Oregon is an agricultural state with a diverse set of large and small farms. Yet, at the grocery store, most food comes from industrial farms—often out of state. This poses a problem for people who want access to local food. It’s also a challenge for small farms that want to reach consumers. In Northwest Oregon, the Clatskanie Farmer Collective is trying to change that through a year-round food hub, currently open five days a week.
Jasmine Lillich, executive director of Clatskanie Farmer Collective, started the program after she inherited her grandfather’s farm and moved back to Clatskanie, her hometown. She’d been studying agriculture in Ashland, Oregon where there was a robust food system. “Everyone knew you went to the farmers market first,” she said, adding, “You couldn’t walk down the street in Ashland without being sold a local head of lettuce.” Clatskanie had a farmers’ market but it only ran once a week during the growing season. In 2021, Lillich and her husband purchased a building in Clatskanie they hoped could be used for a food hub and formed a nonprofit. In June 2023, the Clatskanie Food Hub opened its doors.
It started small, Lillich said. In the beginning the Food Hub only occupied half the building. Still, she was surprised by the connections this new space helped foster. Visitors lingered to swap gardening advice, share recipes, connect neighbors with food resources, and recommend farm workers. “It’s endless what happens in these spaces around food and community,” Lillich said.
As of July 2025, the Food Hub filled the entire building with food grown or processed within a 100-mile radius of Clatskanie. They’ve grown, in part, by listening to what customers want and finding ways to bring those products to the food hub. When people wanted more diversity of foods, Lillich started partnering with the small business development center to help small agricultural businesses grow or finding ways to keep the growing season going longer for certain in-demand produce.
From the beginning, the Food Hub sold to low-income SNAP and EBT recipients and worked with the Oregon Food Bank to purchase local food. Now all SNAP/EBT users get fifty-percent off their produce bills at the Food Hub thanks to the Double Up Food Bucks program.
Multiple grants helped the Food Hub build a commercial kitchen. A recent one from the Roundhouse Foundation, is going toward general operations so more people can access it. The Food Hub sells products on consignment, allowing farmers to keep a larger share of each sale. “But there’s a risk with perishable products,” Lillich said. “We wanted to be able to rescue products that wouldn’t make it to next week and turn them into value-added products.” The commercial kitchen has also allowed the Clatskanie Farmer Collective to sell more local produce to the school district which can’t do a lot of fresh food preparation.
And the Food Hub keeps expanding what it offers the community. After customers began telling Lillich they wanted a place in the community to enjoy local food, they opened a weekend café serving simple meals made with local produce. In 2026, it became a certified egg handling facility which means small, local egg producers can bring their eggs to the Food Hub and have them be processed and sold to customers, restaurants, home bakers, and other markets that require Oregon Department of Agriculture certified handling.
Though Clatskanie is a small town, the Food Hub has demonstrated what is possible when local food and community investment come together. “Every community should have a food hub,” said Lillich. “And every community knows what their food hub should look like.” In Clatskanie, what began as an effort to connect local food to customers has become a place to build relationships around food.
