South Dakota is one of the last states to develop a food hub that will gather and market locally produced food products. Recently awarded to SDSU Extension by the USDA Ag Marketing Services, a one-year, $25,000 planning grant is helping to develop a food hub in eastern South Dakota. Kari O’Neill is a Community Development Specialist and says meetings are going to held to gather producer interest in the project.
O’Neill is hoping at the end of the meetings, some producers are willing to commit to selling their product through the hub.
She says the hub would be run by producers. Extension is currently testing the feasibility of an LLC structure and analyzing location options for the central market.
O’Neill says one of the underlying reasons for developing a food hub is to assist beginning and young farmers.
The meetings will be held in Wagner on January 6th from 6-8 pm at the movie theater, in Parker on January 7th at the courthouse, and in Yankton on January 8th from 10:30-12:30 pm at JoDean’s Steakhouse.
