The East End Food Hub ushered in spirit of the season last weekend with the opening of its holiday market at 139 Main Road in Riverhead. The market will be open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through the end of the year. 

The market features over 40 local farm, food, beverage, and craft vendors including Sang Lee Farms, Aki’s Kitchen, Catapano Dairy Farm, Milla’s Puffs, Sweet Woodland Farm and many others.

East End Food Hub is a project of East End Food, a Southampton-based nonprofit that connects local farmers and producers with the community to promote sustainable food systems. It has been working on renovating the 5,000- square-foot building formerly occupied by Homeside Florist & Greenhouses, which closed in 2018. The popular winter market opened at the site in November 2021. 

The rebuilding is estimated to cost $3 million. As of July, when groundbreaking occurred, more than $1.3 million in grants and private donations had been secured for the project. A more recent grant of $250,000 added momentum toward a fundraising goal of $600,000 by year’s end. So far, $313,280 has been raised. 

Shopping the market provides a great opportunity to get a sneak peek at the construction progress at East End Food Hub. The rebuild will provide space for a farmers market, demonstration spaces for nutrition education, a shared community kitchen, a food processing area and warehouse as well as cold storage for aggregation and distribution of locally sourced food. Kate Fullam, East End Food’s executive director, will host hub tours on select Saturdays in November and December where the community is invited to visit the site and learn about plans for the facility. Those interested can view the full tour schedule and reserve a spot at eastendfood.org/food-hub.

“East End Food Hub is a significant step in our mission to support local farmers and producers and we’re so excited to share what we’ve been working on and invite everyone to be part of our vision for a more sustainable regional food system,” Ms. Fullam said.

For a full list of vendors and more information, visit eastendfood.org.