NCGT Monthly Project Update

In This Issue

Annual Partner Meeting Survey

New Fort Bragg Farmers' Market Brings Local Foods to Base

NCGT Releases New Guide to Wholesale and Retail Product Specifications

NC Growing Together Sponsors Interns at Lowes Foods and Food Hubs

Upcoming Events: Fresh Produce GAPs Workshops, Local Foods Packaging and Specifications Webinar

Please take our Annual Partner Meeting Survey!
We are excited to be planning our Annual Partner event (tentatively scheduled for January 15) as well as a possible unique partner event in October. Please take our short 6-question survey in order to gain your insights while we plan. Thank you for providing us with your valuable feedback!

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.

August 29, 2014

Greetings all,

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

Sincerely,

The NCGT Management Team

New Fort Bragg Farmers' Market Brings Local Foods to Base

Vince and Laura Evans of Evans Family Farm, at the Fort Bragg Farmers Market.

On Saturday August 23, Fort Bragg held its first local farmers' market. Timed to coincide with the popular monthly 5k walk/run sponsored by the Fort Bragg MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) office, the market featured four farmers selling a variety of fresh produce and value-added products.

The impetus to start an on-base Farmers Market came from LTG Anderson, the 18th Airborne Corps Commanding General, says Michelle Hagwood, Fort Bragg Family and MWR Business Operations Officer. "Commanding General Anderson wanted to see it happen," she says.

But it was easier said than done. "I couldn't find the farmers," she explains. Then Hagwood connected with John Day, NCGT's Military Partnership Coordinator, and Patricia Tripp, who wears two hats as NCGT's Wholesaler Liaison and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Produce Safety Coordinator.

Day and Tripp introduced Hagwood to Fayetteville-area farmers who were interested in selling on-base, while Tripp worked with them to get their farms GAPs-certified. The USDA-developed GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices) certification system focuses on best practices to minimize microbial contamination risks in the produce supply chain.

"They have those connections [to farmers]. I don't think we would have had a farmers market on Saturday if not for John and Trish", she says. One of the farmers selling at the market is Vince Evans of Evans Family Farm, who was featured in last month's NCGT update.

Having an on-base Farmers Market supports efforts to keep soldiers healthy, Hagwood says. "We need our soldiers to be physically and mentally fit, and whatever you put in your body contributes to that," she notes.

The next Fort Bragg Farmers' Market is scheduled for September 27. For more information, please visit the Fort Bragg MWR website or contact John Day, NCGT Military Partnership Coordinator, at john_day@ncsu.edu or 704-785-6670.

NCGT Releases New Guide to Wholesale and Retail Product Specifications

NC Growing Together has released a guide entitled Wholesale and Retail Product Specifications: Guidance and Best Practices for Fresh Produce for Small Farms and Food Hubs.

The manual was developed to assist individual growers and grower-based distributors and food hubs by outlining a clear set of descriptive guidelines for quality, size, labeling, packaging and USDA grade classification for select fresh produce. The manual also provides guidance on how to improve the presentation of produce in the marketplace in order to enhance sales to retailers and wholesalers.

In response to producers' requests for historical market prices, NCGT also digitized prices for the years 2008 through 2013 for the products in the manual, recording Thursday wholesale prices at the Raleigh Farmers Market as reported by the NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Market News daily reports.

The historical pricing data can be downloaded here: http://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/ncgt/raleigh-fm-wholesale-prices.xlsx

Graphs of the last three years of prices are here:

http://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/ncgt/raleigh-fm-price-graphs.pdf

The full guide can be downloaded from NCGT's website under Resources for Producers.

NC Growing Together Sponsors Interns at Lowes Foods and Food Hubs

NCGT is sponsoring paid interns and apprentices at NCGT partner organizations, food hubs, food distributors, and retailers to support the next generation of business leaders committed to building local food systems.

Two summer interns are at NCGT partner Lowes Foods. Sydney Grice, an NC State University student, worked primarily on the Carolina Crate program. She wrote biographies and collected photos for over 60 farmers contributing to the boxes. The biographies are used in weekly emails and newsletters going to Lowes Foods customers. An Onslow County native, Sydney also researched Onslow County food producers and popular area foods for Lowes Foods' new store opening in Jacksonville in the fall.

Krista Morgan, an NC State University Horticulture graduate and Winston-Salem resident, began as a research assistant to NCGT and Lowes Foods in July. Her responsibilities include working with Forsyth County Extension Agent Mary Jac Brennan and other local food businesses and producers to plan community table events at Lowes Foods stores that promote local foods. One goal is to build a model for how extension agents can be involved with retail grocers and their customers.

In 2014, two interns also worked with NCGT partner food hubs. North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University Environmental Science graduate Jarette Hurry worked as a food hub research intern in the spring of 2014. Among other things, Hurry spent time at food hubs identifying operation standards and best practices that could be used by all food hubs to increase productivity and profitability. Now an Agriculture Extension Agent in Bertie County, Hurry says "the NCGT internship gave me the opportunity to collaborate with specialists from multiple disciplines on meaningful projects that directly impacted farmers, families and communities In North Carolina."

Seasonal, local produce from Feast Down East.

Tara Arnette, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a degree in Environmental Science, began working with Feast Down East in January of 2014. Located in rural Pender County, the Feast Down East Processing and Distribution Center works closely with local farmers to provide fresh produce for the weekly Lowes Foods Carolina Crate. Tara works with the farmers on weekly availability and packs the boxes for distribution across North and South Carolina. With over 200 boxes being shipped out weekly, the program has been a huge success for both Feast Down East and Lowes Foods.

NCGT will continue to sponsor interns and apprentices in 2015. Please contact NCGT Project and Research Director Rebecca Dunning if you are interested in hosting an intern or apprentice at your business or organization.

Upcoming Events: Fresh Produce GAPs Workshops, Local Foods Packaging and Specifications Webinar

NC Growing Together, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) will be offering workshops aimed at providing farmers with the tools to reduce food safety risks and meet market requirements.

The two-part Fresh Produce Good Agricultural Practices Workshop Series combines classroom and on-farm instruction to provide producers with the tools needed to identify potential food safety concerns, strategies to minimize potential contamination, and direct assistance to producers in completing a fresh produce safety plan.

Workshops begin in September in Pender County. For more information, contact Trish Tripp or register online at www.carolinafarmstewards.org.

NC Growing Together and the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Professional Development Program (SSARE PDP) are co-sponsoring a webinar on September 4 for produce farmers, extension agents, and other farm service providers.

During Local Foods - Understanding Packaging & Specifications for Wholesale Markets, expert panelists will guide attendees through pack size requirements, quality and specifications; explain how and why specifications may differ in wholesale markets; and explain how a grower may better communicate with a buyer. There will also be a detailed discussion of labeling requirements for producers selling to retail grocers, including how to acquire PLU/UPC codes.

The webinar be held on September 4 from 10-11:30 am and is FREE. For more information please visit the NCGT website or simply join the webinar at: http://go.ncsu.edu/PackagingSpecsWebinar

Project Contact Information

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

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

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

Patricia Tripp, NCGT Wholesaler Liaison, patriciatripp1@gmail.com, 336-458-6980.

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.

� 2013-2014 NC Growing Together