The Tulsa Cooperative Regional Food Hub

The Problem

There are many agencies, organizations, and independent grocers across the Central and Northeast Oklahoma regions devoted to fighting food insecurity and increasing retail food access, and whose programs and enterprises can be strengthened through partnerships and collaboration. But, supply chain challenges present significant obstacles for these organizations and businesses, especially around meeting buying minimums of traditional food distributors.

The Solution

Seeing this community need, several Tulsa stakeholders including RG Foods Inc., Food On The Move, Fresh RX and the Tulsa Farmers Market have come together to complete a feasibility study in forming a potential regional food hub (referred to as the “Tulsa Cooperative Food Hub'') that could build a supply chain outside of the traditional food distributors – a hybrid of sourcing local and traditional systems – in order to support small- to medium-sized food retail stores as well as local farmers and food producers.

In Partnership with:

“The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a greater capacity for sourcing healthy food and personal items from local producers and create a means of delivery to organizations and areas where it's needed the most.” 

The business application of this solution would look like a jointly owned and operated warehouse that could enable group purchasing and coordinated warehousing and distribution among its membership as well as coordinating deliveries and backhauling with non-member food access organizations that are part of the regional food system stretching from Oklahoma City through Muskogee to northwest Arkansas.

The benefits of a regional food hub include:

  • We can create of a buying network that would benefit members with coordinated purchasing of fresh and shelf-stable items from a combination of local growers and makers as well as distributors.

    Then coordinate distribution of goods from local purveyors to a network of local wholesale buyers, food retailers, and regional food access partners.

  • A centralized location for the aggregation (warehousing, sorting, picking, packing, etc.) of local products that could be utilized by all members.

  • Increase food access and partnerships throughout our regional food system by coordinating deliveries and backhauls with non-member food access organizations stretching from Oklahoma City through Muskogee to Northwest Arkansas.

Have questions or are interested in joining our stakeholder group, sponsoring, or partnering with us as part of this project? Please email info@rgfoods.net for more information.