Statement of Purpose:

Our purpose is to nurture and expand the emerging community-based agriculture and food system in Missouri by coordinating a network of farmers, processors, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, restaurants and consumers in Kansas City, Mid-Missouri and St. Louis. We will fill the gaps in our current community food systems by 1) providing better market access for farmers; 2) improving access to local food for consumers; 3) coordinating and strengthening distribution and retailing infrastructure for community-based food businesses; and 4) creating stable and sufficient demand for local food among consumers. We will facilitate the production and coordination of locally produced and processed foods at the right price through improved distribution and retailing infrastructure, and we will promote the social, nutritional, ecological and economic benefits of this food to consumers. Our network will continue to prepare farmers to grow and market locally produced food. We will advocate for public policy education/organizing campaigns to provide incentives and a regulatory framework that supports community-based food systems.

Project Duration: June 1, 2004 through June 30, 2008

A. Description of Project:

Building Community-Based Food Systems to Enhance Food Security in Missouri is a cooperative effort between the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and the University of Missouri's Food Circles Networking Project, designed to further enhance and develop community-based food systems in Missouri through building infrastructure, fostering entrepreneurship, promoting and marketing local foods, and furthering policy engagement. The Project will attempt to build increased demand for locally-produced foods and to facilitate the development of a physical local food infrastructure that ensures an open, consistent supply of food raised by Missouri family farmers.

One of our best kept secrets is Missouri's exceptional position in developing local food systems that reflect our unique cultural and geographical assets. While many organizations across the upper Midwest have organized collective and cooperative activity, in Missouri independent entrepreneurs have built flourishing businesses in alternative agriculture and food. Our project will build upon the solid foundation of the local food system already established by a diverse array of farmers and farm organizations, food processors, food distributors, restaurants, retailers and other independent business people. Missouri truly is on the cusp of major change in local food systems. As we collect and coordinate into a collaborative effort the pieces we have identified , we will build a truly sustainable, economically viable local food system that meets the needs of all participants. Project coordinators and collaborators will perform the following strategies to accomplish these goals:

1. Market-based change: Our market proposition is to achieve a profitable local food system that fosters knowledge of the food source, enhances local ecology, improves individual and community health, and builds social relationships. We will provide the necessary coordination and services for businesses involved in producing, processing, distributing, retailing and marketing community-based food products to expand and prosper in today's competitive marketplace. Project participants have had significant experience in dealing with the challenges associated with market access for community-based food initiatives in today's commercial food system. In particular, we have been successful in helping farmers and consumers participate in smaller-scale niche and/or direct markets. However, many of these community-based food initiatives are now ready to scale-up, reaching further into the mainstream markets. We will facilitate this growth with planning and technical assistance efforts that include expanding the quality and volume of Missouri farm-raised food products, further developing the nuts-and-bolts infrastructure for food processing and distribution and a marketing and promotional campaign to stimulate demand for Missouri products.
2. Policy-Based Change: Public policy initiatives that encourage the development and growth of local food systems are a key component to the longevity of sustainable agriculture efforts. Our efforts will focus on educating citizens on steps they can take to impact policy initiatives that encourage and support deepened marketing channels between farmers, processors, wholesalers, distributors, grocery stores, restaurants and food services growing, processing and selling local, sustainable food products.
3. Community-Based Change: This project will seek to rebuild local economies and local democracies in Missouri by encouraging the development and enhancement of food systems based upon the principles of grassroots democracy, economic equity and environmental sustainability. By working at various levels of the project, community members will improve their capacity to create change in their communities by expanding economic opportunities, enhancing life skills and improving participation in the democratic process of determining the future direction of their communities.

B. Need for the Project

During the last year, MRCC and the University of Missouri's Food Circles Networking Project have led a collaborative planning process designed to solicit input from stakeholders on our work to create economic development for Missouri farmers and enhance access to affordable, local food for rural families and Mid-Missouri consumers (For detailed Report on Planning Process, see Appendix I). We have collected data to design this effort from: local food producers, direct marketers, processors, chefs, local food retailers, emergency food services, low-income consumer groups, health care practitioners, extension regional directors and specialists and citizen groups. The common vision that emerged from this stakeholder planning process is to enhance the infrastructure for a community-based food system that is based on high-quality, affordable, nutritious food raised by Missouri family farmers. Planning process participants challenged us to create a project re-building the farm and food system based on the following characteristics:

• Democratically controlled by members of the local community
• Open and accessible to farmers and consumers
• Decentralized, in terms of production, processing and marketing
• Beneficial to the economic and social health of the local community

C. Positioning Our Project in the Marketplace of Products, Services and Ideas

Our Competition-the Industrial Food System

The main competition to coordinating the demand and supply for community-based food systems is the current, commercial food system. We can recruit farmers to provide foods for the community food system market since record low agricultural prices, increasing corporate control of markets and loss of market access have forced many Missouri family farmers either off the farm or into off-farm jobs outside of their communities. Market options for farmers are declining since: four out of five beef cattle are slaughtered by Tyson, Cargill, Swift and US Premium Beef; nearly 60% of pork is slaughtered by four firms, including the market leader Smithfield; four firms, including Tyson, Pilgrim's Pride and Gold Kist, slaughter over 50% of the chickens; three companies export 81% of one of Missouri's primary crops, corn; and about 80% of the soybeans in the country are processed by four firms, including the transnational giant Bunge, which is headquartered in St. Louis. Farm income is expected to drop by 23%, the 3rd lowest level of farm income in 68 years in terms of real dollars. Thus, many farmers are either participating in or exploring alternative production models, including producing a wider variety of food for the local markets in Kansas City, St. Louis and Mid-Missouri.

On the consumer end, concentration of the food distribution and retail sectors are leaving consumers with fewer choices and less control over where their food dollars end up. Over 50% of grocery sales in the US move through five firms, making it difficult for smaller distributors, grocer coops and retailers to compete. While Wal-Mart, the nation's largest grocer, doesn't have the leading market share in any of our geographical areas, it is the competitor that Schnuck's, Hy-Vee and Ball's Foods fear the most. Thus, these grocers are becoming allies in expanding and serving the market for locally produced food - particularly as a way to differentiate themselves from Wal-Mart.

What has emerged in Missouri (and nationally) is a food system marked by vast differences in quality, access and affordability. Limited resource areas-predominantly rural areas and inner cities - are faced with food that is less fresh and of poorer quality, food that is more expensive and few, if any, grocery store choices. The consolidation of agriculture and food systems across the country and globe has undermined the capacity of community food systems by creating an infrastructure that primarily services larger entities in the food system. Community-based food systems need supportive infrastructure that is scale appropriate. In Missouri, this involves creating and/or maintaining the physical infrastructure necessary for producing, processing, distributing and retailing locally produced foods, e.g. the processing capacity, trucks, storage and storefronts that make locally produced foods available to larger numbers of consumers. However, it is also necessary to create the knowledge and awareness infrastructure that supports the production and consumption of local foods. This can be done by developing consumer awareness of the economic, social and ecological benefits of locally produced foods, or assisting in the generation and transfer of nutrition concepts and cooking skills, or shaping public policies that assist farmers in direct marketing while protecting consumers. The maintenance and expansion of both infrastructures (knowledge and physical) are mutually dependent; knowledge and awareness without access are ineffective, and vice-versa.

Because these large agrofood businesses possess a greater amount of information and produce a greater volume than smaller community-based entities, and have the ability to exercise market power, they are able to use a variety of business strategies that ultimately impede the ability of community-based initiatives to effectively participate in the existing food system structure. Some examples of such industry practices include:

• Special charges for shelf-space and other retailer fees in larger, mainstream grocery operations that make it difficult for smaller entities to market through these retailers.
• Long-term exclusive contract supply arrangements between retailers and meatpackers or produce suppliers
• Restaurants that are increasingly dependent on daily deliveries from food distribution companies, such as Sysco and U.S. Foods, that can provide multiple products.
• Tremendous in-store competition between store-owned brands (private labels, in-store meat departments) and other outside-sourced products.

The most significant challenge that we face in coordinating our network of farmers, processors, distributors, retailers, chefs and consumers producing and consuming local food products is the destruction of infrastructure. To our knowledge, there are no significant mid-scale distributors - besides Patchwork Foods - and a few mid-scale processors in the regions we have identified. Thus, we have solid existing and potential supply, given farmers need to market differently, and solid existing and potential demand. A crucial need is coordination of the infrastructure.

The Market Opportunities for Local Food in Missouri

Demand for locally grown food is increasing in Missouri and nationally. In 2003, nearly 24% of Missourians reported that farmers' markets and roadside stands were their secondary source of food, an increase of almost 8% since 1995. A 2002 study conducted by the North Central Initiative for Small Farm Profitability of randomly selected households in Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska, showed that consumers are looking for taste and high quality in purchasing food, attributes that local foods consistently rank high in. Moreover, "seven out in ten respondents said that is was very or extremely important that their purchase supported a local family farm and was locally grown or produced." These results are consistent with research conducted by Food Routes and that has been implemented in their marketing campaign, "Buy Fresh, Buy Local."

According to most studies, including Burress (2000), young, white, professional females with higher disposable incomes are the most likely consumers of locally produced food. Demographically, the three geographical areas in which we will operate fit the profile for consumers demanding local produce. Boone County

National	Missouri		Kansas City (MSA)	St. Louis (MSA)
Educational Attainment Bachelor's or graduate degree	24.40%	21.60%	41.70%	23.20%	27.30%
Median Household Income	$ 50,046	$ 46,044	$ 51,210	$ 51,624	$ 55,587
Poverty	12.4%	11.7%	14.5%	9.6%	9.6%

Kansas City: Market research performed by public agencies indicates that Kansas City is ripe for large increases in the demand for locally produced food. In the late 1990s, University of Kansas researchers studied the market for environmentally-identified products. They analyzed available studies on consumer demand for local produce, organic produce and other Environmentally Identified Products (EIP). Based on this literature review and focus group surveys, they predicted strong demand for locally grown food - as well as organic - in eastern Kansas. According to the researchers, very little data exist about the demand for local food, but price premiums (like those received at farmers' markets) tend to hold up very well. The authors posit that "consumers may view local produce even more positively than they view organic produce." Moreover, they believe that evidence indicates that much US local produce is in fact organic, even if not labeled as such.

In Kansas City, demand for locally-produced food is increasing in several ways. First, the Kansas City Food Circle reports strong attendance at spring farmer exhibitions. Second, there are over 30 upscale and independent restaurants serving at least some locally produced food. These include some of the finest restaurants in Kansas City, such as Jasper's and Lidia's (owned by Lidia Bastianich, the chef with the most-watched cooking show on television). There are two small distributors who focus almost exclusively on providing locally produced food from western Missouri and eastern Kansas to restaurants and supermarkets. Third, there is an increasing array of retail outlets where consumers can obtain locally produced food. There are two retail outlets in the city that feature exclusively locally produced foods. The two largest supermarket chains, Ball's Foods and Hy-Vee, both carry some locally-produced food items. More important, Ball's Foods, operating solely in the Kansas City metro area with 28 stores, devotes space in its warehouse to locally grown product, and encourages farmers to deliver directly there. At a recent meeting with Ball's Foods executives, over 120 farmers expressed interest in selling produce and other goods. To compete with Wal-Mart, Ball's Foods is featuring locally-produced foods that tell a story about Missouri/Kansas farmers and connect consumers with those farmers. Finally, the food editor of the Kansas City Star runs regular features touting the benefits of buying local and showing where to find locally produced food.

The demand for locally produced food in Kansas City is thriving at grocery stores, farmers' markets, and restaurants. This demand must be stabilized and increased, while supply must continue to match demand. This project's coordination and provision of technical assistance will meet this demand.

Mid-Missouri: Demand for locally produced food is perhaps higher given the university town of Columbia in Boone County. Demographically, residents in Boone County, have higher education (over 40% with bachelor's or advanced degrees) and incomes ($51,210 median family income in 2000) than the state or national average. These demographics are consistent with those who demand locally produced food. In 2003, the flagship farmers' market in Columbia split into two markets; each are generating significant income with over 1700 shoppers visiting one market early in the season. Both markets have at least 50 vendors, which indicates farmer supply of locally produced food.

This area is experiencing increasing demand for locally produced food, spurred partially by the successful branding of Patchwork Family Farms pork. Patchwork has created a daily distribution system serving over 50 loyal restaurant and wholesale customers. Eighteen of these restaurants advertise in their menus and to the public that they serve locally-raised products as a selling point. In the grocery market, dominant retailers such as Hy-Vee feature locally produced food products. Mid-Missouri is also home to the Root Cellar, a grocery store and commercial kitchen that sells meats, dairy, fruits, vegetables, jams, jellies, sauces breads and more all raised and prepared in Missouri. Two other niche natural food stores also carry many local products. These dynamic market conditions have been noticed by the local news media as well. Newspapers, television and radio stations have all consistently covered producers and processors of local, family-farm raised foods here in central Missouri.

In the more rural parts of Mid-Missouri, MRCC's Food Cooperative is an active distribution network that links limited-resource rural families with affordable, high-quality foods: meats, produce, bread, canned goods, toiletries and dried goods. MRCC Food Cooperatives already purchase and distribute a large volume of locally raised pork. We will increase the diversity and volume of local products available to cooperative members. There are currently ten distribution sites that serve families who live in 25 rural counties in Mid-Missouri constituting a total of 2,500 limited resource farm and rural families participating over the course of a year. These cooperative communities are a ready market for more local food, and each distribution site has experience in the test-marketing of locally-raised products.

St. Louis is the largest city in Missouri and perhaps the least developed in terms of community-based food projects, although the area seems to have good demand for locally produced food. Over 20 restaurants belong to the St. Louis Originals, a chapter of the Council of Independent Restaurants in America, and most of the members serve some locally produced foods. Several well-established truck farmers serve the St. Louis market through farm stands and wholesaling. St. Louis also boasts a 200 year-old farmers' market, Soulard Market, that features one wing of local growers. Three new grower-only farmers' markets have opened in the metro area in the last five years, spanning communities from upscale Clayton to working-class Ferguson. Chefs Collaborative has been active in establishing these markets and in taking on promotion of sustainably and locally produced food through cooking demonstrations, outreach to elementary schools, and educational activities at the Center of Contemporary Arts. There are a number of processors who focus on processing for the local foods market - including a bakery, and at least one new retail outlet, Sappington Farmers Market, that concentrates on local and organic foods. Bon Appetit manages the food service at Washington University, a large prestigious university, and is attempting to source a large amount of sustainable and locally produced food items. In addition, St. Louis University has the only dietetics program that combines cooking and dietetics, and has developed a sustainable foods curriculum.

Moreover, the food retail arena in St. Louis is dominated by two homegrown retailers, Schnuck's Markets, which have 63 stores, and Dierburg's which has 21.The top three grocery stores control about 59% of the market in the St. Louis area with Schnuck's leading at 21.2%. Schuck's has instituted a home-grown program that features locally produced tomatoes and other produce sourced from Missouri and Illinois farmers. St. Louis has a strong Slow Food chapter and a creative and energetic community gardening organization. A popular radio cooking show, Food Talk, and a TV show called Twice Baked, both hosted by the Kelly Twins and both of which feature stories about locally produced food, have gained a loyal following in St. Louis.

Meeting the Challenges of Competition and Demand in the Marketplace

Through our collaborative project, the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and University of Missouri's Food Circles Networking Project will address these trends by creating a comprehensive campaign that supports the growth and development of a community-based agriculture and food system in Missouri. Our approach will focus on increasing the number of farmers raising food for local markets, increasing access to local food for consumers, expanding the knowledge and physical infrastructures for local foods and policy initiatives that support the further growth of local foods in Missouri.

Our strategies to facilitate further market-based change include:

• Facilitating cooperative marketing and distribution strategies between multiple farmers with multiple food products that will allow restaurants, stores and foodservices to lower transaction costs involved in obtaining local food products.
• Continually conducting market assessments with retailers, chefs, and others to determine market opportunities and the criteria for providing service to these prospective customers. The information collected - in conjunction with partners such as the Missouri Department of Agriculture - will be available to producers and processors to use to inform their marketing efforts.
• Providing business planning and development resources for ongoing community-based food projects through partners such as Extension's Small Business Development Centers and Agribusiness Counselors. Additional resources will be accessed through the Missouri Department of Agriculture. MRCC and Patchwork Family Farms continually evaluate and assess the economic viability of such projects Our current business planning project is being done in conjunction with Gordon Goodwin of Development Solutions.

Baselines for Expanding Community Food Systems

D. Assets and Capacity of Project Collaborators

Missouri Rural Crisis Center

MRCC has an eighteen-year history of organizing programs and activities that meet the diverse needs of our 5,500 family members throughout rural Missouri. Our mission is to preserve family farms, promote stewardship of the land and environmental integrity, and to strive for economic and social justice by building unity and mutual understanding among diverse groups, both rural and urban. Our current four program areas are: Patchwork Family Farms/Economic Development Project, Factory Farm Organizing Project, Farm and Food Policy Project and Food Cooperative Program.

Our economic development project, Patchwork Family Farms, has connected sustainable pork producers to consumers through a number of avenues-direct-to-consumer sales, sales to restaurants and grocery stores and, most recently, through institutional purchases. Patchwork's focus on community-based food security is helping us to meet the challenge of marketing to both upper and lower-income populations. Along with Patchwork, MRCC has created a network of community-based Food Cooperatives that provide access to fresh produce, bread, meat, canned-goods and other items at affordable prices to low-income families in rural communities hard hit by a depressed farm economy. Over the course of the year, an estimated 2,800 rural Missouri families will participate in the MRCC Food Cooperatives. Seventy-eight percent of our Food Cooperative participants have a family income less than $16,000 per year, and the poverty rate in the 25 counties that participate in our Food Cooperatives is 16% compared with a statewide average of 10%. MRCC's programs are recognized as models for successful community-based economic development that combines market access and fair prices for farmers with quality, affordability and accessibility for consumers.

As an organization with extensive experience in developing community-based economic development programs, organizing public education and policy campaigns and managing a complex organization with thousands of members, MRCC is well poised to meet the challenges of the coming years. We have developed a history of credibility with the media, government officials, foundations, other non-profit organizations/community groups and thousands of independent family farmers by serving as an information source on the issues facing rural Missourians. MRCC and Patchwork Family Farms have been featured in numerous television, radio, newsprint, research publications and other information sources to demonstrate both the challenges and opportunities associated with family farm and food issues in this era of industrial agriculture. MRCC is committed to re-developing an agriculture and food system based on family farms, environmental sustainability and equity among all participants.

Specifically, MRCC brings numerous organizational resources to the table to carry this collaborative project forward:

• 5500 farm and rural family members throughout the state.
• History of organizational success and credibility, achieving important public perception of winning campaigns through grassroots mobilization at the local and federal levels.
• Active mail and phone list of more than 5,000 Missouri livestock farmers concerned about sustainable agriculture, corporate concentration and industrial livestock development. This lists, including 500 livestock producers on a "hot list" that consistently respond to action alerts, letters, or other MRCC communications.
• Missouri mailing list of more than 2000 Patchwork Family Farms consumers that have demonstrated support for family-farm produced foods.
• Demonstrated success at unpaid media campaigns, both local and national. Our work to build local food system, oppose corporate concentration and support family-farm based economic development for rural communities has been consistently covered by print, radio and television media outlets.
• Long-term relationships with, and leadership roles in, organizations that represent diversified Midwestern grain and livestock farmers, such as the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, National Family Farm Coalition and National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture..
• Long-term relationships with food security and social justice organizations. In Missouri, we work with many social justice and environmental organizations, including numerous labor unions, progressive churches, the Sierra Club, Missouri Coalition for the Environment, GRO, Missouri Association for Social Welfare and many others. We're a member of the Community Food Security Coalition through our work on policies that guarantee abundant, affordable food for all people.

University of Missouri Extension and Food Circles Networking Project

The Food Circles Networking Project, a program of University Outreach and Extension, was created in 1998 through a state appropriation administered by the Missouri Department of Agriculture. This appropriation resulted from the efforts of a coalition of farm, faith and consumer groups who sought to address issues of declining farm income and economic vitality, together with transformations in welfare assistance to rural and urban consumers. The goals of the Food Circles Networking Project are:

1. To help existing farm families focus on producing food for local markets;
2. To connect farmers and consumers directly together;
3. To support these connections by encouraging community based processing and distribution; and
4. To work with consumers and communities to encourage more consumption of locally grown food.

Our approach has always been to use community economic development strategies applied to community food issues. In our five year existence, we have successfully encouraged entrepreneurial food businesses, including distributors, retail stores and cooperative processing ventures in meat and poultry, by providing them with technical and marketing assistance; encouraged consumer demand for locally produced food by focusing on its benefits; provided accessible research that helps farmers, eaters and rural communities understand the strengths and weaknesses of the increasingly consolidated and global nature of the food system and how to play to the strengths of local businesses; established farmers' markets in low-income areas, both rural and urban; and encouraged community gardening efforts. Through our partnership with the Missouri Department of Agriculture, we have a four-year old service that links farmers and chefs weekly, called the Harvest Connection, and have dedicated a great deal of time to organizing farmer-chef-retailer marketing channels. While primarily based in the Kansas City area, project staff has developed a reputation within extension as the go-to place for alternative agriculture and food ideas. We have served as statewide resource specialists for agricultural, nutrition and community development extension personnel, as well as promoted community food system approaches throughout extension and the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

Our main function has been to serve as a catalyst for linking public and private entities together to build the relationships necessary for community-based food systems. Our plan of work has been adopted as part of the University Outreach and Extension's Community Development program, and we plan to integrate with their program efforts further through this project. Much remains to be done, particularly in refocusing consumer outreach and education programming, and developing the systemic tools necessary for encouraging farmers to diversify their farming operations.

MU Extension provides the capacity for technical assistance in Agriculture production, business development, and community development. Extension specialists in Agriculture will provide production information for alternative enterprises, assistance with diversification, business and management skills; specialists in Nutrition will provide input into nutrition information for locally produced foods and work with consumer education; specialists in Business and Industry will provide business planning and marketing assistance and market research to local food entrepreneurs; and specialists in Community Development will mentor the Community Economic Development (Local Foods) Specialists, provide connections to community partners and assist with resource development.

E. Strategic Plan to Increase the Production and Consumption of Local Foods: Products, Price, Place, Promotion, and Policy

Our service is to coordinate a network of, and provide technical assistance to, farmers, processors, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, chefs and consumers producing and consuming food that is identifiable to place, enhances the ecology of that place, embraces values of equity and fairness, and that is nutritionally superior. Most important, we will build and strengthen community relationships through food production and consumption.

1.) Products

In order to expand the number of Missouri family farmers involved in community-based food systems and to increase their production of food for local markets, we will provide educational tools and programs to encourage farmers to diversify farming operations to include fruits and vegetables and sustainable livestock production; and work to mentor beginning or transitioning farmers seeking to produce and sell food locally. In addition, we will help farmers expand their production capacity.

Strategy: Build and Strengthen Farmer Knowledge

• Document the proven success of Patchwork Family Farms' pork, explaining the existing challenges and lessons learned as a model for family-farm based food systems. This information will be used to encourage farmers to expand local food production and to coordinate with other farmers to bring other sustainably-raised products into current Mid-Missouri distribution networks, as well as to develop those in other places. We will distribute information on the accessibility of state and federal conservation programs to assist farmers in implementing sustainable practices on their farms.
• Provide toolkits through land-grant extension and partner groups to encourage farmers to diversify farming operations through vegetable production. These toolkits will include materials on establishing vegetable production as part of the farming operation; selecting and growing the right vegetable/fruit varieties; marketing options including direct marketing, wholesaling, and cooperative establishment; and federal/state risk management programs for farmers. Toolkits will be available to a wide range of farmers involved in MRCC's network of 5,500 member families and network of over 2,500 livestock producers of sustainable livestock, vegetable and fruit production. Toolkits will also be promoted through regional extension offices to farmers seeking alternatives. Regional agricultural extension specialists will also facilitate the establishment of cooperative vegetable marketing entities, if appropriate. New toolkits and mentoring ideas will be developed in collaboration with the SARE funded program, Growing Growers, which is mentoring 11 farm apprentices who will begin growing for the unmet demand in the Kansas City metro area.

  These strategies will lead to:

  1. Increased number of farmers raising food for local markets and thereby an increased amount of product to meet unmet demand.
     • More farmers possess the knowledge and skills to produce food products with consistent quality and quantity.
     • Number of farmers listed in Agri-Missouri buying guide serving the targeted geographical locations increases by 5%.
  2. Enhanced economic viability and diversity of participating farming operations.
     • At least two farmers in each area will demonstrate the lessons learned about sustainability and economic viability.
     • Farmers serving targeted locations feel they have an increased number of market options
  3. Increased understanding among farmers that the development of community-based food systems represents an economic opportunity for the future of their operation.
     • Attendance of farmers at educational meetings exploring alternative agriculture options increases by 10% over 3 years.
     • Number of inquiries about local food options to MRCC and Food Circles offices increases by 10% over the life of the project.
     • Number of farmers producing for the local food market increases from 49 to 60.
     • Number of processors and distributors serving farmers' markets, restaurants, schools and groceries increases from 56 to 65.
  4. Enhanced number of entrepreneurial businesses, including processors, distributors, grocers, chefs and food services, serving the demand for locally produced foods.
     • Number of retailers carrying local food products in the targeted areas increases from 43 to 51.
     • Number of food distributors stocking local food products in the targeted areas increases from 13 to 16.
     • Expanded capacity for processing local food products, including meat, dairy, grains and vegetables increases by 5%.

  Baselines will be established through surveys of selected businesses and organizations.

  2.) Place

  In order to enhance more efficient networks of processors, distributors, chefs and retailers, we will integrate new products into existing distribution networks to expand the variety of locally-raised products available on a consistent basis, build networks of new distribution and marketing channels where necessary, and extend existing physical local food infrastructure to new geographic areas of the state.

  Strategies: Enhance and build infrastructure network of processors, distributors, and retailers.

  • Identify existing pieces of the physical local food infrastructure from our budding local food networks in Mid-Missouri, St. Louis and Kansas City that can be enhanced to serve more producers and consumers.
  • Create a procurement team to link farmers and processors in order to identify existing and possible local food supply sources. This team will determine how to improve, and sometimes create, distribution systems, including warehouse and storage space that farmers can utilize to gain market access for their locally-produced foods. We will develop and distribute marketing materials that describe the benefits of local foods to restaurants, grocery stores and other wholesalers. We will coordinate the market demand created by the new marketing campaign with delivery of local food products through newly enhanced physical infrastructure. We will evaluate the success of infrastructural developments on a quarterly basis, and make changes necessary to improve service to all participants.

    These strategies will lead to:

    1. An increased number of products available to existing and new entrepreneurial businesses, including processors, distributors, grocers, chefs and food services, to meet unmet demand for locally produced food.
       • Number of retailers carrying local food products in the targeted areas increases from 43 to 51.
       • Number of food distributors stocking local food products in the targeted areas increases from 13 to 16.
       • Expanded capacity for processing local food products, including meat, dairy, grains and vegetables increases by 5%.
    2. An increased number of retailers and restaurants featuring locally produced foods due to the increased efficiency of distribution networks for moving food from farmer to consumer.
       • Improved economic livelihood of local processors, local retailers and local restaurants using local food products based on self-assessments provided by project participants.
    3. A greater volume and variety of locally produced food products available on a consistent basis throughout Missouri due to better distribution networks.
       • Number of retailers carrying local food products increases from 43 to 51 in three years.
       • Local food products available year-round in a variety of retail outlets.
       • Number of restaurants featuring local food products increases from 57 to 68.

    Baselines will be established through surveys of selected businesses and organizations.

    3.) Promotion

    We will continue to stimulate the demand for local foods among Missouri consumers by organizing events and activities that link farmers and consumers and build community through food; communicating the latest research information on the social, ecological, nutritional and economic benefits of community food systems for individuals and their communities through a variety of methods and media, including mass media, community workshops, websites, newsletters and other publications; and training professionals involved in education in the food system, including nutrition professionals and those involved with youth interested in food and agriculture on building community through food in community-based food systems.

    Strategies: Stimulate demand and build awareness among targeted consumers

    • Develop and refine marketing propositions about the benefits to health, local economic development, community and environment for people who participate in community food systems. These propositions will be based on credible academic and market research and refined for our targeted consumer groups, including a) mothers who are interested in obtaining the best food possible for their children and families, b) limited resource folks who participate in food and nutrition programs, c) conscious consumers interested in the ecological, social, spiritual, community and heath benefits of community food systems, d) youth interested in understanding the relationships between food and nutrition, ecology, community vitality and economic viability, and e) chefs and wholesale buyers interested in purchasing locally produced foods.
    • Identify, assess, and evaluate existing educational materials available from national and regional farm and food groups to integrate with our marketing propositions and efforts to build community through food. Marketing propositions and promotional materials will include comparisons of benefits from community food systems versus the global food system, and emphasize the power of choice for consumers to support particular food production and processing practices. These educational and promotional packages will be disseminated to identified partners such as farm and food advocates, civic groups, faith groups, restaurants and others.
    • Develop a coordinated promotion and outreach strategy in Kansas City, St. Louis and Mid-Missouri that targets new consumer audiences as potential participants in community-based food systems. We will organize a multi-week educational series on local farm and food issues that will be aired on a Mid-Missouri radio station. We will hold community-based food events that bring together farmers and consumers to work on the issues associated with community-based food system development.
    • Utilize MRCC's Food Cooperative distribution network to increase the amount of locally-produced food available to low-income families in economically-depressed rural communities. We will provide information and educational materials geared toward these communities on how to cook locally produced foods and on the nutritional benefits of fresh, locally produced foods.
    • Identify nutritional outreach programs that serve limited resource folks who willing to participate in community-based food systems and train the trainers in these programs about community food systems. These include nutritional programs associated with food banks and pantries, WIC nutrition advising, and Family Nutrition Education Programs administered by University Extension. Our promotion and outreach activities will stimulate demand in this community as well as strengthen community relationships through a common denominator - local foods. The market proposition here is the win-win situation for communities in stimulating economic development while rewarding clients with good food.
    • Identify 4-H and FFA programs focused on agriculture, entrepreneurship and community development that could incorporate local food strategies into existing educational programs. This will include promoting the benefits of locally produced food for taste, quality and nutrition, as well as profit generation and maintaining viable farms. This program will involve "conscientious consumers" in planning and conducting trainings and expand this involvement in creating a speakers' bureau to participate in outreach campaigns that stimulate demand.

  These strategies will lead to:

  1. Stable and growing demand for locally produced food in Kansas City, Mid-Missouri and St. Louis due to increased knowledge of the benefits of locally produced food among the general public.
     • Number of consumers asking for local food products at local retailers and local restaurants increases by 20% at selected survey sites.
     • Accessible and understandable materials for the general public about the benefits of community food systems are available in multiple formats.
     • 20 media pieces exploring local food options and food security appear over the course of 3 years.
     • 500 consumers participate in festivals and events celebrating community food systems.
     • Sales of locally grown food products in restaurants and grocery stores increases by 20% at selected survey sites.
     • Number of farmers' market customers increases by 5% in the 3 targeted regions.
  2. Increased understanding of the benefits of locally produced food on the part of nutrition professionals and agricultural youth educators and utilization of this understanding in their own programming efforts which will contribute to the general promotion of community food systems.
     • Knowledge and skills increases through workshops and trainings as reflected in evaluation self-assessments.
     • Expanded documented use of community food system data and examples in curriculum used by these professionals.
  3. Increased access for limited resource eaters to sustainably and locally produced food.
     • 5% increase in the number of families participating in the MRCC Food Cooperative program.
     • Provide at least 5 pounds of locally-raised food per family in MRCC Food Cooperatives each month during the growing season, which will increase the amount of locally-raised food provided to low-income rural Missourians through the Food Cooperative program by 42,000 pounds.
     • Two new farmers' markets serve low-income urban areas in Kansas City and St. Louis.

  Baselines will be established through surveys of selected businesses and organizations.

  4.) Policy

  In order to build a policy environment that encourages and supports deepened marketing channels between farmers, processors, wholesalers, distributors, grocery stores, restaurants and food services growing, processing and selling local, sustainable food products, we will develop a package of state and federal policy proposals that will support the enhancement of community-based food systems in Missouri; create opportunities for local food policy education and organizing that facilitates involvement among Missourians in the public policy process; create policy-maker educational materials and trainings that focus on describing how community food systems contribute to community health and vitality and that identify policies that can contribute to encouraging community-based food systems; and create equity for producers of local food by including them in mainstream risk management and health insurance programs.

  Strategies: Involve and inform policy makers and community members about needed policies to strengthen community food systems.

  • Research and compile solutions to the challenge of creating a regulatory framework that supports the development and expansion of a community-based food system while ensuring that public health and safety are maintained. Such public policy initiatives may include some of those proposals that came from participants in our collaborative planning project, including a) policies that enable and support institutional purchases of local family farm produce and meat, specifically, the proposed Farm-to-School Program from the Community Food Security Coalition; b) expansion of the WIC voucher program to entities beyond farmers markets; c) local regulatory changes that permit and support sales of local food in non-traditional outlets; d) land use policies that preserve and protect farmland and ability to meet local food growing needs; e) health Insurance for farmers and small businesses; f) investigate the creation of local food policy counsels; g) encourage and or require government institutions to use their food-buying dollars to support local family farmers; and h) scale-appropriate regulations that encourage, rather than hinder, independent food processing enterprises.
  • Identify policy-makers at all levels involved in shaping how community food systems can work, including elected city, county and state officials; city and state government workers in planning, economic development and agriculture; regional governing councils; and food safety regulators. Inform them of the benefits of federal and state-level programs that support community-based food systems, such as the proposed Farm-to-School and Farmers Market Nutrition Programs. Increase awareness among these policy-makers on the economic and environmental benefits of diversified family farm based agriculture and on the severe economic and environmental costs of industrial agriculture; as well as on the mutual benefits of community-based food systems, including the economic stimulus, community development, public health and environmental benefits of community food systems.
  • Involve and inform the general public through public meetings and informational materials on the benefits of federal and state-level programs that support community-based food systems, such as the proposed Farm-to-School and Farmers Market Nutrition Programs. We will create a local food policy team to broaden and strengthen our policy proposals that will increase community and state-level support for local food projects. We will develop a speakers' bureau on local food policy issues that other organizations can utilize to link up with our local food policy work. We will evaluate the success of policy education and informational work on a quarterly basis and make changes necessary to improve our ability to nurture local food and farms through public policy.

  These strategies will lead to:

  1. Increased capacity of Missouri citizens to create change in their communities through public policy campaign development.
     • 15 stories in newsletters, local newspapers, TV and radio stations support food security policy proposals.
  2. Increased knowledge among policy-makers about the benefits of locally produced foods that leads to the adoption and implementation of policies that support community food systems.
     • 50 legislators support food security policy initiatives at the state and local levels.
  3. Increased state and federal financial support for community-based food systems development, planning and capacity building.
     • Increased amount of actual local, state and federal dollars spent supporting these projects.

  G. Evaluation

  Through group meetings conducted during the planning phase of this project, we have identified stakeholder priorities for creating community-based food systems. To measure the effectiveness of our project, we will immediately create a formative evaluation team which will design the evaluation plan, provide feedback to the project coordination board to improve the project, and monitor progress of the project. Members of the evaluation team will be MRCC staff and leaders, University of Missouri staff, members of allied organizations, and an external evaluation consultant. This formative evaluation team will have meetings twice per year, including extensive meetings at the beginning of the project, to develop suggestions for improvements to meet the project's goals throughout the entire period. The external evaluation expert will help us to develop summative evaluation strategies that use participatory methods to measure both the quantitative and qualitative outcomes of the project.

  Context Evaluation

  In our six month planning stage, we conducted stakeholder meetings that helped us to informally conduct a context evaluation. In these stakeholder meetings, we developed food system maps for each geographical region where we expect to implement the project. These food systems maps, created from previous experience of the project leaders with input from stakeholders, helped us to identify existing community food system ventures that are already deepening the channels between farmers and eaters. In addition, by mapping these ventures, which included for-profit entities and community-based organizations, we have identified committed individuals and leaders for the project in each geographical area. Through our stakeholder meetings, we were also able to ascertain community needs and gaps in education, policy and physical infrastructure development. Moreover, we were able to collect information about other partners and organizations that should be part of our project. This provides a rich trove of information for getting the project firmly set on the right grounds from the beginning.

  Implementation and Outcome Evaluation:

  Our evaluation team expects to use two evaluation methods - implementation and outcome evaluations - to measure the success of our project and to provide corrective feedback to the project coordination team in the course of implementing our project. While the work that we are proposing builds on long experience on the part of MRCC and the University, we are still implementing a new project and partnership that will need to be reflected upon and tweaked to meet the needs of our communities. Thus, we will need to work with our evaluation team and external evaluator:

  • To find out which initial strategies or activities are being implemented and which are not, why or why not, and which are the most successful strategies for farmers, eaters and communities;
  • To understand lessons learned about our initial program design and how we can utilize those lessons in revising the project plans;
  • To evaluate whether the changes in program design are related to dynamics of the organization, personalities or environment in which the project operates in order to guide the project through completion;

  Conducting such an implementation evaluation will help us understand why our project is meeting its goals in order to better replicate it in the future.

  For the outcome evaluation, we have created a table that shows the outcomes that we anticipate, and a list of possible indicators that will help us know if we have achieved those outcomes. Our evaluation team will work to help us develop better indicators of our outcomes, and to determine the best qualitative and quantitative methods to measure those indicators. We anticipate that benchmarks for some of these indicators are not available; thus, we will need to create some benchmarks through this project that will help guide future work in this area.

  H. Summary

  I. Fundamentally, the single greatest success of this project will be the strengthening and creation of community-based food systems in Kansas City, St. Louis and Mid-Missouri that ensure fair prices for farmers, fair wages for farm and food processing workers, and affordable food for all eaters.

  In order to best gauge the impact of this project, we have designed the extensive evaluation component outlined above. However, we also propose to engage with the Department of Economic Development in Missouri in documenting the impact of community-based food systems both economically and socially. While still in negotiation, we are currently reviewing methodologies and economic modeling efforts to study community based food systems. As part of the establishment of baselines in our project, we will gather information necessary for DED staff to correctly model the impact of community-food systems.

  Built upon the ideological framework of community food security, these community-based food systems will reach a broad spectrum of the population from farm to plate. Within these community-based food systems, we will see:

  • Increased number of farmers, processors and distributors serving farmers' markets, restaurants, schools and groceries either individually or through cooperatives;
  • Increased income per farm for those farmers serving these food systems;
  • Increasing knowledge and skills on the part of farmers, processors, distributors and retailers in producing, processing and distributing locally-grown food products with consistent quality and quantity;
  • Increased awareness from urban populations about food production;
  • Increased consumption of locally grown food products within the community, region and state.
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