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August 2009

In this issue

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Adding your profile to the NGFN Database helps build the good food community
1.    Sysco reports on its good food journey

2.    Value chain researchers on the "write" track
3.    Meet the Network's Upper Midwest Regional Lead Team
4.    September Cluster Call: USDA Funding Opportunities
5.    Farmers Markets as Distribution Hubs
6.    Regional Convenings
7.    Add your profile to the NGFN Database

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Stories

1. Sysco reports on its good food journey

NGFN/Sysco 2008 Case Study Cover

The $40 billion Sysco Corporation is on a mission to meet growing demand for healthy, green, fair, and affordable food from its food service customers -- restaurants, hospitals, universities and more -- across the world. To do that, Sysco last year entered into a partnership with the National Good Food Network to help it source and distribute more Good Food.

With one year of the partnership down, Sysco and the National Good Food Network have released a case study of their activities and learning so far.

The case study details how the NGFN/Sysco partnership approached this work through two regional subsidiaries: Sysco Grand Rapids and Sysco Kansas City. Each region came to the project with unique grower, crop, and market situations. Each was also successful in moving more local produce from growers to food service customers, with positive returns for both. In fact, the new products and marketing in 2008 helped mitigate the downside of a tough year and short season for produce.

An additional report on the partnership's 2009 results is due out in early 2010.

For further discussion on the project, you may also want to check out this video of a recent NGFN Cluster Call webinar featuring on-the-ground perspectives from people involved in the partnership effort.

Other case studies: Also available from the National Good Food Network are case studies on the experiences of those involved in a collaboration between the Balls Foods regional grocery chain in the Kansas City area and the Good Natured Family Farms cooperative.  See all NGFN case studies.

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2. Value chain researchers on the "write" track

Write shopEvidence and examples. The Good Food movement has both, from local economic impact studies to innovative business models.

The critical step required now is to collect, synthesize, and share our evidence and models so everyone involved in building our Good Food future can use this research and learning most effectively.

That's the point of two upcoming "writeshops" of the Value Chain Research Collaboration, a National Good Food Network effort to build understanding of how food markets can move from traditional, anonymous supply chains to business models that incorporate Good Food values.

The Wallace Center and the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service will facilitate the NGFN writeshops. The first, in November, will bring researchers together to boil down the body of known work to the best evidence and models available. The second writeshop in early 2010 will bring researchers and practitioners together to plan how to best package and disseminate the information for the greatest benefit.

Stay tuned for updates from the writeshops. For more information in the meantime, contact Wallace Center program officer Michelle Muldoon at mfmuldoon@winrock.org or James Barham with USDA-AMS at James.Barham@ams.usda.gov.

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3. Meet the Network's Upper Midwest Regional Lead Team

Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Upper MidwestThat's a lot of territory to cover! There is also lots of good food work going on, and yet to do, in this diverse farming region with plenty of people to feed in urban and rural areas from Minneapolis and Des Moines to Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit. The region is also home to the Great Lakes, that global fresh water resource that is sure to draw more people and food production to these states in the future.

It was natural, therefore, that the Upper Midwest would come together as a regional lead team (RLT) of the National Good Food Network last year when the Wallace Center put out a call, and some funding, for groups to get together and connect their work. Eight different regional lead teams formed at that time; their on-the-ground insights and needs now guide the NGFN's work on a daily basis.

The overriding goal of the Upper Midwest team is simply to find ways for the various businesses and organizations involved in building new food and farm systems to function as a regional whole rather than as isolated parts, says team leader Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa.

"We want to be better thinking and collaborating partners in our efforts to increase the production, marketing and sale of healthy, green, safe and affordable food."

A major initiative from the Upper Midwest team so far is an economic impact study now underway that will collect and analyze data for each state, as well as combine that state level information into a regional economic perspective on the benefits and potential of new Good Food systems.

Acting as a regional roundtable, the Upper Midwest team has also built powerful connections among some amazing initiatives and innovative business ventures. Those sitting at the table, and which connect to many more leaders in their own areas and across the nation, include:

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4. September Cluster Call: USDA Funding Opportunities

USDA logo

On the third Thursday of every month the NGFN brings you Cluster Calls - webinars lead by the top people in the world of scaling good food. This month the NGFN connects you directly to USDA grant managers.

On September 17, 2009 at 3:30pm Eastern, Debra Tropp, Branch Chief, Marketing Services Division, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service will lead a panel of grant managers from agencies across the USDA.You will be able to ask your questions directly to the managers of grants including the Healthy Urban Enterprise Development Center, Federal-State Market Improvement Program, Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program, Value-Added Producer Grant Program, and more.

Mark your calendar for this valuable opportunity - you won't want to miss it!

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5. Farmers Markets as Distribution Hubs

farmersMarketGOODSo many creative things are going on in our big Good Food world. Here we note some things you might want to get involved in or tell others about.

Today it's a national contest for redesigning farmers markets so they can better serve as hubs for gathering and distributing food to urban areas. Fabulous prizes await you! The deadline is Sept. 1 for this contest sponsored by GOOD, the Architect’s Newspaper, the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, and the Los Angeles Good Food Network.

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6. Regional Convenings

Face to face meetings are a fundamental part of getting our Good Food work done. Some of the National Good Food Network's regional lead teams will be getting together in the coming months, and the big annual gathering of the Network is in the works. For more information, email us at contact@ngfn.org.

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7. Add your profile to the NGFN Database

YellowPagesAre you part of a food and farm initiative that more people should know about? Are you skilled or knowledgeable in an area of this work and ready to be part of it? Do you have some research to share? Then create your profile on ngfn.org to make sure your work shows up in the National Good Food Network's database of experts, organizations, and information. The database is just starting. Help it grow into the comprehensive clearinghouse we could all use!

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