The Cold Catch program began as a branded initiative of the Oregon Coast Visitors Association (OCVA) and the Oregon Ocean Cluster (OOC) designed to address the bottlenecks in processing and storage. 

We piloted the program with 6 businesses who needed freezer assets, and later purchased an ice machine for Port of Port Orford. We also have earmarked funds for assets for the Astoria Fisherman’s Co-op once they finish negotiations with the port. 

All these cold-catch assets are offered as no-cost leases, with OCVA remaining ownership of the assets. 

By strategically deploying micro and macro cold storage assets, the program increases access to locally caught, flash-frozen seafood, which supports the growing movement for 100% utilization, and creates new value-added and direct-to-market pathways for coastal businesses.

Collectively, at least $140,000 is moving through these freezers annually. In every case, this capacity increase has greatly increased output – and every partner has expressed that they could still use more freezer space, ice machines, or distribution investment to expand to meet producer and customer demand. 

Explore the map to see where that investment went, and how it is transforming the capacity of food systems in Oregon. 

The Central Coast Food Web, based in Newport, works to strengthen local, coastal and regional food systems by providing services and support to small, independent food producers and making it easier for all people to eat local food. 

Assets funded: Outdoor walk-in freezer (15x20’), 6 open-air seaweed tanks

The freezer is hosting 6-9 different producers at any given time. The seaweed tanks are being used for R&D in collaboration with many partners for future income streams around seaweed, urchin farming, and value-added products.

Impact story: Each upgrade at the CCFW reflects the holistic approach the OCC network is taking to innovation. The commercial kitchen creates immediate opportunities for fishers, farmers, and food makers to process and develop products, supporting everything from value-added seafood to shelf-stable goods. The outdoor freezer tackles an industry-wide need for affordable, reliable cold storage.

That capacity proved critical near the end of 2025, when a storm caused an outage along Yaquina Bay Road and the freezer kept stored products safe until power was restored.

Again this Spring, the Food Share of Lincoln County and Local Ocean Seafoods both had freezers go down. Both these organizations are managing key pieces of the local food supply chain, and in a time of emergency, the Central Coast Food web was able to take their food and store it temporarily in their freezer to avoid devastating product loss.

This is the kind of community engagement and partnership that can happen when resilience is built into our food systems. 

What’s next: CCFW sees demand for large scale, long term cold storage growing, but they don't currently have the capability to arrange double-decker storage in the 15x20 freezer. Their next step is to expand their dry storage space to accommodate more of the right sized refrigerators, and investing in a pallet stacker to move product up into higher shelving. 

Clatskanie Farmers Collective is a year-round nonprofit marketplace offering 100% local products. 

Assets funded: 

• One glass door upright merchandiser freezer used in retail space for customer-facing frozen product sales

• Two upright solid door commercial freezers of similar size and capacity used for back-of-house warehouse storage

• Two chest freezers used for bulk frozen storage

• One commercial undercounter ice machine capable of producing up to approximately 200 lbs of ice per day, used for slacking fish and supporting fresh oyster sales

• One walk-in cooler used for refrigerated inventory storage

Impact Story: These assets have allowed Clatskanie Farmers Collective to significantly expand their operations. The hub currently works with over 100 regional producers and food businesses, with approximately 60 of those producers utilizing cold storage infrastructure in some capacity throughout the year – and about $60,000 worth of products are moving through these freezers annually. 

This added capacity allowed them to support the seafood butchery program at Clatskanie High School by providing cold storage and fish slacking space for seafood used in the classroom program. 

Next steps: Even with the expansion of assets, their biggest challenge is still lack of freezer capacity. The next need is a walk-in freezer to support growing demand for cold storage space so they can continue to expand seafood aggregation, frozen storage, and value-added food production. 

Little Fish Fine Seafood is a local seafood market and cafe in Coos County specializing in fresh, sustainable seafood sourced from local fishermen. 

Assets funded: (1) 10x10 walk in freezer 

Little Fish Fine Seafood uses the freezer for fish, crab, shrimp, and renting space to caterers that specialize in seafood. The freezer has added significant capacity, and more is still needed. They are moving more fish than they can currently store and market. With more freezer space, other fishers that currently store their fish inland could store closer to where they catch, allowing delayed access to make value-added products from their catch. 

Helvetia Market is a local Farm Market in Hillsboro offering produce, meat, and craft beverages all sourced in the Pacific Northwest.

Assets funded: 2 glass-door freezers: one large one small

The freezers are used for wholesale sales direct from Helvetia Market, including a stock of seafood as well as chicken, broth, and frozen vegetables. The market sources from local fisherman whenever possible, and would like to expand their operation by partnering with a wholesaler to stock fish soups, chowders, and other value-added fish products. 

Feed'em Freedom Foundation is a Black-led Regional Food Hub located in Portland that leads value chain coordination and creates pipelines into community sourcing and institutional and direct markets. 

Assets funded: 1 stand-up retail freezer 

This freezer is primarily used for food bank distribution, while their other larger freezers have more purchases moving through. They use it primarily to store proteins, about 10% of which is fish sourced from local fishers. 

Impact story: The Oregon food bank connected Feed'em Freedom Foundation to a fisherman on the coast who was catching, processing, and canning tuna. They were able to distribute that tuna out to their community in Portland through local food purchasing dollars, thanks to support from OSB . 

Feed'em Freedom Foundation wants to build on this momentum to stock more fish – especially when it’s fresh and in season. They currently purchase some from their local native fisherman, but they need funding to access more, and continue building up this model of local food purchasing. 

Their next steps are to open an online marketplace and integrate into trade routes with other food hubs to expand capacity. 

Agricultural Connections Cooperative is an online farmers market and delivery service based in Bend, OR dedicated to making it easy to support local farmers, ranchers, fishers, and small food businesses year-round.

Assets received: TBA

The Port of Port Orford is the unique port on the Oregon coast, where boats are hoisted in and out of the ocean using large cranes. While some ports host larger boats that might fish seasonally for one species, Port Orford’s smaller vessels fish throughout the year, opening in small volume catches. 

Assets funded: 5-ton Ice machine – installed in Spring 2026. 

The new ice system serves the entire local fleet, and is expected to be especially useful to help with demand during the 2026 halibut opener. This machine isn’t a permanent fix to the port’s capacity, but it helped fill the immediate need while they continue working toward a long-term solution.

The Oregon Ocean Cluster is a cross-sector, regional Collective Impact Network, creating a thriving Blue Foods movement and Blue Economy across  Oregon. 

We are fishers, food purveyors, nonprofits, workforce boards, distributors, civic leaders, economic development agencies, academics, and community members dedicated to keeping more “local seafood local.”

By promoting collaboration on key initiatives and developing critical food infrastructure, we are adding value for local businesses, boosting the regional economy, and promoting our region’s environmental health.

Learn more at oregonoceancluster.com.