As we’ve been building the business of Chow Locally, we’ve wondered a bit about how to characterize what we do. We often tell people that we are an online farmers’ market because we offer lots of local foods for purchase through our website. Of course, we hope to be much more than that because what we really care about is supporting local farmers, supporting local food systems, and helping everyone eat in a healthier way. So, we constantly explore new angles on how we can make all of that happen, including offering a new city-wide CSA (community supported agriculture) program through corporate partnerships (more on that in the very near future), helping farmers deliver their goods to restaurants, and continuing to do what we do best: letting people buy exactly what they want from as many local farmers and ranchers as possible through our Chow Locally website.
Turns out there’s a name for what we are: Food Hub. Chow Locally is in fact a food hub, a business that aggregates and distributes locally and regionally grown foods. It’s a new business model for local foods, and one that holds a lot of promise. You can learn more about food hubs here. 
USDA is paying attention to the growth of businesses like us, and in fact you can track down the presentation to the right by googling ‘USDA Food Hub’ to see what they’ve been up to. Jim Barham at USDA is leading the way on this effort, and with this national recognition, it’ll be exciting to see where the food hub movement (and we) might go!