NCGT Monthly Project Update

In This Issue:

Lowes Foods Creates Efficient Model for Bringing on Local Vendors at New Stores

Introducing the 2016 Local Food Supply Chain Apprentices!

CEFS' Supply Chain Scholars Bridge Business, Local Food Systems Work

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.

June 16, 2016

Greetings all,

Thanks for reading our monthly newsletter and please let us know what you think.

Sincerely,

The NCGT Management Team

Lowes Foods Creates Efficient Model for Bringing on Local Vendors at New Stores

NCGT_s Laura Lauffer at the Greer_ SC new vendor event.

NCGT's Laura Lauffer speaks at the Greer, SC new vendor summit.

Lowes Foods is expanding in South Carolina, and NC Growing Together support is helping to bring on local vendors around their new stores. Krista Morgan, Lowes Foods Locally Grown Accounts Representative and NC Growing Together Liaison, planned a local vendor summit in Greer, SC on May 27. Morgan worked for months to prepare potential new local grocery and produce vendors and walk them through the steps of insurance, packaging, and labeling requirements, among other things. She also worked to make sure that when they arrived to the event, they would be quickly and effortlessly approved as new vendors.

More than 30 "hyper-local" (meaning from the store's immediate area) vendors were invited to the event. For many of them, it was their first retail experience. Three stations were set up for vendors to rotate through. At the first station, Lowes Foods category managers were on hand to approve all thirty-plus vendors. Morgan had carefully done all the background work so that vendors would be ready for that step.

At the summit, new vendors rotated through stations to streamline the approval process.

At the second station, vendors met with Morgan and Laura Lauffer, NC Growing Together Local Farms and Foods Coordinator at N.C. A&T. Morgan set up their new vendor paperwork and Lauffer offered them helpful resources for their start in retailing, including NCGT's Postharvest Handling materials. At the third station, vendors signed up for in-store Community Table events (an important marketing step) and had their photos and bios taken for store signage.

"What we've done is created a model for bringing local vendors in right from the beginning when we open a new store," says Morgan. The Greer store will open in September 2016, followed by a Greenville, SC store in the beginning of 2017.

As an NC Growing Together partner and with NCGT support, Lowes Foods has developed effective ways of reaching out to and bringing on new local vendors, increasing their local purchasing five-fold since 2012.

Lowes Foods' Vendor Inquiry Forms can be found on the Resources for Producers section of the NCGT website.

Introducing the 2016 NCGT Local Food Supply Chain Apprentices!

The 2016 Local Food Supply Chain Apprentices with their mentors.

We have a great group of Local Food Supply Chain Apprentices on the ground here in North Carolina! Apprentices spend eight weeks working with local food hubs, businesses and organizations to gain hands-on training in local food systems and value chains work. We introduce them below, and then later this summer will report back on their great work. Welcome to all!

Sarah Miller is from Gates, NC and is a Marketing major at Campbell University. She is working with Cumberland County Cooperative Extension.

Rose Mayo is from Knoxville, Tennessee and is a Finance and Public Policy major at the College of William & Mary. She is working with TRACTOR Food and Farms.

Natalie Markowitz is from La Canada, California and is studying Economics and Literature at Duke University. She's working with Richmond County Cooperative Extension.

New Lowes Foods logo

Sandy Ramsey is from Greensboro, North Carolina and is a Plant and Soil Science - Agroecology major at North Carolina State University. She's working with Lowes Foods.

Sebastian Irby is from Wilmington, North Carolina and is a Sustainability Studies major/Biology minor at Wake Forest University. She is working with Feast Down East.

Sarah Massey is from Knightdale, NC and is a Food and Nutrition major at Meredith College. She is working with FreshPoint.

Laura Mindlin is from New York City, New York, and is an Environmental Studies and Spanish/Latin American Studies major at Skidmore College. She is working with Eastern Carolina Organics (ECO).

Gigi Lytton is from Charlotte, North Carolina and has just graduated with a degree in Global Studies and Medical Anthropology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is working with NC Catch.

Michelle McCallum is from Raleigh, North Carolina and is majoring in Animal Science (Industry Concentration) and Agricultural Business Management at North Carolina State University. She is working with agricultural economist Kathryn Boys at North Carolina State University.

Enoch Sarku is from Ghana, West Africa and is studying Agribusiness and Food Industry Management at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He is working with the Local Farms and Food Coordinator Laura Lauffer at the Cooperative Extension Program at N.C. A&T.

Taylor Rose Haslo is from Chinquapin, North Carolina and is majoring in Criminal Justice and Criminology with a minor in Sociology at the University of Mount Olive. She is working with Onslow County Cooperative Extension.

Claire McLendon is from Weaverville and Chapel Hill, North Carolina and is pursuing a Master's in Public Health, Department of Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. She is working with Farmer FoodShare and Working Landscapes.

CEFS' Supply Chain Scholars Bridge Business, Local Food Systems Work


Graham Givens

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems' Supply Chain Scholars are creating connections between business and local food systems work. Graham Givens and Kaitlyn Sutton are both MBA students at NC State University's Jenkins Graduate School of Management. As Supply Chain Scholars, they are looking at ways to build a local and regional food economy.


	Kaitlyn Sutton

Givens is working with NCGT partners to understand the strengths and weakness of using a distributor in local, sustainable food supply chains. He was recently featured as a guest blogger on NC State's Supply Chain Resource Cooperative's Supply Chain View from the Field. Sutton is working with NCGT and the new CEFS' initiative UFOODS (University Food Systems) to identify market opportunities for small and mid-scale growers and ways to build a strong university food system that links the campus community to local food and agriculture.

Givens is also a co-lead for the planning of FoodCon 2016: The Business of Sustainable Foods, a one-day conference on November 11 hosted by NC State and sponsored by NCGT, the Poole College of Management's Business Sustainability Coalition and Supply Chain Resource Cooperative, and NC State's Net Impact chapter.

Project Contact Information

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

Rebecca Dunning, NCGT Project Manager, rebecca_dunning@ncsu.edu, 919-389-2220

John Day, NCGT Seafood and Dairy Supply Chain Development Lead, john_day@ncsu.edu, 704-785-6670

Emily Edmonds, NCGT Extension and Outreach Program Manager, emelders@ncsu.edu, 828-399-0297

Laura Lauffer, Project Coordinator, Local Farms and Food, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Cooperative Extension Program, ldlauffe@ncat.edu, 336-285-4690

Krista Morgan, Locally Grown Accounts Representative, Lowes Foods; and Lowes Foods Liaison, NC Growing Together, krista.morgan@lowesfoods.com, 336-775-3218 ext. 53218

JJ Richardson, NCGT Website and Communications Coordinator, jj_richardson@ncsu.edu, 919-889-8219

Patricia Tripp, NCGT Produce Supply Chain Development Lead, trish@artisanfoodsolutions.com, 336-458-6980

This project is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grant no. 2013-68004-20363 of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

� 2013-2016 NC Growing Together