The MoCo MicroHub was created in collaboration between the Office of Agriculture and the Montgomery County Food Council made possible by a grant from the Washington Gas thorugh the Food for Montgomery Fund of The Community Foundation. The MicroHub is a pilot project exploring how to make a small storage container-style unit (20'x10') work as shared cold storage space, maximizin gthe small space for co-packing and aggregation needs.

Ribbon Cutting MoCo Microhub Cold Storage Unit

Many local farmers experience a shortage of refrigeration space, leading to spoilage of their products. They also often have surplus after farerms markets and other harvest activities, but have few options to store the overage for sale or distribution. The purpose of the MoCo MicroHub is to support small county farms to aggregate their product after harvesting and before distribution to food assistance providers and schools including farm2FoodBank, Farm-to-school and other farm to table programs.

The Moco MicroHub addresses food waste issues by providing County farmers access to a shared cold storage space and will provide a safe storage at one central location for delivery to food pantries, schools, and businesses. IT also addresses the need for cold storage capacity for county farm products and thereby contributes to the County's food system resiliency goals. 

The unit can hold an estimated 10 standard pallets of product. Average estimated capacity will be 8,750 lbs of product at any given time. DUring peak growing/harvest seasons from Mid-March through Mid-November, and product is rotated every two weeks, this storage unit could distribute 303,300 lbs of produce annualy  at an estimated value of $853,000.

To reserve space, farmers will participate in a brief training and request space through the FOOD CORRIDOR APP. (Coming Soon)