Food Processing and Distribution

Food Processing

Food processing focuses on what happens to food from when it is ready for harvest to when it reaches our plates, including how food is moved and processed. Processing refers to how raw agricultural products—including crops and animals—are made edible through activities such as cleaning, cooking, freezing, and canning. Every food goes through some kind of processing and food can be processed through a variety of facilities, including processing facilities, manufacturers, and commercial kitchens. How and where foods are processed can impact the cost of those foods when they are sold to distributors and consumers. As food processing facilities are shut down or consolidated, food must be transported for processing over longer distances, causing increases in transportation costs. Lack of processing facilities can also present a bottleneck for local producers, further exacerbating supply chain issues.

Questions to Consider

• Where are the food processing centers in Central Texas?

• What is their capacity?

• How does a lack of processing centers impact supply and price of food?

• What are the most effective ways to increase processing capacity across a region?

• How can we strengthen increased economic development, workforce development, and worker ownership in the food processing sector?

Food Distribution

Once food is processed, it must then be distributed. Food distributors work to get food from those who produce it to those who sell it. Distributors pick up food from processers and farmers and then either store it temporarily or transport it immediately to retail stores or wholesale buyers. Food distributors can transport food more locally or over very long distances. The types of foods that can be grown in a community impact how far food will be distributed.

There are four main types of food distributors:

• Broadline: Transport a large variety of food in large quantities, often used by retail

• Specialty: Handle special items or special food requirements

• Redistributor: Purchase from manufacturers and distribute to smaller distributors

• Cash and carry: Warehouses that food vendors can visit in order to purchase food

Questions to Consider

• Where are the food distribution centers in Central Texas?

• How does a lack of distribution centers impact supply and price of food?

• How does what can be grown in Central Texas impact food distribution?

• How does the amount of farmland in Central Texas impact food distribution?

• What is the impact of direct-to-consumer distribution?

• What resources are needed (e.g., food hubs, etc.) to support networks of local food packaging and distribution?

• How can we strengthen increased economic development, workforce development, and worker ownership in the food distribution sector?

Unfortunately, not much data is available yet to highlight food distribution in Central Texas. Central Texas Food Bank is working on procuring data on the locations of food distribution centers in Central Texas. Until more data are available, explore how food flows between counties—both inbound and outbound—across Central Texas using this map: https://foodflows.org

A Note on Central Texas Food Bank Wholesale Food Club

Central Texas Food Bank also operates as a distributor. The Food Bank has a 135,000-square-foot facility in Austin, Texas. The warehouse can hold over 7,000 pallets of food, includes over 35,000 square feet of cooler and freezer space, and has 15 loading docks. This allows Central Texas Food Bank to be the distribution center for a network of over 240 food pantries and soup kitchens across its 21-county service area.

Central Texas Food Bank has shifted its inventory over the years away from highly processed foods to fresh foods that can nourish the community and support healthy outcomes. However, from time to time, the Food Bank’s network may need to access options that are not available through its inventory. To that end, Central Texas Food Bank recently launched its Wholesale Food Club. The Wholesale Food Club allows the Food Bank’s network to tap into the Food Bank’s food industry relationships and buying power to solicit the best possible wholesale rates on products for pantries and soup kitchens to purchase at cost through the Food Bank.