Fry Family Farms Expanding Their Facilities
Fry Family Farm is expanding their facilities by building an 8,400 square foot facility on their Medford farm, breaking ground today. The facility will also serve other certified organic growers in the Rogue Valley as well as food processing businesses who can rent the certified kitchen. Steve Fry, owner of the farm and new facility says, “After 25 years of selling our produce at the farmers markets in the Rogue Valley, we are excited to be able to open up our own retail store and processing kitchen. The building will also contain a 7,000 square foot processing facility that will help other small farmers break into the wholesale market.” The project has received support and funding from the community, the state and the United Stated Department of Agriculture. The USDA Local Food Promotion Program grant supports the development and expansion of local and regional food business enterprises to increase domestic consumption of, and access to, locally and regionally produced agricultural products, and to develop new market opportunities for farm and ranch operations serving local markets.
Additionally the enterprise is funded in part as one of the governor's Regional Solutions projects to support economic development in southern Oregon. Josh LeBombard, of the Southern Oregon Regional Solution Center, adds that, “The Fry Family Farm food hub is a great example of collaboration between a local agricultural entrepreneur and Federal, State, and local agencies to support a project with potential for great benefits to the local and regional agricultural community.”
While the demand for local and regional foods continues to rise it can be very challenging for many farmers and ranchers to access processing infrastructure that is the appropriate scale to give them access to retail, institutional, and wholesale markets. A farmer who expects to do business with Fry Family Farm in their new food hub facility, Sebastian Aguilar of Chickadee Farm said, “Farming is a tough business for many reasons, one is that the equipment you need is so expensive. For our farm to be able to run produce through the Fry’s new processing facility is a great opportunity that will allow us to increase our scale without needing to invest in our own facility.”
The facility will offer a suite of services to producers, institutional food buyers, restaurants, grocers as well as the community. Suzanne Fry says the family is excited to share the local bounty with their community!
