CHARLESTON, SC — South Carolina’s first food hub here, GrowFood Carolina, passed the $1 million mark in payment to growers in 2014, according to Sara D. Clow, general manager.

The food hub began operations in 2011 and had set a $660,000 cumulative payment-to-farmers goal  for 2014, Clow told The Produce News.

GrowFood Carolina operates from a renovated warehouse in Charleston, connecting growers within a 120-mile radius to supermarkets, restaurants and foodservice institutions, serving as a wholesale logistics center for local produce.

Clow, brought in to run the start-up by the Coastal Conservation League, a nonprofit acting as incubator for GrowFood, told The Produce News that the operation has grown to 55 farmers from five.

Produce is being shipped year-round to about 140 supermarkets, restaurants, caterers and other customers, Clow said. Whole Foods, Earth Fare and Harris Teeter are among its supermarket customers.

Martin Eubanks, assistant commissioner of agriculture at the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, said he views GrowFood Carolina as a harbinger of things to come. Eubanks hopes his department can help set up four to six hubs and many more key “food nodes” to supply the hubs for efficient logistics around the state.

Clow was bullish for this year, looking forward to “a great 2015. This past year was a wonderful one for locally grown and produced food in the low country as the interest and demand continued to grow,” she said in a statement. “The support from our local consumers and restaurant chefs made it possible for us to surpass our sales goals for 2014 and for us to reach the $1 million mark paid back to farmers since first opening our doors. We look forward to giving even more back to farmers in 2015 and the years to come.”  

New in 2015 is a partnership with Silo, a local, direct-to-consumer company that offers produce, meat, dairy, breads, baked goods and more from South Carolina and Georgia. Customers can order weekly from Silo online, then pick up their orders at the GrowFood warehouse.

A recent New York Times article  reported on research that found that many food hubs had become self-sustaining and even profitable — but in the last year, several also have gone out of business. Grasshoppers Distribution, a food hub in Louisville, KY, failed late last year, and MOO Milk & Coastal Farms and Foods in Maine also have closed.

“I think the honeymoon period for food hubs is coming to an end,” a director of a food hub in Massachusetts was quoted by the Times. Yet, he noted the number of start-ups involving stalwarts of the tech industry that are springing up to improve the connection between farmers and local markets.

“There’s some pretty serious venture capital money flowing into this business,” he told the Times.