NGFN Webinars: Sustainable US Food System Models

It's been a slow season at the NGFN Webinars... but it has NOT been slow in the Good Food world! The thousands of practitioners in the NGFN are making incredible process in getting healthy, fair, affordable, green food to all communities.

We are excited for the upcoming year of NGFN webinars! We have some incredible topics planned with the best minds, and the most experienced practitioners there to share their wisdom with you. We're not quite ready to announce most of them, but topics include looking at the roots of success and failure of food hubs, the "million dollar question" about how big an aggregator/distributor must be to be viable, creative ways to access capital, updates on the Food Safey Modernization Act, and more, more, more! This is looking to be onw of the most exciting years of webinars to date!

Here's one we are ready to announce!

January 22, 2015

Talk Is Cheap … and Efficient - Facilitating value chain development without costly new infrastructure

Register Now!

Let's face it: food hubs are sexy! So are other Good Food infrastructure projects, such as region-scaled meat processing plants.

And for good reason: these businesses are often filling gaps or bottlenecks in regional and local food systems.

However, those of us who support Good Food systems across the country are noticing that sometimes it's not a LACK of infrastructure that leads to bottlenecks - it is incomplete or inefficient USE of the infrastructure.

This webinar digs DEEP into many ways people are building a stronger Good Food system... without actually BUILDING anything!

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AND AS ALWAYS - review our large and growing library of recorded webinars: http://ngfn.org/webinars

The NGFN webinar series continues to provide timely, pertinent information to people working hard to change the food landscape to one that has more abundant food that is heathier for people, helathier for the economy, healthier for communities, and healthier for the planet. This summer's webinars continue to inspire people to work smarter, bolstering thier passion with actionable best practices.

You are always free to watch our archives at http://ngfn.org/webinars.

July 24, 2014: Making IT Click: Choosing Appropriate Technology to Run Your Good Food Business

Good Food businesses are complicated. There are many types of exchanges that a business must track accurately, including money, food, plans, etc. And there are a large number of constituents that need to these goods or information - growers, buyers, consumers, drivers, and warehouse personnel to name a few.

In the 21st century, we must use software to ensure all pieces of our business are accurately served. But how do you choose the right technology to help run your business? A solution that does not fit your business could well cost a lot of money, and worse, lost productivity.

The first step in choosing the right solution is a deep understanding of your own business. With the right analysis you can make technology choices with greater speed, and with confidence. This webinar gives you the tools to perform an accurate analysis of your business technology needs. Although the presentation focuses on food hubs (arguably one of the more complicated Good Food businesses, as a "middle man" interacting with all pieces of the food system), the same theories apply to ALL businesses. 

August 21, 2014: Ins-TRUCK-tion Manual: Lease, Buy, or Other?

One major expense of food hubs (and many other Good Food businesses, including farms) is vehicles. How do you decide whether to lease or own? There are many expenses including repair, resale value, potential lost business due to malfunction, typical delivery miles, frequency of delivery, garage fees, etc... How do you weigh all of the financials in a clear way? Farm Credit of the Virginias and Farm Credit Council will present their tool that will give you a definitive financial answer to that question. 

... and then there is a third option: neither lease nor own, but using a third-party trucking company. Though it may seem counter intuitive, there are many cases where this option is the most reliable, and the most cost effective solution. Dennis Derryck of Corbin Hill Food Project, relates their story of trying all three options, and found great efficiencies, including monetary, using a third-party logistics company.

This webinar takes you through theory and practice of making the right decision for your business.

September 4, 2014: Putting Local on the Menu- Five Best Practices and a Cost Calculator Training

Several institutional cafeterias and mid-priced restaurants are using clever techniques to source substantial amounts of local food, while maintaining their own affordability and profitability. This webinar, led by Anthony Flaccavento, will present the results ofSCALE Inc.'s research into how these kitchens are successfully putting local on the menu, while staying within their tight budgets.

Prioritizing local food while keeping costs reasonable is part art, and part science. This webinar honors that by illustrating some of the art with case studies, while presenting the 'science' in the form of a new tool.

The first half of the webinar reveals five best practices that showed up across SCALE's study. The driving forces behind The Root Café (Little Rock, AR) and Carlton College (Northfield, MN) will illustrate how they are using each of these techniques to get significant quantities of local food into their kitchens.

The second half of the webinar presents a tool, developed by SCALE, Inc. that enables buyers and local foods advocates to accurately determine the cost of local buying down to the level of per plate or menu item costs. We will step you through how and why to use this tool.

September 25, 2014: Food Hub Benchmarking Study 2014

Food Hubs are delivering on their promise of enabling identity-preserved, primarily local and regional food to enter the wholesale market, enabling small and mid-sized farms access to buyers that would otherwise be unattainable.

But aggregation and distribution of food is a very thin-margin business, and hubs take on additional expense working with smaller farmers, providing technical assistance, and other grower and community services. Are food hubs able to support themselves with their operations? What are industry-standard financial and operational benchmarks for food hub businesses?

The NGFN Food Hub Collaboration, through our partners at Farm Credit East, Farm Credit Council and Morse Marketing Connections, has collected and analyzed financial and operational data from dozens of hubs across the country, creating the second food hub benchmarking study. The pilot 2013 study showed good promise for our methodology, and this year's study has several times the number of participants, giving us a much better picture of how food hubs operate.

This webinar describes the lessons learned from the recent benchmarking study of food hub financial and operational characteristics. The presentation highlights how successful food hubs across the nation have achieved their mission and goals through financial and business metrics.

Understanding this study will benefit all manner of people interested in regional food systems. For instance, food hub operators will be able to identify performance standards and improvement strategies. Farmers who attend the webinar will gain a better understanding of their ability to access new markets through food hubs, and researchers and local food advocacy organizations will benefit from this webinar’s business-based analysis of food hub functions and operational issues. Private lenders and public sector funders will gain insight on strategic investment strategies for food hubs that will lead to positive economic and sustainable outcomes.