Progress 04/15/18 to 04/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the outreach component is farmers and food entrepreneurs with an emphasis on racial minority groups, women, and veterans. The target audience for the teaching component is college minority business students. The audience for the research component is primarily farmers and food entrepreneurs but also includes the general academic public. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided an excellent opportunity for professional development for the SC State College of Business faculty and SBDC staff. Dr. Feng attended and presented his papers at the Southeast Decision Science Institute (SEDSI) and the International Academy of Business and Economics conferences. He also attended numerous sessions and workshops during the conferences. During the Covid period, he participated in the SEDSI online webinars on various topics related to his research field. The center's director and agribusiness specialist attended several conferences, including the Farm to Instruction conference, South Carolina Agribiz Expo and conference, and the Sustainable Agriculture conference in North Carolina. The staff has also participated in several professional development programs, including the South Carolina New and Beginning Farmers Program and the Clemson Palmetto Leadership in Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (PLEAF) program (two-year intensive academic, experiential learning and networking program). The staff has judged many business competitions and given lectures in other program courses. We were able to audit these courses, including Feeding Innovation, Agricultural Center for Research and Entrepreneurship's (ACRE) business competition, as well as Clemson's New and beginning farmer program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to communities of interest in different ways. First, the outreach information and results were disseminated through the SBDC network (mainly the seven counties that SC State SBDC serves). Outreach information has been spread through many other networks, such as SC Dept. of Agriculture, Clemson Extension, SCSU 1890 Extension, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Colleton Commercial Kitchen, Rural Resource Coalition, Grow Food Carolina, Food share SC, Orangeburg Library, NRCS/USDA R/FSA, County of Orangeburg, Midlands Local Food Collaborative, and more. The center has identified over 40 resource partners as marketing stakeholders. Food hub information is disseminated to communities through the hub website (www.acebasingrowers.com), the hub's Facebook, and Orangeburg County Public Library network. Second, the research results were disseminated to academic communities through academic conferences, conference proceedings/presentations, and journal publications. Third, the teaching results were disseminated to business students through a new course and several revised courses at SCSU. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Extension objective 1.1 Establish and Develop a Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness The center was established at the Small Business Development Center at SC State University School of Business in 2018. The center served over 100 small farms in South Carolina.The program includes technical assistance with farm marketing, social media, website development, business and marketing planning, funding and financing, record keeping, food safety, food waste reduction, grant writing and educational outreach or trainings. The center created strong partnerships with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, 1890 Extension, Clemson Extension and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. SC State University SBDC and the College of Business are now regularly recognized as a legitimate technical assistance provider in the agricultural industry in South Carolina and beyond. Training workshops: Over the grant period, we held 18 workshops from November 2018 to April 2021. The total number of attendees was 315. We held 7 GAP/food safety workshops, 8 marketing workshops, and 3 miscellaneous topics, such as introductions or grant programs. Compared to food safety workshops, marketing and grant workshops were highly successful. In addition to center-organized workshops, the staff attended and participated in numerous resource partner workshops and events. Grants for Value-Added Projects and GAP Projects: The center has been very successful in administering the mini-grant program to farmers and food entrepreneurs for value-added projects and good agricultural practices (GAP) projects. Over the grant period, 14 mini-grants for a total of $29,000 have been funded to farms or food entrepreneurs. 11 of those were value-added grants, and 3 were GAP grants. Of the GAP applicants, 3 have successfully passed GAP certification audits. Objective 1.2 Hire and train a Food and Agribusiness Specialist / Consulting (Product 1,3) The center hired an agribusiness specialist in the Fall of 2018 and a replacement in May 2019. The specialist has done a great job of managing the center under the guidance of the SBDC region director.The center has become known across the state as a credible resource for agricultural business services. The SBDC currently registered 102 active farm clients.The center has spent over 450 hours of counseling time with farmers. The center helped start 12 farms, creating 20 jobs and creating the capital formation of $3,800,000. The center helped four farmers receive $1,000,000 in Rural Development Value-Added Producer Grant, which gave a $2 million dollar impact on the businesses. The center offers grant writing services for farmers and wrote 8 grants for the 2021 USDA VAPG program. The center worked with 15 farms on GAP preparation, and 4 of them received their GAP certification. Objective 1.3 Create a Food Hub (Product 2) We established a food hub called Ace Basin Growers in Orangeburg, SC in 2019 (www.acebasingrowers.com). The organization was funded by revenue from its food box program, sales of local food, and non-USDA grants (Duke Endowment Grant). The hub has received over $130,000 in grant funding to offer fresh fruit and vegetable access to the community.The food hub has also been supported by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, the University of South Carolina, One SC Fund, and private donations. The food hub operates a program called Foodshare South Carolina which sells produce boxes to an EBT/SNAP target audience. The food hub worked with over 30 local farms to source produce for the food box. The Ace Food hub is part of the South Carolina Food Hub Network. During COVID-19 in 2021, the food hub added free produce giveaway programming in addition to their Foodshare box program. This program was highly successful and resulted in over 20,000 boxes of produce given away in 2020.The hub partnered with several organizations, such as Senn Brothers, Save the Children, and the Sc Dept of Agriculture Farmers to Food Banks. The Food hub ended the year 2020 with over $250,000 in revenue. Objective 1.4 Collaborate with Commercial Kitchen (Product 5) The center works with the Colleton Commercial Kitchen in Walterboro, SC, to achieve the objectives of commercial kitchen utilization by farmers and food entrepreneurs. The center has a mini-grant program for potential users of any publicly used commercial kitchen in South Carolina. This program approved one application for $500. The agribusiness specialist used the Colleton commercial kitchen as a location to meet farmers in that region.Additionally, we put on several workshops at the facility. Research Objective 2.1 Research on Drivers and Obstacles of the Creation of a Food Hub. Under this objective, a literature review and data collection have been conducted. A research paper about food hub literature review was published in the International Journal of Strategic Management in 2019. The research paper was presented at the International Academy of Business and Economics Conference and the Southeast Decision Science Institute conference in 2019. We designed and conducted survey to understand both producers' and consumers' willingness to participate in a food hub and examine the drivers and obstacles to food hub creation. Based on the survey data, we presented our results at Southeast Decision Science Institute in 2020 and received positive feedback. The research findings were documented as a working paper and will be submitted to a journal for publication. A graduate research assistant was hired to assist Dr. Feng in conducting literature and designing survey questions on this objective. Objective 2.2. Research on the impact of food hub on food waste reduction A literature review on the impact of food hub waste reduction has been conducted. The survey instrument has been designed and distributed to the food hub entrepreneurs In South Carolina. The survey results indicated food hub has a positive impact on food waste reduction, the environment, and the community. The food hub entrepreneurs also proposed different strategies to reduce food waste. Teaching objective 3.1 Curricula Design and Materials Development. Dr. Selassie proposed a new course entitled Supply Chain Management in Agribusiness (AGBU345) to update the existing agribusiness curriculum at the undergraduate level. Dr. Selassie has completed all procedures and processes required by the university. The course has been officially added to the catalog by the Registrar's Office. The course is scheduled to be offered in the fall of 2022. This course is expected to attract students from all business programs. The issue of the supply chain, particularly in agribusiness, is becoming increasingly important, and we expect to create awareness and experience for students. Regarding the agriculture policy class (AGBU440), Dr. Selassie has incorporated chapters on food safety and security policy, environmental issues and policy, food assistance and nutrition policy, and the future of agricultural and food policy in his syllabus. This course is offered every spring semester for graduating seniors during the grant period. Dr. Feng has revised the AGBU544, Supply Chain Management in Agribusiness, and included a class module for the food hub supply chain. The AGBU545 was offered in summer 2020 and 2021, but it was canceled due to low enrollment. Mr. Jim Johnson modified the curriculum of MGT412 (Entrepreneurship) in spring 2019 to include a study of food hubs in the class as a sample business model. Students were asked to perform a project on solving the problem of getting local produce to markets. The course was taught every spring semester during the grant period. 3.2 Student Experiential Learning. A graduate student was hired and worked as a student intern in the center. Supervised by the SBDC director and the Ag Specialist, the student conducted research and outreach activities.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
A Review of Scholarly Literature on Food Hubs, Southeast Decision Science Institute Annual Meeting, Savannah GA, February 2019
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Feng, K. Food hubs in Food Supply Chain: a Literature Review, Annual Meeting of International Academy of Business and Economics, June 2019, Los Angeles.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Feng, K. (2019), Food hubs in Food Supply Chain: a Literature Review, International Journal of Strategic Management, Volume 19, Number1
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Feng, K. "Evaluating the feasibility of a food hub in the midlands of South Carolina," Annual Meeting of Southeast Decision Sciences Institute, Charleston SC Feburary 2020
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
https://www.acebasingrowers.com
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
https://www.facebook.com/acefoodhub/
|
Progress 04/15/20 to 04/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the outreach component is farmers and food entrepreneurs with an emphasis on racial minority groups, women, and veterans. The target audience for the teaching component is college minority business students. The audience for the research component is primarily farmers and food entrepreneurs but also includes the general academic public. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The CBG grant has offered the staff and faculty of the SC State College of Business and SBDC a great opportunity for professional development. The center agribusiness specialist and director have attended several conferences, including the Farm to Instruction conference, South Carolina Agribiz Expo and conference, and the Sustainable Agriculture conference in North Carolina. The staff has also participated in several professional development programs, including the South Carolina New and Beginning Farmers Program and the Clemson Palmetto Leadership in Environment, Agriculture and forestry (PLEAF) program. The staff has been asked to judge many competitions and give lectures in other program courses. We were able to audit these courses including, Feeding Innovation, Agricultural Center for Research and Entrepreneurship's (ACRE) business competition, as well as Clemson's New and beginning farmer program. Dr. Feng attended the Southeast Decision Science Institute Webinars on Data, Analytics, and virtual learning workshops. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The center works with the SBDC in its service area of seven counties as well as statewide. Outreach information has been spread through the many networks that were created through personal relationship development. Key relationships exist with the following entities: SC Dept. of Agriculture, Clemson Extension, SCSU 1890 Extension, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Colleton Commercial Kitchen, Rural Resource Coalition, Grow Food Carolina, Food share SC, Orangeburg Library, NRCS/USDA R/FSA, County of Orangeburg, Midlands Local Food Collaborative, and more. The center has over 40 resource partners we identify as marketing stakeholders. Food hub information is disseminated to communities through the hub website (www.acefoodhub.org) and Orangeburg County Public Library network. The research results will be disseminated to academic communities through academic conferences, conference proceedings/presentations, and journal publications. The teaching results due to the revised course modules will be disseminated to business students at SCSU. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The center will continue to see its existing farm clients and add new clients. We have agreements and partnerships with many agricultural resources, including the SC Department of Agriculture ACRE program and Specialty Crop Association, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Clemson Extension, 1890 Extension, USDA Rural Development, NRCS, and various other groups. We plan to finish up the mini-grant program and commercial kitchen grant and grant all funds allocated for the program. We will expand the food hub through additional partner sites and extra employees. We hope to continue to increase sales for the food hub and increase the customer base. We would like to increase the number of small farmers who supplied fresh vegetables and fruits to our food hub. We plan to continue with our training and incorporate online webinars. We plan to reapply for a second round of funding in 2021 to continue the excellent work of the team that has been assembled. For the research section, we will distribute the survey for food waste reduction to food hubs in SC and collect the data for the research study on food waste reduction. We plan to analyze, evaluate, and summarize the survey data and document the research findings. For the teaching section, we will continue to implement changes in the agribusiness curriculum by adding the supply chain management course, continue to revise the existing courses, and teach the new development to business students.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
? Established in 2018, the Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness continues to operate and has grown from a small program serving a handful of farmers to now serving over 100 small farms in South Carolina. The program includes technical assistance with farm marketing, social media, website development, business and marketing planning, funding and financing, record keeping, food safety, food waste reduction, grant writing, and educational outreach or training. During the reporting period, the center successfully administered the mini-grant program to farmers and food entrepreneurs for value-added projects and good agricultural practices (GAP) projects. The center also helped four farmers receive $1,000,000 in grants which gave a $2 million dollar impact to the businesses. The center held 18 workshops from November 2018-April 2021. Additionally, the center established a food hub in 2019 with sales of about $15,000. At the end of the year 2020, the food hub grew successfully with over $250,000 in revenue and impacted the communities positively. In research and teaching components, we conducted research on food hub and food waste reduction issues and presented research findings at conferences. We modified the current business courses to incorporate the latest research findings and developments into the new and existing courses. Objective 1.1 Establish and Develop a Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness The center continues to operate and grow steadily. The center has been able to create strong partnerships with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, 1890 Extension, Clemson Extension, and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. SC State University SBDC and the College of Business are now regularly recognized as legitimate technical assistance providers in the agricultural industry in South Carolina and beyond. We have offered assistance to farms in the Virgin Islands, Georgia, and Arkansas as well. Grants for Value-Added Projects, GAP Projects, Commercial Kitchen: The center has been very successful in administering the mini-grant program to farmers and food entrepreneurs for value-added projects and good agricultural practices (GAP) projects. To date, 12 grants for a total of $25,000 have been funded to farms or food entrepreneurs. 10 of those were value-added grants, and 2 were GAP grants. We still have three grants pending funding, 1 VAP, and 3 GAP grants to be funded. A total of $23,000 has been awarded, and $5000 is pending. Trainings and Webinars: Over the grant period, we held 18 workshops from November 2018-April 2021. The total number of attendees was 315. We held 7 GAP/food safety workshops, 8 marketing workshops, and 2 miscellaneous topics such as introductions or grant programs. In addition to center-organized workshops, the staff attended and participated in numerous resource partner workshops and events. Objective 1.2 Hire and train a Food and Agribusiness Specialist / Center Manager and staff. The agricultural specialist has done a great job of managing the center along with the help and guidance of the SBDC region director. To date, the SBDC currently has registered 102 active farm clients. The center has spent over 450 hours of counseling time with farmers. The center helped start 12 farms, creating 20 jobs, and creating a capital formation of $3,800,000. The center helped four farmers receive $1,000,000 in Rural Development Value-Added Producer grants which gave a $2 million dollar impact to the businesses. We are currently writing 8 grants for the 2021 USDA VAPG program. We worked with 15 farms on GAP preparation and saw 4 farms receive their GAP certification. A graduate assistant, Khala Pace, was hired and continues to work for the USDA program. Objective 1.3 Create a Food Hub. Our food hub continues to grow with a solid financial standing and receives strong community support. The Food Hub has been supported by the Tri-County Health Network through a Duke Endowment Grant. The hub has received over $130,000 in grant funding from the entity to offer fresh fruit and vegetable access to the community. The food hub has also been financially supported by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, the University of South Carolina, One SC Fund, and private donations. The food hub operates a program called Foodshare South Carolina which sells produce boxes to an EBT/SNAP target audience. The food hub currently works with over 30 local farms to source produce for the food box. The Ace Food hub is part of the South Carolina Food Hub Network With the advent of COVID-19 in 2021, the food hub added free produce giveaway programming in addition to their Foodshare box program. This program was highly successful and resulted in over 20,000 boxes of produce given away in 2020. The Food hub ended the year 2020 with over $250,000 in revenue. Objective 1.4 Collaborate with Commercial Kitchen. The center works with the Colleton Commercial Kitchen in Walterboro, SC, to achieve the objectives of commercial kitchen utilization by farmers and food entrepreneurs. The center has a mini-grant for potential users of any publicly used commercial kitchen in South Carolina. The agribusiness specialist used the Colleton commercial kitchen as a location to meet farmers in that region. In addition, we put on several workshops at the facility. Research Objective 2.1 Research on Drivers and Obstacles of the Creation of a Food Hub. Under this objective, literature review and data collection have been conducted. A research paper about food hub literature review was published in the International Journal of Strategic Management in 2019. We designed the survey instruments to study the feasibility of a local food hub in Orangeburg and the surrounding area. Based on the survey data on farmers and consumers, we presented our results at Southeast Decision Science Institute in 2020. The researching findings are currently documented as a working paper and will be submitted to a journal for publication. A graduate research assistant was hired to assist Dr. Feng in conducting literature and design survey questions on this objective. Objective 2.2. Research on the impact of food hub on food waste reduction A literature review on the impact of food hub waste reduction has been conducted. The survey instrument has been designed. The survey will be distributed in summer 2020, and the survey responses will be collected and analyzed. Teaching objective 3.1 Curricula Design and Materials Development. Dr. Selassie proposed a new supply chain management in agribusiness (AGBU345) course to update the existing agribusiness curriculum. The process of officially adding the course into the University catalog has been approved by the Education Policy Committee of the university. At this reporting time, Dr. Selassie has requested to teach the course in the fall semester of 2021 for the first time. Regarding the agriculture policy class (AGBU440), Dr. Selassie has incorporated chapters on food safety, security, and policy alternatives. This course is at the senior level. This section introduces graduating seniors to the dimensions of food safety and major public concerns and issues in food safety. Dr. Feng has revised the AGBU544, Supply Chain Management in Agribusiness, and included a class module for the food hub supply chain. The AGBU545 was offered in summer 2020, but it was canceled due to low enrollment. Mr. Jim Johnson modified the curriculum of MGT412 (Entrepreneurship) in spring 2019 to include a study of food hubs in the class as a sample business model. Students were asked to perform a project on solving the problem of getting local produce to markets. 3.2 Student Experiential Learning. A graduate student was hired and worked as a student assistant in the center, conducting research and outreach activities. ?
Publications
|
Progress 04/15/19 to 04/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the outreach component is farmers and food entrepreneurs with an emphasis on racial minority groups, women, and veterans. Out of 51 farmers that we served during this reporting period, 45% of them are women, 41% of them are African American, and 12% of them are veterans. The target audience for the teaching component is college minority business students. The audience for the research component is primarily on farmers and food entrepreneurs but also includes the general academic public. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The center director and agribusiness specialist participated in many professional development opportunities throughout the year, collecting over 100 hours of training combined. Professional development opportunities included, SC Agribiz Expo, GAP certification training, FSMA training, Clemson Extension New and Beginning Farmer training, SC Farmer resource Rodeo, Midlands Local food Collaborative, and various other minor training. Dr. Feng attended the Southeast Decision Science Institute annual conference and participated in a serial of Data, Analytics, and Statistics Instruction workshops. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Center works with the SBDC in its service area of seven counties as well as statewide. Outreach information has been spread through the many networks that were created through personal relationship development. Key relationships exist with the following entities: SC Dept. of Agriculture, Clemson Extension, SCSU 1890 Extension, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Colleton Commercial Kitchen, Rural Resource Coalition, Grow Food Carolina, Foodshare SC, Orangeburg Library, NRCS/USDA R/FSA, County of Orangeburg, and Midlands Local Food Collaborative. The Center has over 40 resource partners we identify as marketing stakeholders. Food hub information is disseminated to communities through the hub website and Orangeburg County Public Library network. The research results will be disseminated to academic communities through academic conferences, conference proceedings/presentations, and journal publications. The teaching results due to the revised course modules will be disseminated to business students in SCSU. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The Center will continue to see its existing farm clients and add new clients. We have agreements and partnerships with many agricultural resources, including the SC Department of Agriculture ACRE program and Specialty Crop Association, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Clemson Extension, 1890 Extension, USDA Rural Development, NRCS, and various other groups. We plan to finish up the mini-grant program and grant all $30,000 allocated for the program. We will expand the food hub through additional partner sites and extra employees. We hope to increase sales for the food hub from $30,000 in 2019 to over $50,000 in 2020. The customer base is over 200 families currently. The hub buys from 12 local farmers. We would like to double that to at least 24. We plan to continue with our training and incorporate online webinars. We hope to get at least two farmers GAP certified in 2020. This program has been highly effective, and all of our projected outcomes are being realized. We plan to reapply for a second round of funding in 2021 to continue the excellent work of the team that has been assembled. For the research section, we will distribute the survey to our food hub consumers and collect the data for the research study on food hub development. We plan to analyze, evaluate, and summarize the survey data and document the research findings. For the teaching section, we will continue to implement changes in the agribusiness curriculum by adding the supply chain management course, continue to revise the existing courses, and teach the new development to business students.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Since its inception, the Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness continues to grow steadily. The center focus on serving farmers and food businesses through technical assistance, educational outreach, micro-grant funding, and access to value chain services as well as a commercial kitchen collaboration. Through these inputs and activities we have been able to reach more than 50 farmers successfully, (21 minority farmers), make an impact through new farm starts, job creation, sales increases as well as increased efficiencies in current farm businesses. We also conduct research on food hub issues, present research findings,and published research papers. We modified the current business courses to incorporate the latest research findings and developments into the new and existing courses. Extension Objective 1.1 Establish and Develop a Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness. The Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness continues to grow its farmer base. In the past program year, we serviced 51 farmers, of which 23 (45%) were women, 21 (41%) were African American, and 6 (12%) were Veterans. Consulting time with farmers totaled 106 hours. We assisted farmers with various marketing issues from direct to consumer strategies to increasing capacity for wholesale channels. The Center has had 16 farms apply for the mini-grants. The Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) mini-grant received two applications. 14 Farmers applied for the Value Added Min-Grant. The Center held 6 workshops last year and incorporated food safety in all workshops. Workshop topics included GAP training, value-added processes, farm starting, how to grow tomatoes for a profit, and USDA grants and funding opportunities. We worked with 3 farmers last year on GAP certification. We partnered with the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to help farms on GAP certification. The Center worked with 5 farmers on the USDA Value-Added mini-grants, which were submitted in 2020. The Center continues to be a successful part of the School of Business and SBDC outreach to farmers. Objective 1.2 Hire and train a Food and Agribusiness Specialist / Center Manager and staff. Mr. John Cuttino served as our Agribusiness Specialist through March of 2019. We filled the position with a new agribusiness consultant, Steedley Sloane, in June of 2019. Ms. Steedley continues to be employed as the agribusiness specialist today. She has received over 40 hours of professional development in addition to SBDC counselor training. A graduate assistant, Khala Pace, was hired and continues to work for the USDA program. Objective 1.3 Create a Food Hub. We made huge strides in developing a food hub in 2019. We started the Ace Basin Growers group in early 2019, and we created a 501 C3 in September. Ace Basin Grower or ACE Food Hub, www.acebasingrowers.org, has a dual mission of getting fresh fruits and vegetables to under-served populations and food deserts and helping local small farmers be more successful. The nonprofit accomplishes the first goal by using the Foodshare food box model. ACE partnered with Foodshare South Carolina to develop Foodshare Orangeburg. The Foodshare model focuses on selling a box of 1-12 varieties of fresh fruits and veggies to SNAP/EBT customers. ACE partnered with the Orangeburg County Library to launch the program. ACE ordered produce from a local produce wholesaler and aggregated produce from local farmers. Then, the recruited volunteers packaged boxes on a single day and distribute them. Each box comes with a recipe card and costs $15. If the customers are on SNAP/EBT, it costs $5 with a voucher from the Health Bucks program. ACE sells the boxes to the library, and the library processes the payments creating a wholesale transaction. The first sale is 36 boxes in October. In November, Ace added a new partner site, Bamberg Foodshare. In December, ACE added retail sales to its wholesale channel and also added online ordering. Food box distributions are every two weeks, and to date we have sold 2021 boxes totaling over 40,000 pounds of produce. Over 2500 items have been from local farmers. ACE picked up funding from the Tri-County Health Network through the Duke Endowment and purchased a refrigerated trailer and packing and sorting fixtures, as well as moving carts and pallet jacks. The County of Orangeburg has donated a 5000 square foot facility and pays all utilities. The Food hub has hired one part-time employee through the Duke grant and is working on ordering a walk-in refrigerator. The duke grant was just renewed for three years of funding, where ACE Food hub is a main objective in their grant. The goal of ACE Basin Growers and ACE food hub is to promote specialty crops, help farmers find new markets, and work with farmers to be more successful in collaboration with the SC State University and SBDC. Objective 1.4 Collaborate with Commercial Kitchen. The Center has performed two workshops at the Collation Commercial Kitchen in 2019. An account is being set up with the commercial kitchen so that the Center can pay for clients to use the kitchen. This will help promote the kitchen and help train the clients on the benefits of value-added processes. We continue to meet clients in Colleton County and surrounding areas in the kitchen. Research Objective 2.1 Research on Drivers and Obstacles of the Creation of a Food Hub. We conducted a thorough literature review on the "status quo" of the food hub development. We submitted the literature review paper to the annual meeting of the International Academy of Business and Economics, and the paper was accepted for presentation in Los Angeles in June 2019. The paper was also accepted for publication in the International Journal of Strategic Management. We designed the survey instruments to study the feasibility of a local food hub in Orangeburg and the surrounding area. We had completed the survey for local farmers. Based on the survey findings, we submitted a paper to Southeast Decisions Science Institute, and the paper was accepted for presentation in Charleston in February of 2020. The survey for consumers is still in progress due to the pandemic of COVID-19. When the situation improves, we will survey our consumers of the ACE food hub. A graduate research assistant was hired to assist Dr. Feng in conducting literature and design survey questions on this objective. Teaching objective 3.1 Curricula Design and Materials Development. The teaching objective is to incorporate new development and research findings in food marketing and supply chain areas into the existing business school curricula and offer experiential learning opportunities to students. To achieve the above objective, Dr. Selassie proposed a new supply chain management in agribusiness course to update the existing agribusiness curriculum. The new course proposal requires approval by the curriculum committee, the general business faculty, and the Educational Policy Committee of the university. At this reporting time, the proposal has been submitted to the curriculum committee for review and approval. Regarding the agriculture policy class (AGBU440), Dr. Selassie has incorporated chapters on food safety, security, and policy alternatives. This course is at the senior level. This section introduces graduating seniors the dimensions of food safety and major public concerns and issues in food safety. Dr. Feng has revised the AGBU544, Supply Chain Management in Agribusiness, and included a class module for the food hub supply chain. Jim Johnson developed a new curriculum for the Entrepreneurship undergraduate class, MGT 412, which included having students come up with a business plan that solved the food desert problems in rural areas. 3.2 Student Experiential Learning. A graduate student was hired and worked as a student assistant in the Center, conducting research and outreach activities.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Feng, K. Food hubs in Food Supply Chain: a Literature Review, Annual Meeting of International Academy of Business and Economics, June 2019, Los Angeles.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Feng, K. Food hubs in Food Supply Chain: a Literature Review, International Journal of Strategic Management, Accepted 2019 June.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Feng, K. "Evaluating the feasibility of a food hub in the midlands of South Carolina," Annual Meeting of Southeast Decision Sciences Institute, Charleston SC Feburary 2020
|
Progress 04/15/18 to 04/14/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the outreach component is farmers and food entrepreneurs with a focus on minorities, including women, veterans and racial minority groups. 57% of our clients are minority, and 29% of our clients are veterans. We plan to develop some of our objective workshops for women-owned farms. The target audience for the teaching component is college minority business students. The audience for the research component is primarily on farmer and food entrepreneurs but also include the general academic public. Changes/Problems:Our agribusiness specialist resigned from the position on March 29, 2019. We are searching for a candidate and will fill the position as soon as possible. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Center director and Agribusiness Specialist have each attended over 40 hours of professional development and training. Professional Development Opportunities included SC Farm to Institution Summit, SC Agribiz Expo, GAP Certification Training, Agritourism, and Marketing Workshop, Clemson New and Beginning Farmer Workshop, and SC Farmer Resource Rodeo. Dr. Feng attended Southeast Decision Science Institute annual conference and attended a serial of Data, Analytics and Statistics Instruction workshops. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The center works with the SBDC in its service area of seven counties as well as statewide. Outreach information has been spread through the many networks that were created through personal relationship development. Key relationships exist with the following entities: SC Dept. of Agriculture, Clemson Extension, SCSU 1890 Extension, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Colleton Commercial Kitchen, Rural Resource Coalition, Grow Food Carolina, Foodshare SC, Orangeburg Library, NRCS/USDA R/FSA and Midlands Local Food Collaborative. The center has over 40 resource partners we identify as marketing stakeholders. Research results will be disseminated to academic communities through academic conferences, conference proceedings/presentations, and journal publications. The teaching results due to the revised course modules will be disseminated to business students in SCSU. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Having established a base of farmer clients, we look to move into the next phase of food hub development with Foodshare SC and Orangeburg County Library. We plan to launch the project in Summer 2019. We will also start on a program to develop more interests and utilization of the Colleton Commercial Kitchen and value-added processes by developing workshops there and calling on our network of farmers. We will distribute the survey and collect the data for the research study on drivers and obstacles for creating a food hub. We plan to analyze, evaluate, and summarize the survey data and document the research findings. We will implement changes in agribusiness curriculum by adding the supply chain management course, continue to revise the existing courses, and teach the updates to business students.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
An Agribusiness Specialist, John Cuttino, was hired to help establish the Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness and its programs with the Small Business Development Center. The programs focus on serving farmers and food businesses through technical assistance, educational outreach, micro-grant funding, and access to value chain services as well as a commercial kitchen collaboration. Through these inputs and activities we have been able to reach 21 farmers successfully, (12 minority farmers), make an impact through new farm starts, job creation, sales increases as well as increased efficiencies in current farm businesses. Extension Objective 1.1 Establish and Develop a Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness. The team established a center for food marketing and agribusiness operated out of the small business development center. An Agribusiness Specialist was hired and trained. A strategic plan was developed and a list of programs implemented which cover marketing, contracting (wholesale), food safety, and value-added assistance. Operational forms were created such as a farm profile intake and farmer capability list. A brochure, social media site, and website were developed for the center. The micro-grant process was developed creating two applications for the GAP Grant and Value Added Grant. The center has approved two value-added grants for $4000 total to date. We received four applications. The Agribusiness Specialist has commenced counseling services and has spent 57.87 hours advising farmers to date. The center has 21 clients, helped start two new farms, create 18 jobs, and invest $196,855. The center has held eight workshops including, two food safety, one wholesale/contracting, two farm planning, one ag-marketing, one farm records, and one center informative. 1.2 Hire and train a Food and Agribusiness Specialist / Center Manager and staff. Mr. John Cuttino was hired as the Agribusiness Specialist and has completed 40 hours of professional development to date for training. 1.3 Create a Food Hub. The center established a value chain coronation service called ACE Basin Growers as a precursor to a food hub in partnership with Foodshare SC. ACE Basin Growers is a marketing brand for certain center programs. The Orangeburg County Library has agreed to partner with the center to launch a Foodshare box program in Orangeburg County. The center will handle aggregation of produce from farmers and vendors, and the Library will handle marketing distribution and operations. 1.4 Collaborate with Commercial Kitchen. We have seen clients at the Colleton Commercial Kitchen and held two workshops there. We will increase the program work at the facility in year 2 to include higher engagement and attraction to the facility. Research Objective 2.1 Research on Drivers and Obstacles of the Creation of a Food Hub. A thorough literature review has been conducted to review the "status quo" of the food hub development. A literature review paper was submitted to the Southeast Decision Science Institute annual meeting and was accepted for presentation in February 2019. The survey instrument is in the design process and will be distributed in year 2. A graduate student was hired to assist Dr. Feng on this objective. Teaching objective 3.1 Curricula Design and Materials Development. The course syllabus for the new course, Supply Chain Management in Agribusiness, has been developed by Dr. Selassie. A proposal for this new course is completed. The proposal will be submitted to the School of Business Curriculum committee, general faculty, and the Education Policy Committee of the university for approval. The course approval will be accomplished in the fall of 2019. In the Agricultural Policy class (AGBU440), Dr. Selassie has added a section on food safety, security, and policy alternatives in this senior-level course. This section introduces graduating seniors the dimensions of food safety and major public concerns and issues in food safety. Dr. Feng has revised the AGBU544, Supply Chain Management in Agribusiness, and included a class module for food hub supply chain. Due to low enrollment of this class in Spring 2019, the course was canceled. 3.2 Student Experiential Learning. An undergraduate student was hired and worked as a student assistant in the center conducting research and outreach activities.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
A Review of Scholarly Literature on Food Hubs, Southeast Decision Science Institute Annual Meeting, Savannah GA, February 2019
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