When you think about the business of food, what comes to mind? If it's a restaurant, did you ever stop to consider the journey of the food on your plate: The server who set it on the table, the chef who prepared the meal, the vendors who delivered the ingredients, the farmers who grew, tended, picked, cleaned, and packaged them? Depending on where your food originated, this chain of events can quickly expand in both length and complexity.
Indeed, food systems are comprised of a web of interlocking structures that include production, aggregation, processing, distribution, access, consumption, waste, and policy. This system affects us every day, impacting our lives and our health, from determining what food is available on our grocery shelves to what ends up on our plates every time we sit down for a meal. (Learn more about the complexities of the food system from the Marion Institute).
As consumers, engaging with the journey of our food — exploring the "hows" and "whys" of our food system — empowers us to make more informed choices and to actively contribute to the development of stronger, more resilient, and equitable systems and supply chains. Let's work together to support vibrant and robust local food economies and farming communities!
The Business + Transportation Working Group explores the production, aggregation, processing, and distribution of food. At some point, this group may split into multiple, considering the complexities of each component (already, we have a sub-group focused on mobile markets [see below]!). For now, these are some of the elements we've been exploring:
With the Growing Spaces Working Group, we developed case studies that highlight funding, revenue, community engagement, and other operational insights for various models of growing spaces in our area.
With the Community Engagement Working Group, we developed survey questions to better understand resident food habits/barriers to access, as well as interest/needs for growing food or working in the local food system.
This included queries such as, “how available are fresh foods that are traditional to your family/heritage at your local market?” and "would you be interested in working for or starting your own business in food growing (ex: on a farm) or food processing (ex: making jams, sauces, baked goods)?"
Inventorying and summarizing the existing landscape of job training opportunities (farming, food businesses, etc.) that will contribute to a long-term food security plan.
Exploring business and production models for related services that support a long-term food security plan, including mapping of existing local food-related services and developing case studies around emerging/promising models, such as mobile markets.
Conducted outreach and site visits to develop an inventory of churches, food pantries, and other facilities that may have commercial kitchens/processing capacity, refrigeration and food storage space.
Conducted interviews with local stakeholders and organizations currently creating value-added products or services to gain insight into their approach, challenges, and overall business model.
Some activities we're planning:
Connect with, support, and promote local food businesses, organizations, and other activities that contribute to a robust local food system.
Continue engagement and alignment with the North Shore Mobile Market Coalition.
Conduct research to better understand user interest in commercial kitchens; select a space to explore infrastructure upgrades and conduct a pilot project to assess replicability.
Under a 2023-2026 USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program grant, over 11 mobile market organizations will collaborate to learn from each other and better understand the logistics and strategic plans/goals of the mobile market landscape on the North Shore.
They will develop new partnerships with local farms/produce suppliers, improve promotion of locally grown products, explore new business models, better educate their customer base on the benefits of local produce, and develop replicable “how‐to” and case study materials for other mobile market regional coalitions, organizations, and farmers.