Are You in the Good-Food Trade?

Good Food,

Good Opportunities,

Good Business

March 17-18, UIC Forum

The Midwest's leading Good Food event is just around the corner and the opportunity to expand your business skills and/or sales is tremendous. On Thursday March 17, the Financing Farm to Fork conference offers a remarkable educational program to help build the skills of farms and food businesses to grow their business and even raise money from loans or private investors. In addition, the Trade Show and Food Policy Summit on Friday, March 18 is the leading gathering place for trade buyers, farmers and food manufacturers selling into wholesale markets, and more.

The school food educational track includes many of the leading school district foodservice operators interested in purchasing local food. In addition, the Green Chicago Restaurant Cooperative

is having a major meeting with stakeholders to discuss the development of a local food purchasing system for restaurants and foodservice companies. The opening symposium speakers include:

Sheila Simon, Illinois Lt. Governor

Warren Wribley, Director, Illinois Dept. of Economic Opportunity

Ann Wright, USDA Undersecretary

Ken Kaplan, MIT Collaborative Initiatives

Toni Liquori, School Food FOCUS

Rochelle Davis, Healthy Schools Campaign

Bob Scaman, Goodness Greeness

Erika Allen, Growing Power

Jim Slama, FamilyFarmed.org

And of course the exhibit floor includes many of the leading companies and farms selling into wholesale markets!

Meet the Buyers Networking Reception

March 18th, 6:00-7:00 ~ UIC Forum

Looking to secure valuable face time with wholesale buyers? Meet some of Chicagoland's largest buyers of local foods! This event is meant to play matchmaker between farmers and food producers and a wide range of buyers from supermarkets, distributors, restaurants, and institutions. It's a reverse trade show in which the buyers have a table and meet farmers and food producers.

Buyers confirmed for this event include:

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Heidi J. Wederquist,

Director of Quality Assurance & Food Safety - Purchasing

Dill Pickle Food Co-op

Vinnie Hernandez, General Manager

Tommy Berbas, Produce Buyer

Sharon Hoyer, Assistant General Manager

Whole Foods Market

Jose Valadez, Midwest Produce Coordinator

David Spear, Midwest Local Food Forager

Gabe Weldin, Grocery Team Buyer

Goodness Greeness

Bob Scaman, President and CEO

Ron Cropper, Vice President

SugarToad Restaurant

Geoff Rhyne, Chef

Zandra Torrico, General Manager

Local Folks Foods

Paul Skirvin, Product Quality Control and Development

Steve Spencer, Buyer

Door to Door Organics

Chad Arnold, President

Bret Ebel, Chicago Location Director

Lou Malnati's

Jim Freeland, Purchasing Director

Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks

Irv Cernauskas, Owner

Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality

(Chicago Public Schools)

Jean Saunders, Director of Marketing

Niman Ranch

Paul Willis, Co-Founder

Trying to Source Local Good Food?

Looking to Sell, Buy, and Connect with those in the Trade?

Check Out Our GROWING Exhibitor List for the

FamilyFarmed Trade Show

11:30-6:00, Friday, March 18, UIC Forum

A la Card Chicago ~ Academy for Global Citizenship ~ American Grassfed Beef ~ Animal Welfare Approved ~

Arthur Produce Auction, Inc ~ Associated Milk Producers, Inc. ~ Barbara's Bookstore ~ Bio Soil Enhancers, Inc. ~ Birky Family Farms Country Gourmet ~ Brian Severson Farms ~ Chicago Botanic Garden ~ Chicago Indoor Garden, Inc. ~ City Micro Farms, LLC ~ Co-op Image, Co-op Sauce LLC ~ Cook's Bison Ranch ~ Cristina Foods, Inc. ~ Crop to Cup Coffee Company ~ Dietzler Farms ~ Dill Pickle Food Coop ~

Door to Door Organics ~ Eden Farms Incorporated ~ Edible Chicago ~ Esther's Place ~ FamilyFarmed.org ~ Farm Business Development Center ~ Farmer Veteran Coalition ~ Food & Water Watch ~ Grass Point Farms ~ Grassfields

~ Green Submarine Pickles ~ Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks ~ JDY Gourmet ~ Kilgus Farmstead Inc. ~ La Mexicana Inc. ~ Lakeside Foods ~ Living Water Farms, Inc. ~ LocalFolks Foods ~ Manna Organics, LLC ~ Mindful Metropolis ~ Natural Direct LLC ~ Nature's Farm ~ Nature's Path Foods Inc. ~ New Trends Publishing ~ Niman Ranch ~ Nordic Creamery ~ Oregon Tilth ~ Organic Valley ~ Q7 Ranch ~ Renaissance Farm ~ Riveridge Produce / Local Michigan & Wisconsin Apples ~ Rockome Garden Foods ~ Square One Organics ~ The Blueberry Store / True Blue Farms ~ The Scrumptious Pantry ~ Truitt Bros., Inc. ~ Two Cookin Sisters Specialty Food Company ~ Urban Ponics LLC ~ Wertheimer Box Corp. ~ Weston A. Price Foundation & Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund

Get your Trade Day tickets here and please visit our exhibitor page online for the most up-to-date listings!

FamilyFarmed.org would like to thank the following Sponsors for their support of the 2011 FamilyFarmed EXPO.

Please be sure to support these companies with your business throughout the year!

So You Want to be a Farmer?

Friday, March 18

5:30-7:00 pm

FREE WORKSHOP!

(No Registration Necessary)

Leading experts discuss opportunities available to people from all walks of life to become a farmer:

�Sheri Doyel, Angelic Organics Learning Center

� Michael O'Gorman, Farmer-Veteran Coalition

� Larry O'Toole, Growing Home

� Mike Sands, Prairie Crossing Farm Incubator
� Moderator: Patsy Benveniste, Chicago Botanic Garden

Michael O'Gorman

Farmer-Veteran Coalition Director and Founder Michael O'Gorman will be speaking March 18th on the "So You Want to Be a Farmer" panel. O'Gorman farmed for 40 years and has been Production Manager for several of the West Coast's largest organic vegetable companies, growing over $200 million in organic food in the past two decades..

"I got involved helping young men and women coming back from war start to farm," he said recently in a New York Times article, "because I see in them the temperament of someone who can get into farming and stick with it...The military is not for the faint of heart, and neither is farming".

Check out this amazing workshop for FREE! And, get your ticket to Trade Day to enjoy all the other fantastic programming for the trade, OR get a ticket and stick around for the famous Localicious party after! Registration is required for other Friday programming and Localicious click here for ticket information.