cory natal

hub food road plank

The Hub Food Road Plank is an urban food hub that is in Baton Rouge Louisiana, and area with a rich history.  In the middle of a food desert and a struggling local business industry, The HFRP is an answer to provide the community with a space to enhance the quality of life for the area while respecting what came before it.  

What was once the abandoned Historical Store (circa 1930), has now been remodeled and repurposed as a community farmer’s market. Maintaining its nostalgic façade, pedestrians who are passing by or simply exiting and/or waiting at the CATS bus stop are encouraged to enter the familiar space. Grown on site in the vertical gardens and available to the public, fresh produce can be purchased as affordable and healthy alternatives for community consumption. Outside of the farmer’s market, food trucks from local businesses are provided spaces to promote and grow their business.  In further support for the food trucks, the farmer’s market is equipped with a prep kitchen that allows the truck owners to clean and prepare for daily business as well as spaces for overnight storage.

Through the farmer’s market, visitors can make their way to the exterior dining area, where they can either proceed to purchase food from the trucks or try new foods from the commercial kitchens.  The commercial kitchens provide aspiring chefs and culinary business owners the opportunity and location to present their craft.  The opportunistic businesses are given a fully equipped kitchen, storage / pantry space, as well as a vertical garden to produce their own ingredients for cooking.  Once a business begins to take off and outgrow their starter kitchen, they will move out to seek their own location while a new aspiring business owner will take their place.

Making use of the existing daycare on site, the teaching kitchen provides children with the opportunity to learn how to cook as an afterschool extracurricular activity while they wait for their parents to come pick them up.  With an open kitchen and observation balcony, leisure cooking classes can be held here for culinary students looking to practice and be critiqued on their cooking methods.