Worcester Regional Food Hub to offer locally sourced dining options at QCC

Photo | Courtesy of Quinsigamond Community College Worcester Regional Food Hub’s Food Entrepreneurship Manager Rob Morris shows off a fresh lunch at QCC’s cafeteria.

Write a Comment

By Timothy Doyle

Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester has partnered with the Worcester Regional Food Hub to offer a selection of locally sourced foods at one of its dining halls.

Current vendors include Worcester companies Simply Delight Baked Goods, offering coffee, pastries, and fruit cups; Bogocado, Taste of Colombia, Joey D’s Wingz ‘n Thingz, and the Food Hub offering a salad bar featuring locally grown produce. Vendors will rotate weekly.

The partnership will increase QCC dining services, providing the college community with culturally competent, diverse foods, according to a statement from QCC.

“Close to 80% of vendors are QCC alumni entrepreneurs, who are paying it forward by coming back to QCC to offer their services to our students. This partnership is not only inspiring for our students who can witness the fruition of a college education, but also serves as a model for other academic institutions," QCC President Luis Pedraja said in a Monday press release from the college.

The Worcester Regional Food Hub provides education and resources to local food startups and helps local farmers with distribution of their product.

“This is a great opportunity for QCC students and staff to get a lot of fresh, quality food from people who really care,” said Worcester Regional Food Hub’s Food Entrepreneurship Manager Rob Morris in the press release. “We also offer vegetarian and vegan options and try to get locally sourced options as much as we can. It’s also a benefit to growing businesses and farms, especially now that many of the markets have ended for the season.”

The partnership with QCC is the latest in a series of projects for the Food Hub. In October, it plans on opening the Fitchburg Public Market on Main street in Fitchburg. At Worcester’s Union Station, the Food Hub is renovating space to provide six commercial kitchens for local food entrepreneurs to use, as well as a small retail space. Throughout the past year, the Food Hub ran a temporary pop-up space in The Glass Tower on Main St., which was closed in August to make way for a new restaurant.