A Summary of “Innovations in Local Food Enterprise”

By FALPC Intern, Kristina Kalolo

The Wallace Center recently released a report detailing “market-based, consumer-driven solutions for overcoming difficult food access and food equity issues.” Based on research from the Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development (HUFED) Center and numerous innovative projects people are implementing across the United States. The following is a summary of the report.

A) Why Healthy Food Enterprise

Fifty million Americans are food insecure, the majority from lower-income communities and are disproportionately people of color. The report calls upon stakeholders to implement creative market-based and non-market based solutions to ensure that all community members receive the healthy, nutritious food they deserve. The Wallace Center argues that the most innovative solutions include the following characteristics:

• Needs-driven and consumer-based
• Non-conventional forms of social enterprise
• Location-specific
• Built on existing assets
• Emphasis on selling to underserved consumers
• Informed by innovation and experiences across the country

These innovative solutions are situated within value chains are “a supply chain that is designed to link supply with markets efficiently while promoting core values” of equity and fair pay, ecological sustainability, community capacity, health and food access. The report states that successful food value chains:

1. Recruit producers and developing producer networks
2. Identify, brand, and market differentiated farm products
3. Manage infrastructure to transform, pack, and transport farm products
4. Negotiate with buyers to secure a fair return for producers

B) Innovations

The report explains four different areas of innovations including:

1. Affordability and Profitability– Finding ways to reduce costs along the supply chain in local and regional food enterprises, taking advantage of government incentives, and developing new ways to make healthy local food attractive and affordable for low-income communities.
2. Infrastructure and Logistics– Cultivating contract and other “good buyers” to support those who see local food as a good marketing tool, addressing risk management issues, and considering the access needs of low-income community members.
3. Community Engagement– Becoming involved through education and advocacy, reaching out to seniors and ‘bridge builders’ that hold traditional indigenous knowledge, and providing living wage jobs.
4. Marketing– Understanding chances of success by understanding consumer trends and basic market research.

C) Reinventing Food Access One Community at a Time

This report works to achieve innovative enterprises that work towards both social and economic goals. The Wallace Center emphasizes the importance of understanding ‘cross-cutting issues’ and provides resources including:

 

• Respect for all forms of community wealth– The seven main forms are financial, natural, social, individual, built, intellectual, and political.

Yellow Wood And Associates wealth creation hand- outs and worksheets: http://www.yellowwood.org/Handouts%20and%20 Worksheets.pdf

Community Commons interactive mapping, networking, and learning utility: http://initiatives.communitycommons.org/About. aspx

Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Asset Mapping Guide http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/nnw/resources- forcenters/assetmapping.pdf

• Political enfranchisement– Understanding local, state, and national politics and how policy affects their operations.

State and Local Food Policy Councils: Building a Better Food System: http://www.statefoodpolicy.org/?pageID=qanda

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition: http://sustainableagriculture.net/take-action/

Policylink Research and Action Institute: http://www.policylink.org

• Access to capital– Free and low-cost financing that support different stakeholders.

USDA/Wallace Center Regional Food Hub Resource Guide: http://ngfn.org/resources/food-hubs/food-hubs

CDFI Fund Financing Healthy Food Options Financial Resource Catalogue: http://www.cdfifund.gov/what_we_do/resources/ Financial%20Resources%20Catalogue%20PDF. pdf)

NSAC Guide to Federal Funding for Local and Regional Food Systems: http://sustainableagriculture.net/wp-content/ uploads/2010/06/6.18-FINAL-Food-System- Funding-Guide2.pdf

• Access to technical assistance– Appropriate, affordable, and timely services that provide assistance.

Small Business Administration Education/Training/ Technical Assistance page: http://www.occ.gov/topics/community-affairs/ resource-directories/small-business/small-busi- ness-education.html

The New American Foodshed Guide: http://foodshedguide.org/

Start 2 Farm: http://www.start2farm.gov/

• New technology– Social media marketing, online buying platforms, customer management programs, and mobile applications.

Small Business Administration Technology-Related Resources. Start with: http://www.sba.gov/sba-direct/article/111171

National Good Food Network Technology-Related Webinars. Start with: http://ngfn.org/resources/ ngfn-cluster-calls/all-subjects

• Risk management– Taking on a food safety and business perspective.

USDA Risk Management Agency Resources: http://www.rma.usda.gov/

SBA Office of Credit Risk Management: http://www.sba.gov/about-offices-content/1/693

Deloitte & Touche LLP Food and Product Safety Resources: http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Services/ audit-enterprise-risk-services/finance-operations- controls-transformation/food-product/index.htm

Kansas State University Food Safety Risk Manage- ment Guide for the Producer: http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/bookstore/pubs/FOODA- SYSBOOK.pdf

D) Conclusion

The report concludes with recommendations that practitioners assess and implement what will work in their communities, investors see what are available in their area and fund projects that increase healthy food access and enterprise, and policymakers create positive change by studying the cases study and synthesis.