoing support, they’re confident in their ability to scale while staying true to their mission of supporting farmers and providing nutritious food to the community.

Local Line has been instrumental in Region Roots’ growth, enabling them to grow operations, secure essential funding, and streamline farmer logistics. As they continue to grow, Local Line remains an indispensable partner in their mission to create a sustainable and inclusive food system for all.

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Lisa Pham Local Line
Lisa Pham
Lisa is Local Line's Content Marketing Specialist. Helping with their content strategy, she equips farmers with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed.
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