1. Local Food Value Chains:
A Collaborative Conversation
Hosted by the Central Appalachian Network
August 3, 2011
Maxwelton, West Virginia

2. On August 3, 2011, the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) hosted a groundbreaking meeting.
Almost 30 representatives of CAN member organizations, CAN partners, and grant-makers from
the Appalachia Funders Network gathered in Maxwelton, West Virginia to engage in an open,
honest dialogue about some of the most critical issues facing local food systems in Central
Appalachia today. The goal of the meeting was to move beyond the conventional conversation
between funders and grantees and begin a process of mutual learning and collective problem
solving.
Central Appalachian Network - www.cannetwork.org.
Since 1993, the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) has been dedicated to working for a more just
and sustainable Appalachia. CAN works to advance the economic transition of the region by
fostering the development of enterprises, organizations, and policies that promote and protect the
health of our local economies, communities, and environment. For almost 20 years, CAN member
organizations have been coming together to learn, build relationships, and collaborate to expand
capacity and impact on a regional scale.
CAN is currently supported by the Ford Foundation, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, and
the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Appalachia Funders Network – www.appalachiafunders.org
The Appalachia Funders Network is a group of public and private grant-makers who envision a
regional economy that is based in entrepreneurship and provides opportunity for all, while
sustaining the environmental and cultural assets of the region.
Working Together
This meeting is part of an ongoing effort by both networks to increase our understanding of local
food systems, identify opportunities and key investments to strengthen those systems, and create
stronger linkages between investors and practitioners.
Conversations about local foods, and about the topics contained in this paper, are happening among
many different organizations across the region. The innovative aspect of this conversation was the
convergence of these conversations; grant-makers of all scales, from local to global, met with
regional and local practitioners to engage in an open and honest dialogue. This open dialogue
allowed those involved to share best practices and some of the hard lessons learned in order to be
on the same page as we move the work of developing value chains forward.
The following paper is a combination of highlights and suggestions from the meeting, along with
additional information drawn from CAN’s years of experience supporting and growing local foods
systems throughout Central Appalachia.
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3. Local Food Value Chains
CAN works to develop and strengthen local food value chains, which we define as supply chains
infused with the triple bottom line values of promoting financial, social, and environmental goals.
Local food value chains include producers, processors, aggregators, distributors, farmers markets,
wholesale buyers, consumers, and a wide variety of important supporters. In five sub-regions
throughout Central Appalachia, CAN works to develop infrastructure, make connections, and build
capacity to increase the profitability and sustainability of these value chains.
CAN is comprised of six member organizations which act as “intermediaries” in these chains.
Intermediaries:
• Connect producers to markets
• Provide and distribute educational materials
• Create and promote marketing and training tools
• Coordinate policy work
• Facilitate collaboration among value chain participants
• Some intermediary organizations also play additional roles in the value chain
In addition, CAN itself provides small grants, technical assistance, training, and planning and
assessment support to partner organizations and local farm and food businesses.
As a network of intermediaries, CAN has a unique viewpoint, enabling us to comprehend and
coordinate local foods work at a systems level, across political and cultural boundaries, while also
providing support to individuals and organizations “on the ground.”
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4. Key Elements of Strong Local Food Value Chains
Through CAN’s work to develop local food value chains in five sub-regions of Central Appalachia,
we have recognized that while each sub-region is unique, there are common elements that local food
value chains need in order to thrive. CAN surveyed practitioners around Central Appalachia in
order to determine a set of four key elements necessary for growing value chains and improving
rural livelihoods.
The four elements chosen were:
• Season Extension
• Aggregation, Distribution and Rural/Urban Connections
• Institutional Buying
• Statewide Organizing and Policy Work
Discussion Process
We used a “fishbowl” activity (see below) to facilitate in-depth conversations, led by local
practitioners, around key elements of strong local food value chains. Each conversation addressed
the following questions:
• What makes this issue important?
• What models are currently working?
• Where are the greatest opportunities to expand this work?
• Where are the key investment targets to help accelerate this work?
The fishbowl conversations featured presentations by CAN’s sub regional partners. These partners
are working closely with CAN members Center for Economic Options (CEO) and/or Natural
Capital Investment Fund (NCIF) to move food systems forward in West Virginia. The following
section of this paper consists of overviews and highlights from that discussion series, focusing on
examples that bring the work to life and actionable items that participants saw as opportunities to
further strengthen and develop local food value chains in the region.
What is a “fishbowl”?
Very briefly, a fishbowl is a conversation facilitation tool that involves two concentric rings of
people; an inner ring of conversation participants, and an outer ring of listeners. The conversation
starts with a brief presentation by someone with knowledge of the topic being addressed. The
conversation then opens up to include the entire inner circle. Members of the outer circle can join
the inner circle at any time; whenever someone joins, one member of the inner circle volunteers to
leave, so there is always an empty chair available.
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5. Topic 1: Season Extension
What makes this issue important?
Season extension techniques, including low and high tunnel technologies,
allow producers to grow both earlier in the spring and later in the fall,
reduce the need for chemical inputs, and offer producers greater control
over their growing environments. Extending the growing season allows
for more opportunities for year-round employment and stronger, more
long-term relationships with institutional buyers and retail consumers.
Featured Model
Ben Nemeth and the WesMonTy RC&D have been supporting growers in Ben Nemeth, Program
Manager: WesMonTy
the North-Central region of West Virginia through organizing and
Resource Conservation &
technical support. They helped members of the Tygart Valley Growers Development Project Inc.
Association (TVGA) get Environmental Quality Incentives Program
(EQIP) grants from the National Resource Conservation Service to build high- and low-tunnel
hoophouses (greenhouses.) The environmental benefits of the greenhouses include reducing the
need for soil inputs (like fertilizer) and helping with pest control.
These effective, inexpensive tools are assets to growers interested in selling to institutional and
wholesale customers, as they allow growers to continue providing buyers with fresh foods well
outside of the boundaries of the traditional harvest season. Producers in the TVGA will work
together to construct the greenhouses, and to share best practices on how to best use them. This
work, and the work of forming an association, is already paying dividends; local news channels have
taken notice of the Association’s growers, as have major local buyers.
What else is working?
Restaurant Casa Nueva, in Athens, OH, has been buying local and practicing season extension in its
own way for decades. They preserve literally tons of food a year, flash-freezing berries, corn and
other produce, and putting up tomatoes, tomatillos, roasted peppers and pumpkins, and applesauce.
It’s worth noting that season extension is not just for produce; hoophouses are also great for
keeping animals such as laying hens and lambs warm and productive in the wintertime, and animals
can be rotated through greenhouses to provide natural fertilizer. Finally, season extension and food
preservation are also keys to creating wintertime CSA programs and farmer’s markets.
Effective Strategies Greatest Opportunities Key Investment Targets
• Mixing financial support in • Partnerships with and between • Training and information
conjunction with training and nonprofits, farm bureau, sharing tools, both in print
education extension and producer groups and online
• Low and high tunnel to provide education and • Mapping infrastructure
greenhouses financial support needs and availability
• Food preservation (freezing, • Encouraging growers to • Business education for
canning, etc.) cooperate, not just compete farmers
• Varied educational channels/ • Retrofitting and repurposing • Cooperative insurance
methodologies, from both existing infrastructure • Study regarding returns on
peers and experts • Technology, such as improved season extension
• Peer-to-peer learning and hoop-house materials and infrastructure investment
mentoring alongside temperature controls • Trusted local organizations
education from experts who can work with farmers
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6. Topic 2: Aggregation, Distribution, and Rural-Urban Connections
What makes this issue important?
Aggregation and distribution infrastructure are crucial for producers to
access higher volume, higher priced markets, such as those offered by
urban areas. Connections with urban areas allow more financial wealth
to flow to rural areas, but also offer access to larger labor pools,
increased political influence, and to urban residents who may currently
lack connections to their food and to the rural areas around them.
Tootie Jones, President (right) and
These connections offer the potential for benefits beyond just Jill Young, VISTA Volunteer
increased income to rural producers. Monroe Farm Market
Featured Model
Tootie Jones and Jill Young are instrumental in running the Monroe Farm Market, a farmers market
that combines both a local market serving the Union, WV community, and an online market serving
the city of Charleston, WV. This online market, built on a platform offered by LocallyGrown.net, is
a clever twist on the classic consumer supported agriculture (CSA) model; consumers place orders
with individual producers on Mondays and Tuesdays, and pick up their baskets from one of two
Charleston locations on Thursday afternoons. This innovative approach allows producers in Monroe
County (population 13,000) to effectively access markets in Charleston, a city of 50,000 just over
two hours away.
What else is working?
Localorb.it is an online platform like the Monroe Farm Market’s, with an additional focus on
wholesale markets. ASD’s Appalachian Harvest is a groundbreaking processing, aggregation and
distribution (PAD) business that connects rural producers with local and national wholesale clients,
like grocery chains Ingles and Whole Foods. Rural Action’s Fresh Stops get local foods into rural
and urban convenience stores and community centers. CAN partner Rural Resources sells local
foods to urban communities of all income levels via a “Mobile Market”, a farmer’s market on
wheels. Urban nonprofit d.c. central kitchen uses “seconds” from regional farmers as inputs for a
nonprofit community kitchen, catering program and culinary school, and is also starting up a
wholesale delivery service, bringing fresh produce and healthy snacks to urban corner stores and
other small retailers.
Effective Strategies Greatest Opportunities Key Investment Targets
• Farmer’s markets as aggregators • Effective marketing as to • PAD infrastructure, and
and distributors, via traditional benefits of local foods to studies on various PAD
and online ordering systems nearby urban centers business models
• PAD enterprises • Streamlined distribution • Publications and trainings on
• Producer co-ops that sell systems health and safety standards
directly to wholesale buyers • Investment from urban and requirements
• “Food hubs” as aggregation/ people and businesses into • Regional branding/marketing
distribution nodes increased farm capacity • EBT, SNAP and other ways
• Distribution systems that serve and expanded value chains to increase access to fresh,
low-income communities and • Encouraging growth of local foods for low-wealth
food deserts. service businesses for communities
• Urban buyer investment into producers – grading, • Grocery stores and markets in
farm capacity, i.e. Whole Foods processing, storage, food deserts
Local Producer Loan Program finances, marketing, etc.
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7. Topic 3: Institutional Buying
What makes this issue important?
Because they pre-plan menus weeks or months in advance, and serve
set quantities of people and meals, institutional buyers can be a stable
source of producer revenue. Moreover, with advance knowledge of
buyers’ needs, producers can more easily and confidently plan for the
upcoming season.
Purchasing fresh, local food provides institutions with an opportunity
to increase the nutritional quality of the food they serve as well as
Bekki Leigh, Coordinator
educate consumers and encourage healthier lifestyles. Direct West Virginia Department
relationships between buyers and producers allow institutions to work of Education, Office of
with their suppliers to meet nutritional mandates and ensure that food Child Nutrition
safety guidelines are met.
Featured Model
Bekki Leigh has been a statewide leader in efforts to get local foods into schools in West Virginia.
She coordinates both the Department of Education’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program, which is
designed to get fresh fruits and vegetables into snacks for students, and a Farm to School program
from the USDA which allows school districts to preferentially purchase local foods.
Her work to get local foods into schools also includes creating deeper connections between schools
and farmers, encouraging schools to “adopt” farmers, and to get students aware of and involved in
the places where their food comes from.
What else is working?
Other institutions buying direct from local producers include Ohio University, which works with
local produce aggregator the Chesterhill Produce Auction to source local foods for its dining hall.
Foodservice corporation Sodexo, one of the largest foodservice providers in the world, has been
changing its purchasing policies in recent years, and has incorporated local products into many of its
clients’ menus, including colleges and universities. This shift has been demand driven, and shows
the impacts that local foods marketing and outreach can have on institutional buying.
Effective Strategies Greatest Opportunities Key Investment Targets
• Government and corporate • Creating deeper connections • Increasing buyer/
preferential purchasing between buyers and producers, producer connectivity
policies for local foods so that they understand one • Toolkits and trainings:
• Adopt-a-farmer program another’s needs and constraints o For institutions on how
• Starting small (farmers • Institutional purchasing policy to use/buy/integrate local
selling one product to one changes products
institutional buyer) • Get consumer groups and o For producers on food
• Training for farmers media involved in marketing safety requirements,
around marketing and and advocacy specific challenges of
branding, nutritional • Workshops and conferences institutional markets
standards and safety bringing together cooks, • PAD infrastructure to
mandates, as well as how to administrators and producers aggregate the large
process and package their • Accessing non-school volumes of food needed
products for institutional institutions (daycares, for larger institutions
foodservice universities, hospitals, prisons) • Information sharing tools
• Marketing and outreach
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8. Topic 4: Statewide Organizing and Policy Work
What makes this issue important?
Organizing, policy education, and outreach are needed in order to allow value
chain partners to have a voice in policy conversations and access to federal
resources, and to understand how current policies affect them. Coalitions of
diverse participants in the food system increase the political influence of each
member, enabling the membership as a whole to effectively influence legislation
where uncoordinated individuals might have failed.
Featured Model
The West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition, an initiative of the WV Community
Development Hub, recently led a collaborative effort to convene a series of six Savanna Lyons,
Program Manager,
regional roundtables bringing together farmers, restaurants, government
West Virginia
representatives, students, and others interested in local foods issues in West Food and Farm
Virginia. Just the simple act of getting people into the same room and talking Coalition
about mutual opportunities was a major step.
These roundtables were the first of four phases of a larger effort towards a West
Virginia Food Charter. The Charter will identify the five or six local foods issues that matter most to
WV citizens, and bring those issues forward for public commentary, then to governments,
organizations and the media as part of a larger organizing effort.
What else is working?
The WV Farm and Food Coalition is basing much of their work on the example of the Michigan
Good Food Charter, which presents a vision of a healthy, green, fair and affordable food system,
and outlines policy priorities for the next ten years. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
organizes sustainable agriculture value chain participants nationwide to develop policy initiatives,
lobby for political support, and get engaged and represented in the political system. In addition,
CAN has funded the creation of policy training materials and brochures, such as a brochure from
the WesMonTy RC&D Project on current and upcoming food safety policies for produce growers.
Effective Strategies Greatest Opportunities Key Investment Targets
• Regional round tables to • Education and advocacy • Education and outreach to
build and leverage political around the 2012 Farm Bill producers and other value
capital • Partnerships with national chain members about current
• Collaborative work towards organizations like USDA, policy issues and ways to get
shared metrics and goals, National Association of involved
with public engagement County Commissioners • Farmer fly-ins and other
• Building farmer coalitions to • Multimedia storytelling and direct policy advocacy
lobby for friendly policies outreach about the powerful • Holistic strategies promoting
and financial support and impact of local foods on producers’ financial stability,
increase eligibility for federal rural communities and allowing them the time and
and state programs families, broadening the flexibility needed to invest in
• Creative use of partners (like dialogue beyond financial policy work
Economic Development measures of wealth • Youth education
Corporations) to reach out • Information-sharing tools • Education about implications
and organize on policy for collaboration and of existing policies, and how
• Statewide Food Charters learning to comply with them
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9. Common Themes
Throughout these conversations, a number of recurring themes arose. These included the
importance of education, the role of intermediary organizations, and the benefits of and need for
true collaboration among value chain partners of all levels and scales.
Education and outreach are critical to the success of local food value chains. Producers and
buyers alike need training and information on topics like food safety certification, sustainable
farming practices, and policy. Business support and training, including accounting, record-keeping
and business planning, would greatly increase the financial stability and sustainability of producers.
This type of training is also necessary for the development of new enterprises that could strengthen
weak or missing links in the value chain.
Intermediary organizations serve a number of important functions in the development of local
food value chains. They connect producers to markets and to the education and resources necessary
to serve new markets effectively. The wide range of connections and high levels of trust they have
developed over years of working within Central Appalachian communities allow them to effectively
organize groups of producers and local foods advocates around policy issues. These connections
also help them connect funders to projects in need, and to support new and expanding
entrepreneurs.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, intermediaries are able to see the bigger picture. As
“middlemen” by definition, they are able to understand, analyze and coordinate local foods value
chains at the systems level while supporting various parts individually. As a network of such
intermediaries, CAN and other organizations like it enable local foods work to move forward at a
regional scale, crossing political boundaries to ensure that local foods have a voice and impact
nationwide.
In order for value chains to be successful and sustainable over the long run, it is crucial to foster
collaboration, both among the core links of the value chain and among those working to support
value chain development. Some wholesale buyers are already beginning to invest in local producers
through preferential buying agreements and financial support; these partnerships clearly demonstrate
the mutual gains to be made from strengthening local food systems, and should be encouraged.
Strong relationships among practitioners, anchor organizations, and grant-makers will allow for
sharing of information and best practices, definition of common goals, and coordination of efforts
across geographic and cultural divides.
Conclusions
Developing local food value chains in a region like Central Appalachia is difficult, complicated work.
CAN believes that the challenges involved in creating real and systemic changes that improve rural
livelihoods are too large for any one organization to solve alone. We find that collaboration, though
challenging in its own right, helps to advance this work by providing opportunities to increase our
knowledge, develop a shared analysis of critical issues, and begin working toward a shared vision.
We believe that this conversation was one step in a much longer process of learning to collaborate
with a diverse set of partners throughout the region, and that it will be through collaboration that we
can ultimately realize our vision of living in a more just and sustainable Appalachia.
For more information, or if you or your organization would like to join us in these efforts, we
encourage you to contact us via email, at info@cannetwork.org.
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10. Participant List
Appalachia Funders Network: www.appalachiafunders.org
Appalachian Center for Economic Networks: www.acenetworks.org
Appalachian Sustainable Development: www.asdevelop.org
Alleghany Foundation: www.alleghanyfoundation.org
blue moon fund: www.bluemoonfund.org
Center for Economic Options: www.centerforeconomicoptions.org
Central Appalachian Network: www.cannetwork.org
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation: www.benedum.org
Ford Foundation: www.fordfound.org
Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation: www.gvedc.com
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation: www.mrbf.org
Monroe Farm Market: www.monroefarmmarket.locallygrown.net
Mountain Association for Community Economic Development: www.maced.org
Natural Capital Investment Fund: www.ncifund.org
Rural Action: www.ruralaction.org
Rural Support Partners: www.ruralsupportpartners.com
United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development, West Virginia State Office:
www.rurdev.usda.gov/wv/officestate.htm
WesMonTy Resource Conservation and Development Project, Inc.: www.wesmontyrcd.org
West Virginia Department of Education, Office of Child Nutrition:
www.wvde.state.wv.us/nutrition/
West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition: www.wvhub.org/foodandfarmcoalition
Yellow Wood Associates: www.yellowwood.org
Special thanks to the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation, the Monroe Farm
Market, Swift Level Farm, and the Stardust Café.
This paper was produced by Rural Support Partners for the Central Appalachian Network.
CAN Members Include:
The Natural Capital Investment Fund
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