[Valerie Smith]

Our Distribution Center has salespeople who work on commission. They do value chain work, to be sure, but don’t have formal value chain job titles or accountability. Their job is to grow restaurant sales, but when it carries the local corn meal and pork to more people, that is commissioned-based value chain work, right? I don’t know all the details to how it’s done, from a budgeting, accounting or tax perspective. But I thought I’d reply to say that I think it definitely makes sense for someone to be rewarded for completing more connections between food producers and buyers that result in growth of the local food system and local economic activity.

Valerie Smith

She/Her/Hers

Quality Assurance Specialist

La Montañita Cooperative

[Elliott Smith]

Jodee! Kitchen Sync is testing this now, actually. It’s a longer conversation than a thread, but if you want to chat on the phone sometime I’ll be glad to share all the challenges I’ve encountered. Shoot me an email and we can find a time!

Also, to nobody on this channel’s surprise, it’s extraordinarily hard to come up with the funds to pay someone skilled in VCC fairly without the demand partners coughing up more… which they’re already so reticent to do. But we’re working with private food businesses who need the same market access that we are bringing to small farmers/food hubs… and they might have more capital than the gap funding we’re cobbling together.

[John Fisk]

Reading Elliot’s response made me think about an initiative I recently learned about in Buffalo/Niagara called the Buffalo Purchasing Investigative which is a member based group that seeks to increase their procurement from businesses and suppliers of color. The members are institutions (universities, hospitals, manufacturers, etc. 14 currently) in the region pay a fee to be in the group and that fee pays a contracted procurement coordinator (aka value chain coordinator) to assist their procurement teams in identifying, reaching out to and contracting with BIPOC suppliers. They have not focused on food procurement in the two years of their work but want to move in that direction and we aim to help them do so! So this is one model for supporting the VC coordination role. John

[Sue Beckwith]

I like this idea a lot, John. It seems most realistic to work with institutions that have already made a shared commitment so we can spend our time on moving food and money and less on selling the idea of local food procurement.

[Jodee Smith]

Thank you for your responses. Elliott, I will reach out and hopefully connect you with our expanding Indiana VCP network so they can all hear and learn from your experience. John, this is really great information. in our new RFSP grant, we have funding for two years for a BIPOC value chain coordinator for the whole state. The Buffalo group offers a great model for sustainability perhaps. Valerie, thank you for your insight as well.