NCGT Monthly Project Update

In This Issue

NCGT Meeting Notes

NCGT to Support Expansion of Piedmont Farm School

NCGT and Lowes Foods Develop Mapping Tools for Retail Store Managers

New Resources on NCGT Website

Meeting Notes
Read the notes from our last Management Team meeting (opens as a .pdf).

About NCGT

GOAL | Bring more locally-grown foods - produce, meat, dairy, and seafood - into mainstream retail and food service supply chains, thus enhancing food security by increasing access to local foods and by strengthening the economics of small to mid-sized farm and fishing operations.

STRATEGY | Identify the most promising solutions by which local production and associated value-added activities can enter local retail and food service markets, pilot these solutions in North Carolina, and evaluate and report the results for the benefit of other states and regions.

September 30, 2013

Greetings all,

Thanks for reading our monthly project update and please let us know what you think!

Sincerely,

The NCGT Management Team

NCGT To Support Statewide Expansion of

Piedmont Farm School

The NC Growing Together project will provide support for the statewide expansion of NC Cooperative Extension's nationally-recognized Piedmont Farm School in 2014.

The School educates growers on strategies for successfully accessing and sustaining relationships with local buyers, as well as assessing the viability of these new market opportunities to meet the goals of their farm businesses. Look for more information on the NC Growing Together project's website soon.

NCGT and Lowes Foods Develop Mapping Tools to Help Store Managers Identify Local Vendors
With the addition of over 30 farms as vendors delivering direct to stores, Lowes Foods reports Direct-Store purchasing has tripled from 2012 to 2013. To further facilitate direct-store purchasing, NCGT developed interactive tools for the store managers to visualize where farms are in relation to their stores. View the map in the NCGT website's new "Resources For Producers" section.

New Resources on NC Growing Together's Website

NC Growing Together's partners are developing practical tools for producers and buyers to make it easier to do business together.

These materials will be housed in the new "Resources" section of the NCGT website, which has four sub-sections: "For Producers", "For Buyers", "Research", and "Tools". The sub-sections will be populated over time.

Currently, three guides are accessible in the "For Producers" section: Feast Down East Farmer Standards and Handling Procedures; Lowes Foods Locally Grown: Guide to the Retail Market for Potential Vendors 2013; and Foster-Caviness Local Food Manual for Farmers, Growers, & Vendors (all open as .pdf).

Look for more materials posted to the "Resources" sections soon!

Project Contact Information

Rebecca Dunning, NCGT Project and Research Coordinator, rebecca_dunning@ncsu.edu, 919-389-2220

Nancy Creamer, Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC State University; and Project Director, NC Growing Together, nancy_creamer@ncsu.edu, 919-515-9447

John O'Sullivan, Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC A&T State University; and Co-Principal Investigator, NC Growing Together, johno@ncat.edu , 336-285-4683

Michelle Schroeder-Moreno, NCGT Academic Coordinator, michelle_schroeder@ncsu.edu, 919-513-0085

Joanna Lelekacs, NCGT Extension and Training Coordinator, joanna_lelekacs@ncsu.edu, 919-244-5269

John Day, NCGT Military Partnership Coordinator, john_day@ncsu.edu, 704-785-6670

Ariel Fugate, Locally Grown Accounts Representative, Lowes Foods; and Lowes Foods Liaison, NC Growing Together, ariel.fugate@lowesfoods.com, 859-552-3467

JJ Richardson, NCGT Website and Communications Coordinator, jj_richardson@ncsu.edu, 919-527-9891

NC Growing Together is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, grant #2012-68004-20363.

� 2013 NC Growing Together