July 2015 — As the apprentice for TRACTOR (Toe River Aggregation Center Training Organization Regional Inc.), Erin has enjoyed working with the food hub community as they seek to support and educate farmers regarding how to get their produce into local grocery stores and also stimulate the local economy through partnerships with local businesses.
This summer, Erin has helped to revitalize the TRACTOR website to make it an educational and networking tool to reach out to farmers, buyers, and members of the community.
She has also participated in a number of activities which have exposed her to what goes on in a food hub including harvesting produce with local farmers, as well as signing in, logging in, and labeling product. This behind-the-scenes look at the ins and outs of a successful food hub has helped her understand the intermediary steps between online casino production and consumption in local food supply chains.
Erin explains, “Part of what I wanted to learn coming into this was more about some of the things that make it difficult, actually, for small farmers to sell their produce or make a living, and I”ve definitely learned a lot about those sorts of things… I think food hubs are helping to solve some of those problems.” Erin anticipates that she will use what she has learned at TRACTOR as she pursues a future in agriculture.
This article originally appeared in the July 2015 NC Growing Together Newsletter.