A new food storage and processing hub on Madison’s east side is designed to help area farmers sell more produce to restaurants, schools, hospitals, food pantries and other large-scale customers across Dane, Jefferson and Waukesha counties. The multimillion-dollar, 10,000-square-foot Foodshed Partnership facility can handle several hundred thousand pounds of local produce each year, from fresh crops held in cold or dry storage to vegetables that are washed, chopped, frozen or turned into prepared foods. Three nonprofits are working together at the facility: FairShare CSA Coalition and REAP Food Group will connect small-scale and underserved growers with wholesale buyers and provide training, while the Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin will help guide the partnership’s mission. Community meetings helped identify a central challenge: local farmers need better ways to reach wholesale markets. The facility’s for-profit processing and manufacturing operation will be run by Pasture and Plenty, a Madison restaurant and meal-kit business. Its pilot product, Midwest Marinara, combines locally grown and commodity vegetables. The sauce is already being served in local school districts, with food pantry and retail distribution planned. The facility could, for example, hold harvested tomatoes for delivery to a restaurant, prepare and freeze them for a hospital cafeteria, or turn them into pasta sauce for a food pantry or school meal. Pasture and Plenty owner Christy McKenzie said the operation is designed to work with food ranging from raw produce to prepared, frozen and shelf-stable products. The partners say the facility is an important start, but not enough to meet the region’s needs. An additional $37.9 million worth of food is needed to support food-insecure households in the three counties, according to figures cited by the partnership. In Dane County, just 5% of agricultural land is used to grow food for people, leaving room to expand production of fruits and vegetables as well as the infrastructure needed to store and distribute them. REAP Food Group executive director Noah Bloedorn described the current facility as a major accomplishment and said the longer-term goal is to use it as a pilot for substantially greater space and capacity. FairShare CSA Coalition executive director Rachael Maysels said the hub is intended to give farmers more opportunity to grow their businesses.