Farm 2 Fork - Co-manufacturing as a Barrier and Opportunity to Start and Grow a Food Business

WEBINAR RECORDING  August 20, 2021

Community Co-Pack NW is a low barrier contract manufacturer focused on incubating and scaling BIPOC and Women led businesses.

We run a community-oriented production facility that flips the narrative on the co-packing experience and centers it on the maker.

Through this work we will foster a more equitable and inclusive consumer products industry.

Food and beverage manufacturing suffers from inequitable access to co-manufacturing (aka ‘co-packing’) which shows up in many ways.

We will share our assessment of what that looks like in the PNW for an emerging entrepreneur. For example, Oregon is such an amazing state to launch a food business that regional co-packers are often at capacity.

I’ll also share some of the challenges that arise for entrepreneurs working with co-packers and our approach to solve for some of these issues with Community Co-Pack NW. 

Hannah Kullberg is a connector and catalyst in the natural products startup community.

While co-founding and scaling The Better Bean Company from farmer’s markets to national distribution, she intimately experienced the barriers to success.

During her time building Better Bean she held all roles in the business including business development, sales, marketing, HR, basic accounting, and operations.

Since exiting from the company in 2018, she has become a holistic business consultant and advisor. As a business advisor to the Small Business Development Center’s “Getting Your Recipe to Market Program”, she helps launch new food companies into the ecosystem every 6 months and make it navigable.

Her first project is a resource-sharing network for founders and leaders of Pacific Northwest Packaged Food and Beverage companies. It is now an active and growing community of over 530 members.

Hannah obtained a BA in Geography from Vassar College in 2010. She studied food systems & worked on a non-profit educational CSA farm.

Returning to Portland she served on the Portland Food Policy Council and Portland Public Schools Wellness Committee. She received equity training from the City of Portland and non-violent communication training through Alternative to Violence.

She recently completed Lift Economy’s Next Economy MBA program. It is her mission to be a part of building an equitable, regenerative, regional food system.