Celebrating Success: The Wallace Center’s Project to Forge Regional Value Chains

We remember back several years ago, maybe around 2019, when our team – like the true bunch of food systems nerds we are – literally jumped for joy because USDA had used the term “value chain coordination” in the RFP for Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) grant. To us, this felt like a big deal. For several years we had been working with USDA and other bright minds in this field (particular shout out here to Sarah Rocker!) to enhance understanding of the theory and practice of VCC through research and programs like the  FoodLINC program. We believed that growing resilient, equitable regional value chains takes a lot more than just hard infrastructure like food hubs, trucks, cold storage and commercial kitchens. We knew it requires people building relationships centered on trust and shared values to help farms and food businesses create viable businesses while creating social, economic, and environmental benefits to local communities. When we saw that USDA was using the term “value chain coordination” in its RFP for a major grant program, we took it as a sign that the idea and practice was really taking root.

Of course, value chain coordination has been taking place in some form since people have been conducting regional agricultural trade. In its simplest form, value chain coordination involves building reciprocal relationships between the actors in a regional food system. These relationships are the means through which we share ideas and resources, engage in trade, improve efficiency and connectivity, and ultimately create resilient regional food systems that shift power to local communities, farms and businesses.

In 2020, the Wallace Center applied for our own three-year USDA LFPP grant, the Forging Value Chains project,  with the goal of helping people across the country deepen their understanding and practice of value chain coordination. Three years later, we are extremely proud of what we have been able to do through this project and want to take a minute to reflect on some of our successes.

The Value Chain Coordination Community of Practice

We believe that Communities of Practice are a powerful way that we can bring folks together to build relationships, learn from one another, share great ideas and resources, and work through common challenges. Through this project we founded the national Value Chain Coordination Community of Practice (CoP) and grew this network to 480 people. Through this CoP we hosted 24 monthly calls, organized 30 webinars, created an online discussion group, and built a resource library (the resources on which received a staggering 7,343 downloads). The CoP provides a space for learning, mentorship, and deep dives into topics such as food hub networks, institutional value chains, and more. As one grateful CoP member shared, “I have gleaned so much from these community of practice calls. They have been so powerful and given me so many ideas about my work.” If you haven’t already, sign up for our monthly call series and be sure to join the discussion group.

The Food Safety and Quality Community of Practice

In close partnership with the wonderful Phil Britton, (Chief Ruckus Maker, Fresh Systems LLC) we were able to double in size the Food Safety and Quality Community of Practice. Through this CoP we hosted 30, monthly meetings – with each meeting providing a space for peer-learning as well as topical deep dives on topics ranging from assessing and handling the threats of wild birds, to interpreting USDA GAP audit standards, to handling USDA Group Internal Auditor disputes. This community has been going strong for a decade now (!) and is a go-to space for anyone working to help farms and food businesses access right-sized technical assistance around navigating federal food safety regulation and buyer requirements. As one CoP member put it: “There are other [food safety] professional conversations I participate in now but this one allows me the greatest opportunity to be completely open and frank about challenges. It is invaluable for me to have this community for peer learning. So helpful to know others are grappling with similar conundrums and we can support each other. The collective experience of my peers in this group is deep and varied and the new folks help us to reflect on what we know and sometimes question it.”

If you too want to geek out on everything food safety, you can register for that monthly call series here and join the discussion group here.

The roles and practices of VCC are critical for growing regional food systems, but it isn’t something any of us are born knowing how to do. In close partnership with the brilliant Sarah Rocker and Elliott Smith (Kitchen Sync Strategies) we worked to develop a five-part curriculum and training on the fundamentals of value chain coordination. The training was designed to help people develop a robust understanding of the foundational terms and concepts of VCC, to provide frameworks for understanding and applying the roles of VCC, to identify strategic leverage points within a value chain network, to provide tools for evaluating VCC, and to increase understanding of how power is concentrated across the food system and how VCC can help to redistribute it. Through the Forging Value Chains project, we delivered this training to 300 people. And we are happy to announce that we have just published the core content of the training online, for free. Check it out!

Measuring Impact and Economic Growth

Value chain coordination is multifaceted work, and it looks different based on who you are, where you’re working, and the kind of work you’re doing. That means that capturing and evaluating the impacts of your VCC work can be pretty challenging. Through this project, we aimed to create a novel evaluation framework that users could customize to measure and evaluate the impacts of their unique VCC work – like increasing supply chain connectivity to improving market access and income for local and regional producers. Major kudos to our colleague Andrew Carberry who did such a thoughtful job in leading this effort. Andrew engaged practitioners and subject matter experts in designing and testing the framework, leading to a robust, customizable tool that strengthens both the process and outcome of assessing the economic and social impacts of regional food value chains. 

Special thanks to Dawn Thilmany of Colorado State University, who was instrumental in creating the framework, as well as to Kathryn Colasanti with the University of Michigan, Danielle DeRuiter-Williams with Venture with Purpose, and Dakarai Howard with the Chicago Food Policy Action Council who provided invaluable reviews and insights.  And finally, gratitude to the fearless beta testers, who tried out and gave feedback on the framework. You can check out the VCC Evaluation Framework here.

Enhancing Food Safety and Quality

Pretty much every farmer strives to provide the kind of healthy, safe food that they would want to eat. We know this. But we also know that complying with buyer requirements and federal regulation around food safety and quality can be a major barrier to entry for many farms and food businesses trying to sell into wholesale and institutional markets. Because of this, helping farmers navigate the ever-changing landscape of food safety compliance and certification is an important part of building regional value chains. Through this project we provided direct training to 270 people on a range of topics related to food safety and quality. We worked with Fresh Systems, LLC to develop and publish a self-paced online course on developing and implementing Quality Management Systems (QMS) for farms and food businesses. We created a Food Safety and Quality resource library and these resources received over 3,559 downloads. We published a series of food safety trainings and webinars – on topics like Food Safety 101 for VCC practitioners, assessing the food safety risks of wild birds, and  navigating the new FSMA Food Traceability Rule In total, these trainings and webinars built the capacity of 270 people to provide local farmers and food businesses with accessible language, tools and frameworks related to food safety, QMS and USDA GAP programs.  

Looking Ahead: Continuing the Impact

Though the Forging Value Chains project has ended, its impact continues. The recordings of the Value Chain Coordination training, all training materials, and the Evaluation Framework are now published and freely available. Both the Value Chain Coordination and Food Safety and Quality Communities of Practice, are continuing, ensuring that the collaborative spirit and knowledge-sharing that has underpinned this entire project will continue on. We hope you will get involved.

Special thanks to:

• USDA Agricultural Marketing Service for supporting this effort
• Sarah Rocker and Elliott Smith for your incredible efforts developing and delivering the value chain coordination training
• Phil Britton, for facilitating the Food Safety and Quality Community of Practice, developing the Quality Management System training, and being such a champion of this work
• Dawn Thilmany for providing invaluable insight and guidance on developing the VCC Evaluation Framework
• Kathryn Colasanti with the University of Michigan, Danielle DeRuiter-Williams with Venture with Purpose, Ken Meter with Crossroads Resource Center, and Dakarai Howard with the Chicago Food Policy Action Council who provided great feedback on the VCC Evaluation Framework
• To the group of advisors, who gave us so many great ideas and awesome feedback as we planned out this project: Rasheed Hislop (California Alliance for Family Farms), Lavar Prather (Common Market), Jodee Smith Ellett (Indian University), Shanna Ratner (Yellowwood Associates), Kendal Chavez (New Mexico Governor’s Office), and Filiberto Villa-Gomez (Michigan Food and Farming Systems)
• To the beta testers of the VCC Evaluation Framework. Your feedback was so valuable. We hope this will continue to be a helpful tool in your work: Dane Petersen (Community Health Improvement Partners), Elias Berbari (Fresh Approach), Joseph Fischer (Fischer Farms Natural Foods), Jude Wait (Wellsave, LLC.), Sarah Buranskas and Erin Spangler (Pittsburgh Food Policy Council), Sarah Elliott (Artisan Grain Collaborative).
• Everyone who participated in, gave us feedback on, and helped with the VCC training. We know that this was just the pilot of this effort, and your feedback is going a long way towards continuing to grow and evolve this important work!
• And finally, to our team here at the Wallace Center: Elizabeth Atwell, Ellie Bomstein, Andrew Carberry, Melony Edwards, and Susan Lightfoot Schempf.

---

Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in News and Announcements, Trending