The Food Hub on Farmer's Row: Community-Rooted Food Infrastructure and Market Expansion in Atlantic City

This work in approximately five words: Farms and Food Access, Atlantic City, NJ

The Food Hub on Farmer's Row: Community-Rooted Food Infrastructure and Market Expansion in Atlantic City project is supported by OFSA's New Jersey Food System Enhancements Program (FSEP). Communities Revolutionizing Open Public Spaces (C.R.O.P.S.).), in collaboration with Reed’s Organic Farm and neighborhood, nonprofit, healthcare, business, and food-system partners, is strengthening local food infrastructure rooted in Atlantic City’s Pacific Avenue corridor and Chelsea neighborhood while expanding farm-to-market pathways across Atlantic County.

The project advances The Food Hub on Farmer’s Row as a community-centered aggregation and distribution hub that connects New Jersey farms with neighborhood organizations, retailers, restaurants, institutional buyers, and community food access points. Activities include strengthening produce aggregation, expanding cold storage and transportation capacity, testing produce-moving logistics, piloting ordering and fulfillment software, and coordinating relationships between producers and purchasers.

The project builds on existing Farmer’s Row activity, including the UCAN Farmer Training Program's indoor hydroponic production and outdoor growing, community education, green job training, Farm Share programming, farmers markets, and food access initiatives. In 2026, partners are using produce-moving logistics to test transporting orders from Reed’s Organic Farm to C.R.O.P.S. Food Hub operations while preparing for expanded warehouse, staffing, technology, and distribution capacity.

By centralizing logistics, improving market channels, and expanding reliable pathways for New Jersey-grown food, the project will help move fresh food into Atlantic City neighborhoods while supporting local farmers, emerging growers, and community-rooted food enterprises. This project advances the New Jersey Food Security Strategic Plan through Strategy 2.4: Food Enterprise Investment and also supports market channel creation through producer-to-buyer coordination.