Progress 01/15/16 to 07/14/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences for the project workhave been farmers and food businesses; university chefs and dining managers;extension agents;local/regional food value chain coordinators (within extension, government, food hubs, and non profits);students at the project partner universities, and food wholesalers that are authorized vendors foruniversity dining accounts. Changes/Problems:We found dining managers at the focal universities to have a low interest in bringing more local products to campus, with this low interest justified by mangers' claims that students had low interest. High turnover in food service staff appears to exacerbate low interest. Because of food service management contractual provisions that require purchasing from particular authorized vendors, dining staff and the upper management of these companies must have strong demand from the client--the university--to warrant a shift from large-scale non-local suppliers, to local suppliers. This led the project to focus more on working with the partner universities' authorized produce distributor, who served five of the six universities, and to work on building the capacity of local growers to enter the distributor's supply chain. This strategy was successful for produce, with the result that the local farmers now have access to the university market channels, as well as other markets (e.g., restaurants) served by the distributor. The distributors purchases from local farmers increased nearly 2-fold (177%) over the project period.We were unable to replicate this fornon-produce items, specifically local meat and dairy products (milk and cheese). Local producers of these items were successful in individual transactions, supplying product for one-off (not regular) university catered events, but none became approved or authorized vendors. This was explained by university dining staff as being due to the vendors size and inability to supply a dining hall, and by the contractual demands that restrict from whom food purchases can be made. // Based on the project's direct engagement with students, wefound that students on every campus have an interest in engaging with their areas' agricultural heritage, and eating fresh foods from sources they can identify. Therefore, the project team also focused efforts on developing and chronicling strategies for campus advocates to build student demand for local foods, and to do so by supporting student leadership and advocacy in this area. Over time, this advocacy can lead to demands by students and their universities (specifically university business services offices) to contractual changes (the contracts that universities make with food service managementcompanies) that include provisions for more local purchasing. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two graduate students, one PHD Industrial Engineering student, one MBA student, and one undergraduate computer science student conducted research for the project. Undergraduate students (15+) at each partner campus have also been involved with on-campus promotion and outreach associated with the initiative, participated in annual project collaborator meetings, and received training on creation of social media content for local food promotion. Twenty-five extension agents participated in a "Farm to University/Institution" workshop at the 2016 North Carolina annual Extension Conference, and a webinar was held for NC community colleges and interested farmers and extension educators on how to build local food procurement into community college culinary programs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project research and extension staff presented findings to an estimated 1,325 attendees at 40+ outreach events during the 2.5 year project. Events ranged from the NC statewide food council meeting and extension service workshops, to annual conferences of national associations and industry groups. Notably, the project PI and FreshPoint-Raleigh's (part of Sysco) Local & Organic Specialist presented together at the 2018 annual meeting of the National Association for College and University Food Service Professionals on effective farm-to-university procurement practices; and the PI and Aramark's director of Strategic Development presented at the 2018 National Good Food Network meeting on effective means for food hubs, coops, and value chain coordinators to collaborate with university dining to create economically feasible and mutually beneficial value chains from farm to campus dining. The "How it Works Handbook" and other projectresources were shared with participants at these conferences. The project maintained an active website (ufoods.com) and disseminated information on the project through the NC 10% Campaign and the Center for Environmental Farming Systems networks of 9000+ individuals and businesses. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1. Establish through research activities the current status of food supply chains at six campus communities and from this analysis identify the most mutually-beneficial entry points for bringing local foods from small and mid-scale farmers to each campus. During the Year 1 investigation and relationship building stage of the project, supply chain research staff conducted 16 in-person or phone interviews with key Aramark and Sodexo food service management personnel (dining manager, executive chef, purchasing manager) and business services and sustainability office personnel at five of the six project partner universities, and at four other universities in North Carolina. Thiswas supplemented by 10+ additional interviews with management at food hubs that are approved vendors to Aramark-managed universities;a contracting and bids manager at Sysco (the authorized vendor for 5 of the 6partner universities);the regional sustainability manager for Aramark and the regional marketing manager for Sodexo;and with farmers and small processors who were selling or had the potential to sell through partner university market channels. Project staff participated in one or more meetings at each university, which consisted of university staff, faculty and students; and local farmers and extension agents.By the end of Year 1 research project staff had identified entry points for farm-to-campus connections and facilitated these connections. This included piloting of a campus CSA model that linked a local food hub to a campus Student Nutrition Association; and facilitation of apeer-learning tour for two partner universities to learn about campus farms and arrangements with dining. Additionally, project graduate studentsdeveloped a clustering and route optimization model focused on efficiently routing farmers to area food hubs or to the authorized fresh produce vendor. In Year 2, project staff continued to communicate with dining staff, sustainability coordinators, area extension agents and interested faculty, staff and students at each partner university, meeting individually and in on-campus group meetings. Mini-case studies were completed for pilotmarket channels at five of the six partner universities, and included in the project's "How it Works Handbook." The 48-page Handbook explains the structure of the campus food system and entry points for local foods. Project researchers completed creation of a "Local Food Opportunities" decision support tool, which analyzes velocity reports (e.g., records of purchasing) from university dining and quickly produces outputs that identify opportunity products--produce items that are seasonally available in the local area but are currently purchased from non-local sources. The Produce Usage/Availability App was posted to the web (at the Ufoods website, ufoodsnc.com/f2uproduceplanningapp).During the final 6 months of the project, staff continued communication with and support for partner schools, and broadened outreach through national venues (see outreach activities, below). Objective 2. Identify and assess near-campus farmer readiness to sell into these six university communities, provide information and trainings to build farmer capacity, and connect buyers, farmer-vendors, and campus dining staff. During the Year 1 investigation stage, project extension staff communicated with over 100 farmers and 14 extension agents across the state to share information on the project and the basics of working with university food supply chains. A farmer survey was created and used to collect information from 85 farmers located proximate to the partner universities. Data from this survey was used to identify training needs and then connect farmers to the food safety, post-harvest handling, and season extension workshops heldby the Cooperative Extension Service and other project partners. In Year 2 farmers were included in grower-buyer events that provided introductions to the partner universities' authorized produce distributor. Project staff also arranged meetings between two food hubs and this distributor, and created a Food Hub Directory listing services for both growers and buyers. Project staff were contacted by Aramark's District Manager to assist three additional universities and the Regional Chef and Regional Marketing Director with connections to local producers. The Ufoods Campus Communities Farm Map (which provides farms, products, and alumni status for farmers local to each of the six Ufoods partner universities) was utilized to locate growers available for campus dining events. Project staff created Agritourism, Farm Tour, and Campus Catering guides for each of five partner universities. The print guides contain locations and product offerings for farms that are local to each campus community and designed for distribution to dining managers, students, and teaching faculty who desire agricultural learning experiences for their students. As a result of the projects work with the authorized produce wholesale distributor that serves four of the six partner universities, the dollar value of local produce purchased by dining at these universities increased by 177% between the 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 academic years. Objective 3. Based on the above research and extension activities create transferable tools for application to the six university campuses and other campus community food systems. All extension outputs as outlined in the original project narrative have been completed. The primary extension deliverables consist of a 48-page "How it Works Handbook: A Guide to University Food Systems & Local Food Programs" (http://www.ufoodsnc.com/how-it-works-handbook) detailing the structure of university food systems, pathways for local food onto campus, and the experiences of partner campuses. Six Campus Local Food Guides (http://www.ufoodsnc.com/campus-local-food-guides) were created, one for each partner university, detailing the location of on and near-campus gardens, farms, farmers markets, and other sources of local food, as well as relevant student clubs. The decision support software tool was created (as noted above), as well as a comprehensive Farm to University Guide for Extension Agents. These primary outputs have been shared on the NC Cooperative Extension Local Foods Portal (https://localfood.ces.ncsu.edu/local-food-marketing-markets/local-food-farm-institution/) and nationally through eXtension, and through a variety of North Carolina and national venues (see Outreach section, below). All Ufoods resources will continue to be accessible at the 10% Campaign website (http://www.nc10percent.com/). Additional promotional materials were created to boost student awareness of and use of local foods, including "What's in Season" posters and "Local Food Spotlights--Dorm Recipes", with the latter highlighting in-season produce, the closest campus farmers market, and a simple and healthy recipe suitable for preparing in a university student residence. Students were trained and supported to create their own engagement tools, making a series of Farm-to-Dorm cooking videos based on the Local Food Spotlight seasonal recipes. Students were featured in the videos cooking healthy, local foods from nearby farmers markets using minimal supplies. The videos and other materials were shared via social media, and will continue to be used by students engaged with the NC 10% Campaign, and serve as a model for other programs.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Dunning and Horning. 2018. Dining and Distributor Collaboration for Authentically Local Sourcing. National Association of College and University Food Service Professionals, March 6-8, Denton, TX.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Dunning and Rogers. 2018. Food Service Management Companies Structures, Incentives, & Strategies for Collaboration. National Good Food Network Conference, March 27-30, Albuquerque, NM.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Stout and Dunning. in press. Farm to Institution Guide for Extension Agents. LF-017. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ufoods: Connecting Farms and Universities. http://www.nc10percent.com/ufoods
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Davis, L., Lavette, T., Swifth, D., and Dunning, R. 2017 "A Data-Driven Approach to Identify Local Food Procurement Opportunities in University Food Supply Chains." National Value Added Conference, Nov. 14-16, Little Rock, AK
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Fianu, S., and Davis, L. 2017. "Scheduling Optimization of Local Farmers." INFORMS Annual Meeting, Oct 22-25, Houston, TX.
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Progress 01/15/17 to 01/14/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences for the project are primary food producers (farms, ranches) and other small/midscale food manufacturers (value-added produce, meat and dairy) and food wholesalers and distributors including food hubs; extension and other food and farm business educators and advocates who work with these businesses including value chain coordinators; university food service management; and the potential campus consumers of local foods--students, staff, and faculty. Changes/Problems:We found dining managers at five of the six focal universities to have a low interest in bringing more local products to campus, with this low interest justified by mangers claims that students hadlow interest. High turnover in food service staff appears to exacerbatelow interest.This led the project to focus more on working with the authorized produce distributor, who serves all partner universities, and to work on building the capacity of local growers to enter the distributor's supply chain. Based on the project's student engagement, however, we have also found that students on every campus have an interest in engaging with their areas' agricultural heritage, and eating fresh foods from sources they can identify. Therefore, the project team will focus efforts on developing and chronicling strategies for campus advocates to build student demand for local foods, and to do so by supporting student leadership and advocacy in this area, and celebrating the work of university chefs who highlight local products. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two graduate students, one PHD Industrial Engineering student, one MBA student, and one undergraduate computer science studentconducted research for the project. Undergraduate students (6+) at each partner campus have also been involved with on-campus promotion and outreach associated with the initiative. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project extension staff presented findings of the university food supply chain research at two educational events: one for 300+ attendees at the North Carolina Statewide Food Council event, November 30-December 1; and one for primarily student attendees (approximately 45 attendees, overall conference had 200+) at "FoodCon," a student-organized annual conference on the business of local and sustainable food and food systems, held December 8, 2017, in Raleigh, NC. The decision support tool was presented at the National Value Added Conference, November 14-16 in Little Rock, AR, and the logistics management tool (designed to identify efficient locations for cross-docking local produce in order to bring small farms into pickup range for the universities' authorized distributor) was presented at INFORMS (an operations research-focused conference with 1000+ overall attendees), October 23-25 in Houston, TX. The semi-annual Ufoods advisory council meeting was also held, the project website maintained, and a webinar held to inform agricultural educators and small business center counselors of the opportunity and means for farmers and food entrepreneurs to sell product directly to culinary programs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Supply chain research and development: We plan to utilize the Local Food Opportunities software tool (which identifies local products already being purchased and those that could be purchased based on local availability) at multiple universities in NC as a bridging device to highlight opportunity products for purchase by dining managers; we have commitments from regional food service managers for Sodexo and Aramark for the testing of this tool. Through this work the tool will also be tested and by the end of the next reporting period it will be released for use by other intitutional food service entities.We alsoplan to work with existing student contacts at partner schoolsto create marketing materials that build student interest and demand, and that can be transferred to other campuses to build demand for local farm products. Extension, Education, and Outreach: Based on findings summarized in the How it Works Handbook: A Guide to University Food Systems & Local Food Programs, create a tip sheet with talking points for extension agents and other farm business educators and advocates to support their work in connecting farmers and institutional food service. We plan to present project findings with our Aramark and Sodexo dining service collaborators at the National Good Food Network Conference (March 27-30, 2018) and Southern Regional meeting of The National Association of College & University Food Services (March 4-8, 2018). Based on work with students, we will create a student advocacy toolkit with strategies to create student-driven demand and link students to university administrative and dining decision-makers on their campuses. These resources will highlight and celebrate the work of institutional dining chefs.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1. Establish through research activities the current status of food supply chains at six campus communities and from this analysis identify the most mutually-beneficial entry points for bringing local foods from small and mid-scale farmers to each campus. Project staff continued to communicate with a mix of dining staff, sustainability coordinators, area extension agents and interested faculty, staff and students at each partner university, meeting individually and in on-campus group meetings in the spring of 2016 and fall of 2017. A focal market channel was identified for five of the six universities at thesemeetings, based on campus readiness, and mini case studies completed and included in theproject's "How it Works Handbook."The 48-page Handbook explains the structure of the campus food system and entry points for local foods. Project researchers completed creation of a "Local Food Opportunities" decision support tool, which analyzes velocity reports (e.g., records of purchasing) from university dining and quickly produces outputs that identify opportunity products--produce items that are seasonally available in the local area but are currently purchased from non-local sources. Objective 2. Identify and assess near-campus farmer readiness to sell into these six university communities, provide information and trainings to build farmer capacity, and connect buyers, farmer-vendors, and campus dining staff. Farmers who were identified in year 1 of the project (as local to the university, and including available products and alumni status) were linked to food safety and post-harvest handling workshops and resources, and grower-buyer events that provided introductions to the partner universities' authorized produce distributor. Project staff also arranged meetings between two food hubs and this distributor, and created a food hub directory listing services for both growers and buyers. Project staff were contacted by Aramark's District Manager to assist three additional universities and the Regional Chef and Regional Marketing Director with connections to local producers. The Ufoods map of growers local to each university was utilized to locate growers available for campus dining events. Objective 3. Based on the above research and extension activities create transferable tools for application to the six university campuses and other campus community food systems. The primary extension deliverables for the project were completed, and consisted of a 48-page "How it Works Handbook: A Guide to University Food Systems & Local Food Programs"(http://www.ufoodsnc.com/how-it-works-handbook) detailing the structure of university food systems, pathways for local food onto campus, and the experiences of partner campuses. Six Campus Local Food Guides(http://www.ufoodsnc.com/campus-local-food-guides) were created, one for each partner university, detailing the location of on and near-campus gardens, farms, farmers markets, and other sources of local food, as well as relevant student clubs. The decision support software tool was created (as noted above), and tested on university data.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Davis, L., Lavette, T., Swifth, D., and Dunning, R. 2017 "A Data-Driven Approach to Identify Local Food Procurement Opportunities in University Food Supply Chains." National Value Added Conference, Nov. 14-16, Little Rock, AK
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Fianu, S., and Davis, L. 2017. "Scheduling Optimization of Local Farmers." INFORMS Annual Meeting, Oct 22-25, Houston, TX.
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Progress 01/15/16 to 01/14/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences for the project work over the past year include primary food producers (farms, ranches) and other small/midscale food manufacturers (value-added produce, meat and dairy) and food hubs seeking to enhance their business viability by connecting to the focal campus food supply chains; the extension and other food and farm business educators who support these businesses; the larger-scale wholesalers that are the authorized vendors for the food service management companies at the focal universities; university food service management personnel at the focal campuses; and the potential consumers of local food on campus--students, staff, and faculty. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Project research and extension staff presented the objectives and work of the project and information on campus food supply chains at the Local Food Ambassador orientation (for undergraduates at each partner university), and to 25 extension agents in a "Farm to University/Institution" workshop at the North Carolina annual Extension Conference, November 16, 2016. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?To-date project findings were presented at the Project Directors meeting in September; at a session at the National Small Farm Conference in September at Virginia State University; at a training session for NC extension agents (25 agents in attendance); and at the annual Ufoods Collaborators and Advisors meeting in October (28 attending). Resources have been shared via a University Local Foods Update newsletter to 20 UFoods project partners/collaborators and 78 Local Food Ambassador participants. All UFoods materials and information is available at ufoods.com and are linked to the NC 10% Campaign website (www.nc10percent) as well as through the Campaign's membership of over 9000 individuals and businesses. Resources have also been distributed by project staff at 32 outreach activities, as well as via Extension Agents and farmers market managers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Supply chain research and development: Utilize the findings and contacts from Year 1 to support 1-2 food system development initiatives per focal campus; create online/printed process models for identifying and developing farm to campus connections; and research and create case studies unique to each campus context. Improve on the route optimization model to develop weekly transportation schedules that addresses constraints related to collection frequency and food spoilage. Create a tool that will automatically evaluate historical food purchases and determine where there are opportunities to substitute purchased products with locally sourced alternatives. Validate the models using data collected from the authorized produce distributor for five of the six partner universities. Extension, Education and Outreach: Continue farmer outreach to establish a base of 20+ collaborating farmers per participating university. Explore Farmer Meet-ups with Cooperative Extension agents to identify farmers interested in campus-based markets. Continue to connect farmers with trainings and resources needed to participate in university market opportunities. Continue to create monthly "What's In Season" graphics and "Local Food Spotlights" with dorm recipes; create additional graphics to encourage local foods on campuses, for example student meal planning with local foods and campus-to-farm engagement opportunities including class trips and agritourism. Create an online and printable "How It Works Handbook" on the structure and operation of university food systems and ways to engage; and six "Campus Local Food Guides" (CLFG), one unique to each of the six partner universities. CLFGs will be distributed at participating schools during fall orientation; and an interactive version will be created for the UFoods and campus websites.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1 Establish through research activities the current status of food supply chains at six campus communities and from this analysis identify the most mutually-beneficial entry points for bringing local foods from small and mid-scale farmers to each campus. Supply chain research staff conducted 16 in-person and/or phone interviews with key Aramark and Sodexo food service management personnel (dining manager, executive chef, purchasing manager) and business services and sustainability office personnel at five of the six project partner universities, and at four other universities in North Carolina. This data collection was supplemented by 10+ additional interviews with management at food hubs that have become authorized vendors to Aramark-managed universities in North Carolina and in Pennsylvania, with a contracting and bids manager at the authorized vendor (Sysco) for 5 of the 6 partner universities, with the regional sustainability manager for Aramark and the regional marketing manager for Sodexo, and with farmers and small processors which already sell or have the potential to sell through collaborating university market channels. Baseline data on local fresh produce usage was collected per focal school, and per-product velocity reports were collected from one partnering university to develop an optimization model that matches local food availability with current university demand. Staff participated in meetings of university staff, faculty and students; and farmers and extension agents local to five of the six partner universities. Based on this research project staff identified entry points for farm-to-campus connections and facilitated these connections. This included piloting of a campus CSA model that linked a local food hub to a campus Student Nutrition Association; and organization of a peer-learning tour for two partner universities to learn from the food management division of another university that actively sources for dining from the university student farm. Additionally, we developed a clustering and route optimization model focused on efficiently routing farmers to area food hubs or to the authorized fresh produce vendor. Objective 2 Identify and assess near-campus farmer readiness to sell into these six university communities, provide information and trainings to build farmer capacity, and connect buyers, farmer-vendors, and campus dining staff. Project extension staff communicated with over 100 farmers and 14 extension agents across the state to share information on the project and the basics of working with university food supply chains. A farmer survey was created and used to collect information from 85 farmers located in the partner university counties. Data from this survey was used to identify training needs and then connect farmers to the food safety, post-harvest handling, and season extension workshops held across the state by the NC Growing Together project. Outreach to growers and agricultural educators conducted in Year 1 in the focal campus communities included attendance at seven food policy council meetings, two food hub meetings, and 15 community events, among other outreach. Objective 3 Based on the above research and extension activities create transferable tools for application to the six university campuses and other campus community food systems. Communications staff created a logo and project name (Ufoods), project website, postcard to promote the project to farmers and food businesses, and local food promotional materials. These materials include "What's in Season" posters and "Local Food Spotlights--Dorm Recipes", with the latter highlighting in-season produce, the closest campus farmers market, and a simple and healthy recipe suitable for preparing in a university student residence. Ufoods materials are shared via the project website and through the NC 10% Campaign's website and social media.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
ufoods.com
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