Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
Quick Take:
Federal funding will help the facility triple its kitchen and storage space, add new equipment and create a statewide food distribution network.
Cottage Grove’s Bohemia Food Hub, a commercial kitchen and food business incubator, secured a $500,000 regional food system infrastructure grant that will transform the facility — and improve Oregon’s food distribution network.
Bohemia announced the funding in July, though originally it expected to receive the funds last September. The Trump administration temporarily froze the funds, causing multiple delays. The Oregon Department of Agriculture received the funds through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure program’s agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The program works to strengthen local and regional food systems by supporting the middle steps of processing, storing and distributing food products from farms to consumers.
Now that the Bohemia Food Hub has the money, Kim Johnson, founder and director of the food hub, says they are “ready to hit the ground running.”
‘Accidental’ development of a food hub
In 2013, Johnson purchased a successful food business, called Tsunami Sushi, from a friend and helped grow it. The company’s tofu sushi got its start at the Oregon Country Fair, and became a staple product in the area’s natural foods stores.
The sushi business outgrew the kitchen it was operating from. With the help of an investor, Johnson purchased a 5,000-square-foot commercial property in Cottage Grove. Before working in the food business, Johnson had worked in construction, so she was able to build the kitchen space to accommodate the growing business. As the sole proprietor of Tsunami Sushi, Johnson had to navigate all of the hurdles of expanding production without help.
“I had to self-distribute,” Johnson said. “I had to buy a refrigerated vehicle to get my products up to Portland, because I outgrew the number of coolers I could fit in my old Mercedes station wagon. Everything that you need to buy is thousands of dollars. As everything was scaling up, the next piece of equipment I needed was cost-prohibitive.”
Figuring out how to do what she needed to build a successful food business was hard for Johnson. But she felt strongly that it didn’t need to be hard for other people. She began renting the kitchen space to other food businesses when she wasn’t using it, helping them grow.
“It turned into this accidental development of a food hub,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know what a food hub even was, but I did have a food business.”
Ultimately, she sold her business to one of the companies using her kitchen. That freed up her time.
“I was able to focus full time on the idea of really developing this space that I was building and formalizing it as a shared-use commercial kitchen, still a for-profit at that time,” Johnson said. “Then I just started giving away all the answers I had to the folks that were coming in and using my kitchen.”
Twelve tenants in various stages of business currently use the space. The hub serves diverse needs, such as those of Pink Wagon Foods, which makes pickled red onions, and Wildfire Elixirs, which makes apple cider vinegar tonics. Johnson and the Bohemia team provide mentorship at each stage of the food development process.
Major expansion plans
The grant funding will enable a massive expansion, which will triple the size of the hub’s kitchen and storage space, where they’ll install walk-in coolers, freezers and climate-controlled storage will be installed. Johnson will also construct an addition at the site which will house $250,000 worth of new equipment and include commercial bakery space, industrial dehydrators and bottling zones. The expanded facility will also have rentable research and development space.
One key component that Bohemia will be able to initiate is a statewide distribution network. “Cross-docking” operations will allow food producers in different parts of the state to deliver their products to Bohemia rather than driving them all over. For instance, a food producer in Ashland who wanted to take food to Portland now has to make the 10-hour round trip. With the new distribution network, they will only have to drive the food three hours to Cottage Grove. The hub will then handle the final leg to Portland, while also bringing products from Oregon’s northern zones south.
Plans also call for a larger food truck pod with space for two incubator food trucks available to startup businesses. Across the street from the main facility, Bohemia is opening a retail storefront this fall that will anchor the redesigned food truck lot. The new lot will feature underground grease interceptors, dedicated electrical connections and direct sewer hookups. All of this is in a prime location, directly across the street from Bohemia Park, which the city improved in early 2025 with a splash pad and additional restrooms.
Chef Benito Ramirez-Lorenzo puts mayo on a torta at Taqueria El Shalom. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield – Report for America 
A torta at Taqueria El Shalom. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield – Report for America 
Pupusas, tortas and quesabirria on the grill at Taqueria El Shalom. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield – Report for America 
Taqueria El Shalom is parked at Bohemia Food Hub’s food court. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield – Report for America
Community impact
Bohemia transitioned to a nonprofit in 2021. That allowed the hub to expand its mission beyond business incubation. The organization now provides multilingual business training to support Cottage Grove’s Latino community, which includes more than 400 Guatemalan refugees. Training is offered in Spanish and Mam, the native language of Guatemalan community members. One man, Benito Ramirez Lorenzo, has taken advantage of this training and is now the proprietor of El Shalom food truck, offering burritos and Guatemalan specialties such as pupusas from the food cart lot.
The expansion comes at a time when food security has become a priority for many communities following pandemic-related supply chain disruptions. Johnson sees the hub’s role as ensuring Oregon communities can access locally produced food, especially during crises or natural disasters.
“There’s no reason folks in the Willamette Valley should have any problems accessing fresh and nutritious food,” she said. “We grow so much in Oregon.”
With the grant funding now secure and construction underway, Bohemia Food Hub is positioned to become a model for rural food system infrastructure development. For Johnson, who spent more than a decade building the organization, the expansion represents years of listening, learning and dreaming.
“We’re ready,” she said.
Bohemia Food Hub
www.bohemiafoodhub.com
Visit the food cart lot at 34 S. 10th St., Cottage Grove
El Shalom Taqueria
https://www.facebook.com/p/El-Shalom-Taqueria-61577854584016/
