NOPRI is creating the Manitoulin Food Hub (MFH) as a shared community enterprise intended to facilitate the production, distribution and consumption of locally grown, raised, and produced food and value-added products.
MFH will house a variety of systems and equipment including:
- Commercial kitchen
- Bakery
- Bottle cleaning and filling equipment
- Cold storage
- Egg grading and storage
In addition to providing access to the equipment and facilities, MFH will offer a variety of classes, workshops and support to aspiring food entrepreneurs.
Want to help? Interested?
The are a variety of ways to help the food hub become a reality.
- Business planning and Fundraising
- Building the Hub
- Using the Hub
1. Business planning and Fundraising
NOPRI is currently in a planning stage with the MFH project. If you have expertise in local food sales, processing, distribution, marketing, accounting or business planning and share a passion for enabling local food in the region, please contact us.
NOPRI needs to fundraise at least $50,000 for renovations and equipment purchases. This is not a modest sum of money! If you have fundraising experience or are interesting in contributing financially please use our Canada Helps page or contact us.
2. Building the Hub
Once adequate funds have been raised to start the Hub, the physical space will need renovation and a bunch of equipment will need to be purchased and installed. The current plan is to utilize the now vacant RONA building at the corner of Hwy 540 and 1 Vankoughnet St. in Little Current. If you are a handyman, handywoman, contractor, painter, plumber, electrician or artist and can lend a hand creating the physical space, please get in touch.
3. Using the Hub
MFH will be most successful if the facility is utilized by the community, for the community. If you are a farmer, processor, baker, cheese maker, juicer, cracker maker, fermenter, dehydrator, cook, pastry chef, soup crafter, wine maker, nutritionist or teacher and want to utilize the facility to create and store products, teach classes or cook for community events, please let us know. Having a list of people ready to utilize the space will strengthen our application process with multiple grant funding sources currently being pursued.