Variety is the word for the field of five finalists in the Food to Market Challenge. This competition will award $500,000 to the team deemed to have proposed the best solution to a problem affecting the supply chain for local and sustainable food in the Chicago region.
Many organizations and companies are working hard to untie knots in the supply chain for local and sustainable food in the Chicago area, the nation’s third most populous consumer market. Now the effort is getting a big boost from the Food to Market Challenge, a newly launched competition that will bestow a $500,000 award on the winning concept.
The schedule for this year’s 11th annual Festival & Conference, which takes place March 19-21 at the UIC Forum on the campus of University of Illinois at Chicago, has been released. We hope the details will whet your appetite for the event and persuade you to join this celebration of the fast-growing Good Food movement.
There is hardly a bigger Good Food movement success story than that of Whole Foods Market. So Michael Bashaw — president of Whole Foods Market’s 48-store-and-growing Midwest region — had a very attentive audience when he spoke Monday (Feb. 2) to entrepreneurs, financiers, and others associated with FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Business Accelerator program.
To sustain and expand on that growth, though, entrepreneurs and investors must be able to connect and build businesses that expand the supply of Good Food products in local markets. That is the goal of FamilyFarmed’s annual Financing Fair, which is currently accepting applications from entrepreneurs who want to participate.
The goal of creating a year-round local food culture in the nation’s northern regions is hindered by relatively short growing seasons. But the increasing number of indoor growing facilities — such as Illinois’ Living Water Farms — is helping to change that.
There is plenty of diversity among the Fellows in FamilyFarmed’s new Good Food Business Accelerator program. But they share a drive to succeed a commitment to expand the Good Food movement.
Can you find local food on your grocery store shelves? The answer to that question is increasingly “yes” … and FamilyFarmed.org is playing an important role in making that happen — including its work to connect Whole Foods Market with local and regional growers.
The Good Food movement needs more thriving farm and food businesses. Many farmers and entrepreneurs require help to develop the business skills and access to the resources they need to succeed. Enter FamilyFarmed.org’s new
Good Food Business Accelerator (GFBA), which aims to address those needs.
Consumer interest in Good Food is growing fast — so fast that it will be impossible to meet demand unless the supply of sustainably and locally produced food expands. One requirement for that expansion is assisting a new generation of young farmers to get established, and giving them the tools they need to succeed. If you are part of one or want to bring one to the world’s attention, please click the link and post a comment.