COMMUNITY FOOD ENVIRONMENT
ENACT STRATEGY: Local Food to Retail
Connect locally grown food to local food retail establishments
Community retail establishments, including supermarkets, small stores, street vendors, and local restaurants can support resident access to healthy, fresh, and affordable food by offering locally grown, sustainably-produced produce and other foods. The practice of distributing locally and regionally grown food to local retail establishments has many benefits including supporting the local economy, reducing pollution from long distance food transport, establishing relationships between farmers and the communities they serve, and providing residents with food that is seasonal and fresh.
This website provides information on the positive impacts purchasing local food can have on the local community and environment. These materials can be utilized by retail establishments in order to educate consumers about the benefits of local food.
This London, UK based resources provides quick information pertaining to sustainable food systems and farm to retail that can be applied virtually anywhere. This one-page summary of Sustain’s sustainable food guidelines, for restaurants and caterers interested in providing greener, healthier and more ethical food.
New Seasons Market (PDF)
This case study of the New Seasons Market in Portland, Oregon illustrates the successful components used for their farm to retail program. New Seasons Market believes in having a personal relationship with local farmers, ranchers, fishers, cheese makers, brewers, vintners, coffee roasters, and manufactures in order to provide local fresh food to their customers.
NorthWest Initiative in Lansing, MI
The NorthWest Initiative’s Food Systems Project is working to improve access to healthy, affordable food through a variety of innovative strategies in Lansing, Michigan. Read a first-hand account by the Program Coordinator on the challenges and rewards of working with corner stores to carry fresh produce.
This article profiles People's Grocery, a California food justice group. People’s Grocery’s Mobile Market provides healthy, organic options and fresh produce to 3,500 community residents every year.
This article, produced by the University of Northern Iowa Local Food Project, highlights Rudy’s Tacos, a short order Mexican restaurant in Waterloo, IA that purchase most of its meat and poultry products from local farmers and vendors.
Harvesting Support for Locally Grown Food
FoodRoutes Network and Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), have produced a toolkit: Harvesting Support for Locally Grown Food: Lessons Learned from the "Be a Local Hero, Buy Locally Grown" Campaign for purchase. The toolkit is designed for individuals and organizations who are interested in learning about how to promote locally grown food through a multi-media marketing campaign.
Guide to Serving Local Food on Your Menu
This guide produced by Glynwood Center provides a how-to approach for institutions and retail establishments, such as restaurants, on how to integrate fresh, local food into the food service setting . The guide is aimed at foodservice managers and directors, caterers, chefs, restaurateurs and others.
Produced by the University of Wisconsin, Madison this guide provides background information for farmers who are considering selling their products through retail stores. Although this document is intended for farmers, it may be useful for community advocates and others who are working to get farm fresh produce into local retail establishments.
Lessons Learned and Evaluation
Food Routes has provided a tool to evaluate “Buy Local” marketing programs. The tool includes examples of successes, elements of an evaluation program, and a sample survey. Using this guide will help identify if the program is meeting the intended goals and outcomes.
This tool provided by Policy Link focuses on increasing access to retail outlets that sell nutritious, affordable food in low-income communities of color. The paper discusses linking existing stores with local farmers and farmers’ markets as a potential strategy.
This guide is targeted towards restaurants and caterers, and developing sustainable, green, healthy, and more ethical food choices. This tool outlines the principles of sustainable food, why these issues are important, how you can market to customers, exploring the issues and problems, setting goals and steps to achieve sustainable food services, as well as a list of resources and other organizations.
Building Local Food Networks: A Toolkit for Organizers
This toolkit, available for purchase from Ecotrust, provides specific “how to” information for those interested in stimulating a business-to-business network of food producers and food buyers within a specific region.
The Healthy Corner Stores Network works to promote the sale of healthy, fresh, affordable foods in small, neighborhood stores in undeserved communities.
Is a national nonprofit organization that provides communications tools, technical support, networking and information resources to organizations nationwide that are working to rebuild local, community-based food systems.
Chefs Collaborative is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) that provides its members with tools for running economically healthy, sustainable food service businesses. The organization has more than 1,000 active and passionate food community professionals as members, including chefs, managers of large food service operations, distributors, owners of specialty stores, and farmers, fishermen, and ranchers.
Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a Global Market**
This book highlights how our food is traveling far farther than it ever has before in order to reach our plate. Food has not always had to travel this far, but because of our ever increasing global market we are increasingly becoming dependant on non-local food. This book explores the cost and health benefits of locally grown food being available in our communities.
Halweil B, & Prugh T. 2002. Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a Global Market. Washington D.C.: Work Watch Institute.
Buying into the food system: Trends in food retailing in the US and implications for local foods**
This paper looks at three key questions pertaining to the food industry: 1) What are the key trends in the US grocery industry? 2) How do different kinds of food outlets choose, procure, and promote food products? 3) What are the implications of recent trends in the food retailing process for strengthening local flows of the production, distribution, and consumption of food?
Guptill A, & Wilkins J (2002). Buying into the food system: Trends in food retailing in the US and implications for local foods. Agriculture and Human Values, Volume 19(1), 39-51.
** We can only provide links to the article abstracts and not the full text.