The Glenkens Food Hub was born from the Glenkens Community Action Plan and Propagate’s further work to investigate what the community wanted in terms of local food. One of the things the community said they would like was better access to good, local food, especially vegetables. So, a hyper-local, online food hub was trialled in Dalry, and funding to run a larger pilot project was received from Blackcraig Wind Farm, via Foundation Scotland, on behalf of the Glenkens and District Trust.

Initially, our intention was to stay hyper-local, as we wanted to reduce food miles, sell lower carbon emitting produce, and increase market access for local food producers. However, we wanted others across Dumfries and Galloway to benefit from similar Food Hubs, and we soon realised that multiple hubs were unlikely to be a viable answer in very large and vast region. Food hubs take a lot of administration behind the scenes, and replicating this many times over would require regular funding, with the unlikelihood that they would ever be financially viable. It soon emerged that a hub and spoke model, with one central packing point and multiple collection points run by wonderful volunteers, was the most feasible option. The locations of these points were driven by volunteers appearing from these locations wanting to take produce back for themselves and their friends. This turned out to be a workable scenario, enabling us to serve more people in the wider community.

At the start, we had collections available in Dalry only, and delivery within the Glenkens. Our next two first collection points of Gatehouse of Fleet and Low Auldgirth were trialled successfully. Recently, we have reached ten locations outside the Glenkens. Whilst we do have 4 - 5 very local producers in the Glenkens, most are based within the wider community of D&G, within a 30-mile radius of Dalry.

To keep our customers interested, and through asking them what they would like to see for sale on the hub, we continue to expand our range a little outside this 30-mile area and supplement with other ethical and sustainable produce which fits our ‘Good Food’ criteria, such as coffee, chocolate, and staple vegetables. We continue to speak with, and listen to, our customers and explore ways to expand our product range in alignment with their needs.

Now seems like the right time to change our name from The Glenkens Food Hub to The Galloway Food Hub. Whilst our heart, our packing place at the Glenkens Community Centre and half of our customers are still within the Glenkens, we have a valued and growing customer base and producer network across Dumfries and Galloway. The Glenkens is situated at the heart of Galloway, and we find this location to suit us right now with the links we have established.

We hope that becoming the Galloway Food Hub allows more people and producers to access and benefit from Galloway’s local, climate and nature friendly, online good food marketplace. We are extremely grateful to our fabulous customers, who offer kind words of encouragement that they love what we do, and value the produce that we offer. Our local producers are fantastic, often growing, farming, and making unique food under difficult circumstances, to make a difference to the health of our community and our planet and are the foundation on which the Food Hub is built. A very big thank you goes to all who have volunteered with us since we began. We couldn’t do this without you.

Please spread the word if you value this access to local resources in our beautiful part of the world. If you’d like to be a volunteer or supply produce to the Hub, please get in touch.

Thanks from all of us at

Team Galloway Food Hub