Who We Are

The Beame family for The Collective Food Hub in Burlington, IA

about Us

Who We Are

The Collective Food Hub is owned by Alex and Sarah Beames. Sarah, formerly Sarah Gerst, was raised in a family known in Southeast Iowa for providing top quality produce, Gerst Family Gardens. Sarah attended farmer’s markets with her parents from a very young age and grew up loving to cook and bake. She often made gourmet meals for lunch and supper for her large family to enjoy. When she was just 13 years old, she started baking chocolate chip cookie bars with fudge frosting and selling them at farmer’s markets alongside her parents. Later, she added cinnamon and pecan rolls.

When it was time to get her first job, her mom encouraged her to apply at the Hy-Vee Bakery. She did, and she got the job. She was hoping to be a baker but was given the duties of packaging and labeling product, doing dishes, cleaning and serving customers. Sarah’s attitude was “Hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.” She worked in the Hy-Vee Bakery for three years and then in the dairy department of the store for an additional three years.

During this time, Sarah developed an interest in making homemade ice cream. She started trying different recipes she found online. She tested the recipes on her Hy-Vee co-workers often having “ice cream parties” in the dairy cooler. Never finding a recipe she loved, she tweaked the recipes and developed a universal ice cream recipe that she now makes into several different flavors.

Eventually, a baker position in the Hy-Vee Bakery came open. Store management, knowing Sarah’s skills and work ethic, encouraged her to apply. She got the job and received valuable training on icing donuts, danishes, and cinnamon rolls. But, she quickly discovered it wasn’t quite the “homemade” way she baked at home. Most everything including the cookies, muffins, pies, and pastries came in frozen and ready to pan up and bake. This sparked her interest in baking once again and she started investigating recipes for homemade danishes and started practicing. She began baking again for farmer’s markets and offering sweet rolls, coffee cake and danishes.

While Sarah was busy baking for Hy-Vee during the day, and for farmers markets at night, another local entrepreneur, Tom Wolf, was busy opening The Collective Food Hub. He started the business in fall of 2019. He got the inspiration from his friend who owned a shared use kitchen and retail space called The Village Hive in Amherst, Wisconsin.

One day, Sarah rode with her mom to The Collective Food Hub to drop off some tomatoes. Sarah had never heard of the store and thought her mom might be donating the tomatoes to a food pantry. But peaking through the window, she saw a bakery case. She learned from her mom what The Collective Food Hub truly was and became a vendor shortly after selling her baked goods alongside her mother’s produce at the store.

Sarah began using The Collective’s shared use kitchen, baking weekly on Wednesdays from 2-5 pm. She had always dreamed of opening a bakery, and though she was only renting the kitchen, it felt pretty close to a dream realized.

Another dream in Sarah’s life was about to be realized. In fall of 2019, Sarah started dating her now husband, Alex. She would cook meals for him and he was very impressed. She brought a lasagna over to his house shortly after they started dating and after trying it he told Sarah she was “wife material”

They got engaged in November of 2020, and then married at the end of February of 2021. On their honeymoon to Door County, Wisconsin, the couple stopped by the place that inspired The Collective, The Village Hive in Amherst, Wisconsin.

Soon after, Tom Wolf approached Alex and Sarah about buying The Collective from him as he was ready to retire. The young couple decided to go for it with Tom still owning the building, but the Beameses purchasing the equipment and renting back the space. Their first order of business was to expand the hours the store was open, a decision that led Sarah to cut back her work in the Hy-Vee Bakery to part-time. Though after only a week in operation, Sarah saw doing both jobs was not going to be possible and resigned her position at Hy-Vee all together.

With that resignation came the freedom to finally create her own products and recipes again. She quickly expanded the offerings at The Collective. She made Take & Bake Shepherd’s Pies that led to the creation of numerous take & bake meals. She then added her homemade ice creams. And then began reaching out to other local vendors adding their products as well including things like Millstream Soda, made in the Amana Colonies. During the holidays, they offered special menus of items like traditional side dishes, dinner rolls and other items to help people in the preparation of their holiday dinners.

After just one year in business, The Collective Food Hub was recognized as the 2022 Small Business of the Year by the Greater Burlington Partnership.

Later that same year, as their business continued to grow, news came that their family was going to grow as well. Just as they found out they were expecting a baby, Tom Wolf asked if the couple would now purchase the building. The couple went for it and now were building owners as well as business owners. And in March of 2023, they also gained another title, Mom and Dad. Roy Beames was born and within a couple weeks of his birth, Sarah was back in the bakery, stating she “couldn’t stay away.” Roy was a good baby and came with Sarah to the bakery for many months before starting daycare.

The Collective Food Hub is a valuable asset to the community. They donate leftover product weekly to the St Vincent De Paul food pantry and are frequent donors of items to events and fundraisers. The business also partners with the West Burlington Fine Arts Boosters program for an annual pie sale.

Sarah and Alex continue to expand their offerings with Sarah’s most recent new interest being in baking and decorating cakes. They plan to provide delicious homemade in house food and locally sourced food products for years to come.

Questions?

Call us at 319.759.3527 or fill out the form below.

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