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Mary and Gavin MacDonald, owners of The Belknap Foodshed. Photo provided by Mary and Gavin MacDonald.
My husband, Gavin, and I got into the food business via a hobby gone WAY wrong (a family competition BBQ team) and never looked back. Five years ago we had the opportunity to open Genuine Local – a food production facility on a mission to provide access to the right equipment to help food businesses grow and succeed. This year, we also founded The Belknap Foodshed – which in it’s broadest sense will be an ag-based maker space – featuring active agriculture, food processing, education, a restaurant, retail and aggregation/distribution services for locally made and grown food.
Why do you think it’s important for New Hampshire to buy and eat local food?
We have always thought that making clean food should be easier – and knowing where your ingredients come from is the first (and possibly most important) step in that effort. Buying and eating local food helps the local food producers remain viable, keeps your food dollars local, helps our communities connect and be more sustainable, reduces transportation expenses and impacts, and – at the end of the day – just tastes better!
What is one accomplishment you’ve achieved recently in your work?
We have launched an on-line farmers’ market through our website that features over 20 local producers and over 300 different locally grown and/or made items. We also offer curb-side contact-less pick-up in Meredith, Laconia or Loudon, or you can have it delivered to your door in Meredith and Laconia. We are very excited to be supporting all these producers and connecting our community with local food.
What is a challenge you face in your work?
Never enough hours in the day! There is so much good stuff going on and so many more things we want to try and implement – we’ll get there by working with others and keeping the community connections at the forefront.
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