NCGT Monthly Project Update

In This Issue

NCGT Meeting Notes

NCGT and Cooperative Extension Collaborate on Annual Extension Conference Trainings

NCGT Local Food Supply Chain Fellows Investigate Local-to-Mainstream Distribution and Marketing

North Carolina Local Food Infrastructure Inventory Map Posted Online

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.

December 3, 2013

Greetings all,

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

Sincerely,

The NCGT Management Team

NCGT and Cooperative Extension Collaborate on Annual Extension Conference Trainings

NC Growing Together collaborated with Cooperative Extension to coordinate three workshops at the annual Cooperative Extension conference held on November 4-6 in Raleigh, NC.

The Marketing Opportunities through Season Extension workshop featured NCGT staff and Cooperative Extension and business partners as speakers and drew an audience of 75 Extension professionals. View the presentation here.

The Local Food Systems Programming: Engaging all Extension Program Areas and Community Resources in a Systems Approach workshop featured NCGT staff and Cooperative Extension as speakers and drew an audience of 88 Extension professionals. View the presentation here.

The Role of Extension in Enhancing Access to Local Foods workshop featured Cooperative Extension and other partners as speakers and drew an audience of 75 Extension professionals. View the presentation here.

NCGT Local Food Supply Chain Fellows Investigate Local-to-Mainstream Distribution and Marketing

NC Growing Together is sponsoring two MBA students through the NC State University Poole School of Management to work on project objectives.

Sebastian Naskaris, a first year MBA student, is working on select days during November and December at Merchants Distributors, the warehouse distributor for Lowes Foods Stores and other grocery chains. The goal is to better understand the challenges and opportunities of moving locally-sourced products from small and mid-scale vendors through a large mainstream warehouse distributor.

Jessica Newsome, a second-year MBA student, is working with NC State and Cooperative Extension agricultural economist and marketing specialist Gary Bullen to identify promising supply chain channels to bring NC seafood inland to groceries and other buyers. This work includes interviews with producers, processors, buyers, and others to find win-win opportunities along the local-to-mainstream supply chain.

For more information on the NCGT Supply Chain Fellows, please visit the NCGT website.

North Carolina Local Food Infrastructure Inventory Map Posted Online

During the summer and early fall, NCGT worked in collaboration with NC Cooperative Extension field staff to create a mapped inventory of businesses that serve as intermediary steps in local food supply chains. Primary data sources for this site were business databases, NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services website information, and contact with Extension field staff and local economic development personnel.

This inventory will remain online with "Add Location" and "Contact" links for the duration of the NCGT project. The site, with map and downloadable data, is designed to allow businesses, individuals, non-profits, food councils, and other groups to easily access this information to determine the location and type of food businesses in their areas for further investigation and development of their local food systems.

Visit the Statewide Local Food Infrastructure Inventory Map here.

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