Welcome to ValleyHUB

Market Info

The KVCC Food Innovation Center is one of the three buildings on the new Bronson Healthy Living campus in downtown Kalamazoo, a 16,400 square foot building with a 9,600 square foot greenhouse, on approximately 8 acres of reclaimed urban space. We support local food production, aggregation, processing and distribution, primarily to institutional partners. We also have a classroom and visitor center for educational programming.

The objectives of the FIC are to:
1. Build the supply chain for local produce into institutions (hospitals, universities, schools)
2. Flexibly support the local food system by filling gaps in training, production, and processing
3. Provide hands-on training and credit-based education that leads to jobs in the local food system
4. Create opportunities for education and engagement with community organizations

The Food Hub at the FIC is a flexible space, designed to scale up gradually and constantly adapt to local market needs. We plan to start by lightly processing produce grown on site and at a limited number of local farms, and distributing raw, washed and chopped produce to local institutions. As we grow we will gradually scale up the number of suppliers and customers, and diversify processing options to include frozen, dehydrated, and sauced products. We will focus on assisting growers who are at market scale to shift into the institutional supply chain and develop a more stable revenue stream. Longer-term plans will be guided by community and market demand.