East End Food Hub reopens Riverhead event space as phase one

East End Food opened the event space at the East End Food Hub at 139 Main Road in Riverhead on March 2, 2026, a relaunch the nonprofit described as “phase one” of a larger regional food hub. The organization said the reopening will include events and pop-up farmers markets while construction continues on the commercial kitchen and other food hub infrastructure.

The hub site is listed as 139 Main Road, Riverhead NY 11901, and has been described in other coverage as located on Route 58 in Riverhead. East End Food negotiated a long-term lease with an option to purchase the Main Road property in 2023 and began construction that year, the group’s timeline shows.

The project follows a 2024 setback that paused food processing and led to staff layoffs after an unexpected termination of the pilot kitchen lease at the Stony Brook Southampton campus. Executive Director Marci Moreau said the pause left the nonprofit “an East End Food without a kitchen, which wasn’t the greatest thing,” and added, “we are full steam ahead in getting into this new hub in Riverhead to just begin again - and hopefully be bigger and brighter.”

A $5 million New York State Regional Farm to School Infrastructure Grant awarded in 2025 underpins the kitchen build-out and program restoration. East End Food framed the grant as critical, saying the funding “will allow us to complete the build-out of a commercial kitchen and purchase the property at 139 Main Road in Riverhead as a permanent home for our growing food hub.” Construction on the kitchen and hub infrastructure remains underway even as the event space reopens.

Operational metrics highlight the hub’s role in local food systems: last year East End Food purchased 28,896 pounds of surplus fruits and vegetables from local farms and diverted nearly 4,300 pounds of composted scraps from landfills during processing in partnership with another local nonprofit. The nonprofit has worked with five school districts to enhance breakfast and lunch menus, nourishing over 9,000 students, and has partnered with seven food pantries and three senior centers.

Planned Phase Two work includes a proposed 7,500-square-foot multi-use building to host a year-round farmers market with vendor stalls, cooking demonstrations, events and a higher-volume processing kitchen to handle larger amounts of local produce. Earlier fundraising events to unveil the project included a cocktail party at Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton featuring producers such as Balsam Farms in Amagansett, Mecox Bay Dairy in Water Mill and Treiber Farms in Peconic.

The East End Food Market currently operates at 139 Main Road with seasonal hours listed as Fridays 3 to 7 p.m. through the end of October and a winter market scheduled to reopen Saturday, Nov. 26. For more details the hub lists contact info as info@eastendfood.org, (631) 204-3292 and eastendfood.org. With the event space active and the $5 million grant financing kitchen completion, East End Food is positioned to restore farm-to-school shipments, expand year-round market access and scale processing capacity for regional farms.