Lakes Country Service Cooperative
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders, growers and food service personnel, was absolutely instrumental in the progress of the Food Hub project. Most of our activities for the grant revolved around this aspect. Key activities we had identified for our project included:
o Conducting surveys of both growers and food service buyers to determine needs and issues
o Conduct listening and learning meeting with growers and buyers to build mutual understanding
o Provide education and support for growers on food safety, produce quality, & food hub needs
o Provide education and support for area food service staff on food safety for local foods, nutritional benefits, menu planning and culinary techniques
We were able to accomplish all of these activities over the two year period. The personal communication and relationships that resulted are the foundation for our ability to deliver 92,000 pounds of fresh, Minnesota grown produce to 25 participating organizations (schools, healthcare, higher ed) in a 5 month season last year.
In addition, these activities helped up build the trust with stakeholders so that they were honest with their feedback.
o Conducting surveys of both growers and food service buyers to determine needs and issues
o Conduct listening and learning meeting with growers and buyers to build mutual understanding
o Provide education and support for growers on food safety, produce quality, & food hub needs
o Provide education and support for area food service staff on food safety for local foods, nutritional benefits, menu planning and culinary techniques
We were able to accomplish all of these activities over the two year period. The personal communication and relationships that resulted are the foundation for our ability to deliver 92,000 pounds of fresh, Minnesota grown produce to 25 participating organizations (schools, healthcare, higher ed) in a 5 month season last year.
In addition, these activities helped up build the trust with stakeholders so that they were honest with their feedback.
Another activity that was essential to our work was the operations planning process. To move from zero experience to safely collecting and delivering thousands of pounds of produce to multiple locations in a timely manner was daunting. This grant gave us the ability to not only plan our process, but to put the key components of the plan in place. We knew that our number one priority would be to have a person with time dedicated to ordering, packing and delivery. We were able to hire part-time people to fulfil two key roles, order logistics and pickup/delivery. In addition, our planning process recognized that efficiency in each step was key. We were able to purchase software and handling equipment that contributed to a smooth and efficient work flow. The planning process was essential to meeting our goals of increasing the access to and use of healthy foods in our region.