Innovation in...Economics (Specialty Foods

Food Halls are a growing trend nationally and combine the experience of a farmers market with dining. Often located in renovated buildings, food halls offer spaces for food vendors, bars, and specialty food shops. Many food halls have a retail component.

• The Pizitz in Birmingham, Alabama, is located in a renovated department store. The upper floors have been converted to residential condos and the ground floor features 14 food stalls, a full-service restaurant, a bar, three retail spaces, and a co-working space. The Pizitz has an outdoor garden that features yoga, movies, and special concerts.

• St. Roch Market in the Bywater

District of New Orleans is a former farmers market that has been converted into a food hall. Self-styled as a “destination for the culinary curious,” St. Roch Market features 12 vendors. It is highly focused on entrepreneurial development. St.

Roch is also a de-facto community gathering place with a weekly game night and an adjoining farmers market. • Plant City in Providence is a smaller focused concept on plant-based products. As a food hall, it is highly targeted and driven by a private investor.

For Manchester, a food hall could be the foundation for a broader concept capturing the gap in specialty food, expanding the destination appeal of downtown, incubating entrepreneurs, welcoming families, and becoming an inviting place for visitors.

The concept of a Food Hall could be expanded into a broader concept. Cooking Matters is a national program that empowers families at risk of hunger with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to prepare healthy and affordable meals. Cooking Matters brings together local culinary and nutrition experts, as well as the Nutrition Connections Staff from UNH Cooperative Extension and enthusiastic volunteers, to lead hands-on courses that give participants the know-how to select tasty and low-cost ingredients, stretch them across multiple meals, and use healthy cooking techniques and recipes that help them provide the best nourishment possible to their families (Source: Nhfoodbank.org). Alternately (or additionally), display kitchens and cooking schools offer food-based “experiential retail.”

Manchester should consider partnering with Culinary Medicine programs (one exists at Dartmouth-Hitchcock) or the curriculum of local schools and colleges. Of particular importance is the concept of incorporating youth into these efforts.