McKinney said Hoosier Harvest Market in Greenfield is a good model for future regional food hubs. Hoosier Harvest allows its customers to order online from local farmers and pick up at 12 different sites within a 60-mile radius, said Mike Hoopengardner, co-op president.
He equated the Internet with the "wild, wild West" because of its unlimited potential. "Customers who don’t want to go to a farmers’ market can go online to order and pick up near their house. We have created a model that can be used anywhere," he said. In its first full year, the co-op had nearly $200,000 in sales, in 2014, Hoopengardner said. That’s up from last year’s $15,000, when the website came online in June 2013. He said co-op farmers keep most of their profits. They pay 10-15 percent commission and an annual fee of $150 to the co-op.
He is not only an organizer but a producer and consumer of Hoosier Harvest. His family owns Caprini Creamery in Spiceland. "For our business, the co-op is not our strongest market, but we see a huge potential and constant growth ... Those producers who were impatient with the first year’s sales weren’t here for 2014, and I believe next year (Hoosier Harvest) could double its sales," Hoopengardner said.
Hoosier Harvest plans to expand pickup sites and infrastructure to keep up with demand regionally, he said. "There is a huge local food movement in Indiana. The local papers wanted to do articles on us, and customers began calling us," he said. Food hubs on the West Coast boast 50,000 customers, he added.
In Indiana, sweet corn is a top seller seasonally, but the difficulty is finding local goods year round. "The struggle in Indiana is can you grow produce in a greenhouse when it hits minus-10 degrees like it did last year?" he said.
Hoosier Harvest has solved some of that by offering apple cider, preserves, meats and cheeses in the winter months. Hoopengardner also said one of the co-op’s producers grows produce year-round hydroponically. As a producer, he said his involvement with the online market is much simpler than going to actual farmers’ markets. "For a local farmers’ market, we have to feed and milk 200 animals and load our goat cheese by 6 a.m. We might talk to 3,000 to 5,000 people in the course of the day and come home exhausted. It’s a long day.
"For Hoosier Harvest, we can drop off our ordered products by noon on Thursday, and someone else takes them to a dropoff site. There are benefits."
Hoopengardner said finding the right people to spearhead future local food hubs is essential. He said Roy Ballard, Purdue University extension educator in Hancock County, has been the "driving force" in getting the co-op started. Ballard is also an advisor for ISDA’s food hub project.
Visit www.HoosierHarvest.com for more information on the Greenfield-based food hub. See www.in.gov/isda/3109.htm for more information on the statewide initiative, funded by a USDA grant.