HARVEST
LABS
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
A community-centered hub for food processing, preservation, and education.
Harvest Labs is creating shared space, shared tools, and shared knowledge to make local food systems more accessible, resilient, and human-scaled without exploiting the people who grow and make our food.
This is about practical skills, ethical infrastructure, and community-first solutions that actually work.
What Is Harvest Labs?
Harvest Labs is a planned community resource designed to support:
- Small farmers, growers, and food makers
- Individuals and families who want practical food skills
- Educators, organizations, and community groups
Our focus is on food processing, preservation, and production. Our goal is to help people turn raw ingredients into shelf-stable, usable, and valuable food using shared resources and collaborative systems.
Why Harvest Labs Exists
Access to equipment, space, and hands-on knowledge is one of the biggest barriers in local food systems.
Harvest Labs exists to lower that barrier by:
- Sharing tools instead of duplicating them
- Teaching skills instead of gatekeeping them
- Centering fairness instead of extraction
We believe local food systems should work for the people sustaining them, not just the people profiting from them.
What’s Coming Next
Spring 2026 Preview
Harvest Labs is currently in its planning and partnership-building phase.
Public workshops, pilot programs, and shared processing access are planned to begin Spring 2026, with programming shaped directly by community needs and collaborative partners.
The intent is preservation skills, fermentation, producer pilots, and food systems education – built thoughtfully, not rushed.
Get Involved
Harvest Labs is actively building relationships with growers, educators, organizations, and community members.
Stay Informed
Occasional updates on Harvest Labs planning, partnerships, and what's coming next.
Harvest Labs
A community-centered food processing, preservation, and education hub currently in development.
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