The South Huron Chamber of Commerce hosted the first in what they hope will become an annual food and beverage summit this week.
Executive Director Joan Brady explains the goal of the summit was to bring together all of the players in the food and beverage sector to discuss what they're doing. The summit will also aim to inform and inspire others in the industry.
One focus of the summit was the success of "food hubs."
Brady says they have many end users like restaurants and retailers that would like to have local food, and many producers who would like to expand their production. However, he says sometimes the issue is distribution, and an event like the summit can help bring everyone together to share resources, as well as ideas.
"Each of these businesses are starting out small," says Brady. "Certainly we heard some success stories here that they expanded beyond what they had first considered but a lot of us start small and so where we can share resources and share ideas and things like that it benefits everyone."
Brady adds they already have funding for a summit next year and they're hoping it will become an annual event.
