Featuring Freedom Farms x Partnership for Growth
Written by Natasha Wasim (LA Food Policy Council) and Nisha Bansal (Freedom Farms, PFGLA)
Food Hubs: A Place for Economic Development in LA
Los Angeles is home to one of the most diverse urban agriculture ecosystems in the country. Many small- and mid-scale producers continue to face barriers to accessing stable and consistent markets. While many traditional food hub models have been designed around larger-scale regional distribution systems, Los Angeles presents unique opportunities and challenges that may require more flexible and locally tailored approaches. The region’s agricultural landscape includes a large number of urban farms and small-acreage producers, making coordination, aggregation, and institutional partnerships especially important for long-term sustainability.
Food hubs can play an important role in strengthening local economies by connecting producers to local retailers and buyers. Beyond distribution, these models can help retain food dollars within local communities, support small businesses, and expand market opportunities for producers that may otherwise face barriers to larger procurement systems. In a region as large and complex as Los Angeles, food hubs may also help strengthen supply chain resilience while increasing access to fresh, locally grown food.
Importantly, a Los Angeles-centered food hub model should consider producer equity, innovation, and community partnerships as core components of long-term success. Urban growers often contribute valuable cultural knowledge, sustainable growing practices, and strong community relationships that can support healthier and more connected local food systems. Investments in sourcing, aggregation, technical assistance, and infrastructure tailored to smaller-scale producers could help create a more inclusive and resilient agricultural economy. Food hubs represent more than a distribution strategy, they are an investment in local ownership, community wealth-building, and the long-term sustainability of urban agriculture in Los Angeles.
Definition of a Food Hub: “A Community Food Hub is an organization or business that serves as a supply chain intermediary by purchasing food products from and providing aggregation, distribution, and/or marketing services for multiple local or regional California food producers, especially those using sustainable or climate-smart agricultural practices and following state labor practices.”
(CDFA Adapted from USDA, Barham, James, Debra Tropp, Kathleen Enterline, Jeff Farbman, John Fisk, and Stacia Kiraly. Regional Food Hub Resource Guide. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service. Washington, DC. April 2012. <http://dx.doi.org/10.9752/MS046.04-2012>)
Freedom Farms x PFGLA
At Partnership for Growth LA, our Freedom Farms program is working to build the kind of locally-rooted food hub ecosystem that Los Angeles requires. We partner with growers cultivating everywhere from 100-square-foot plots to farms spanning more than 100 acres. We support producers through technical assistance, food safety guidance, production planning, aggregation logistics and hands-on support from our workforce trainees. By helping formalize production processes and coordinating sourcing across a decentralized network of growers, we create opportunities for small- and mid-scale producers to collectively participate in retail and institutional markets that are often otherwise inaccessible.
Today, produce from the Freedom Farms Collective can be found across thirteen markets and restaurants throughout Los Angeles, and we are continuing to expand. But building a successful food hub model in Los Angeles also requires long-term investment in community relationships. That philosophy is central to our Market Access Program. Through this program, we provide Freedom Farms produce at no upfront cost to community-based markets in South LA, Watts, Compton, and Lynwood, with participating markets selling the produce at 50% below standard retail pricing. The program helps increase access to fresh, locally grown food while also creating familiarity and demand for local produce within neighborhoods that have historically been underserved by traditional food systems. At the same time, market operators gain experience sourcing, merchandising, and selling fresh produce, helping strengthen the long-term viability of neighborhood-based food retail.
Ultimately, our food hub model creates a closed-loop local economy that keeps the dollar circulating within our communities. From the grower producing food down the street, to the workforce trainee supporting harvesting and distribution, to the customer purchasing collard greens from their neighborhood market, each stage of the supply chain becomes an opportunity for community wealth-building and local economic resilience.
There is a deep hunger right now for reconnection to land, to community, and to systems that feel human. I think food hubs have the potential to meet that moment, but only if they are built with flexibility and genuine partnership at the center. LA needs food infrastructure that reflects the creativity, diversity, and resilience already present in our communities. For Freedom Farms, this work goes beyond healthy food; it’s about creating the conditions for communities to feed themselves with dignity, ownership, and care.
Nisha Bansal is the Senior Manager of Partnership for Growth LA’s Freedom Farms Program, where she leads initiatives focused on urban agriculture, partnership development, and market access across Los Angeles. Her work centers on building scalable community-based food systems that support local farmers while expanding fresh, healthy food options in historically underserved neighborhoods. Prior to joining PFGLA, Nisha worked in sustainability at UCLA and as an environmental consultant supporting air quality and carbon emissions reduction initiatives throughout California. Drawing from experience across environmental policy, social justice, and economic development, Nisha is deeply committed to reimagining regenerative, just, and inclusive food systems.
Natasha Wasim is a food equity researcher with extensive experience across public and private sectors. Currently pursuing her fourth degree in public health, with a Master’s from Yale, she focuses on food insecurity solutions at USC. Natasha recently served as Program Manager of the Los Angeles County Food Equity Roundtable, where she played a key role in developing a Strategic Plan recognized at the 2022 White House Conference. She has also worked on SB 1383 as an Environmental Specialist in Riverside County and as an Environmental Data Associate at Disney, supporting sustainability goals. Natasha is committed to advancing equitable food systems and public health.
We reside, work, and cultivate food
on unceded Indigenous homelands.
We acknowledge and honor the descendants of the Tongva, Kizh, and Gabrieleño peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands). We pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
As part of a greater foodshed, we would also like to pay respect to and honor the Chumash, Tataviam, Serrano, Kitanemuk, ʔíviĨuqaletem, Acjachemen, Payómkawichum, and any other tribal group possibly not mentioned. As a Food Policy Council for Los Angeles we recognize this land acknowledgment is limited and engagement is an ongoing process of learning and accountability. To learn more about these First Nations, visit here.