PORTLAND, Ore. – With a desire to sustain and regionalize the Northwest food economy, ten regional businesses are generously underwriting portions of an annual FoodHub membership fee for hundreds of potential users.

FoodHub is a new online marketplace and directory that helps regional food buyers and sellers find each other, connect and do business. A social venture initiative of the nonprofit Ecotrust, FoodHub is designed to increase food trade in the Pacific Northwest. It is the only network of its kind that accommodates food producers and food buyers of every scale and production type across such a significant geographic range.

To incentivize Northwest farmers, ranchers, fishermen and food buyers of all kinds to join FoodHub now, ten diverse entities from the region’s food and farming community have brought discounts, ranging from 20 to 80 percent off the annual $100 membership fee, to the table.

“The strength of FoodHub lies in the connections made possible by a robust and active network of buyers and sellers,” said Deborah Kane, vice president of Ecotrust’s Food and Farms program and creator of FoodHub. “Our partners are applauding the ease and efficiency that FoodHub brings to the process of sourcing and moving more regional food through the supply chain. They want to make joining and using FoodHub accessible for everyone, so they’re dangling a carrot that’s too sweet to resist.”

Select discounts are limited time offers, so food buyers and sellers are encouraged to act now by visiting www.food-hub.org.

• THRIVE (The Rogue Initiative for a Vital Economy): THRIVE members receive a 20 percent discount now through June 30, 2010.
• Oregon Tilth: Operations certified organic by Oregon Tilth receive a 20 percent discount now through June 30, 2010.
• Organic Valley: To encourage food buyers at public K-12 schools, school districts and child care centers to source locally produced foods, the 51 Northwest dairy families of Organic Valley cooperative are offering to cover 80 percent of the annual FoodHub membership fee through June 30, 2010.
• Food Services of America (FSA): FSA will underwrite 50 percent of the FoodHub membership fee for the first 100 FSA restaurant or school customers to register.
• SYSCO: SYSCO will underwrite 50 percent of the FoodHub membership fee for any produce farmer in Oregon and Washington up to 100 producers.
• Eugene Water and Electric Board: Food buyers and sellers located in the McKenzie River watershed qualify for a 75 percent discount now through April 2011, thanks to a grant made to the Eugene Water and Electric Board from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation – Oregon Governor’s Fund for the Environment.
• Friends of French Prairie: Members receive an unrestricted offer of 20 percent off the annual FoodHub membership fee.
• Gorge Grown Network: Farmers and food buyers in Hood River, Wasco and Sherman counties in Oregon or Klickitat and Skamania counties in Washington qualify for a 20 percent discount, now through May 30, 2011.

Additional offers will soon be announced thanks to partnerships with New Seasons Market and the Oregon Farm Bureau.

###

About Ecotrust’s Food & Farms Program
FoodHub is an Ecotrust project made possible by the generous support and contributions of many. Ecotrust’s mission is to inspire fresh thinking that creates social equity, economic opportunity, and environmental well being. With regard to our Food & Farms program, we improve public understanding of agriculture and the challenges it faces and increase the market share of regionally grown, processed, and manufactured foods. Whether by introducing a farmer to a chef or a food processor to an institutional buyer, Ecotrust is a trusted “benevolent broker” that has been making connections between food buyers and sellers in the Pacific Northwest for a decade. Learn more at ecotrust.org.