Regional Food Hubs: Lessons Learnt and Procurement Toolkit

Throughout 2025, Better Food Traders, Sustain, Soil Association and Growing Communities ran a support programme for Regional Food Hubs across the UK, working with 12 hubs (plus 3 established wholesalers) over 12 months to help them grow their wholesale operations and increase supply to public institutions.

In this event, we'll be sharing what we learned: what works, what doesn't, and what needs to change at both local and national level to help regional food infrastructure thrive.

We'll also be launching a brand new Procurement Toolkit - a beginner’s guide that’s been designed for smaller wholesalers and producers who want to start selling into schools, hospitals and other public institutions.

We know that procurement can feel daunting to farmers, producers and suppliers who haven’t done it before, so we’ve created this simple, accessible resource.

It’s perfect for anyone who wants to get their produce into the public sector but doesn’t know where to start, and for Local Authorities, Sustainable Food Places and NGOs who want to better understand this market.

This is for you if you’re involved with:

A food business exploring wholesale or public sector supply
Working in sustainable food policy or in a Sustainable Food Places network
Local or national government thinking about regional food infrastructure