RATIONALE

In the United States today, people must go well out of their way and have plenty of disposable income to find and buy food that is not only healthy but also produced in a manner that respects animals and the environment and deals fairly with people all along the way from farm to table. The negative consequences of this fact are now mounting to the point that people from many perspectives, such as health concerns and local commerce interests, are working to build a new “good food” system, one that makes healthy, green, fair, affordable food an everyday reality in every community.

The Wallace Center’s National Good Food Network is designed to meet the need of this good food movement by enabling the development of regional “value chains” - new systems of market relationships, that includes refined processing and distribution infrastructure, to move more good food from farm to table at the regional level, and enables regions to improve good food access in all communities throughout the nation.

This Network brings together diverse value chain leaders from nonprofit organizations and commercial enterprises interested in transitioning from traditional supply chain management to value chain management. The network also engages the philanthropic community in improving good food access for all communities throughout the nation. The network is a connector and enabler, through knowledgeable models and access to funding, for these groups so they can talk, learn, and work with each other toward their common regional good food goals.

OBJECTIVES

The Good Food Network supports and integrates nonprofit and for-profit work to build needed value chains, or relationships, systems, and infrastructure for bringing more good food to more people. Specifically, the network offers:

• Connection —to foster regional initiatives that will bring increased good food into conventional food systems in a way that will ultimately improve good food access for all communities.
• Knowledge—to assemble and connect value chain models and best practices, value chain experts, and opportunities for regional funding in the marketplace with regional network participants.
• Community—to enable network participants how to think beyond the commercial transaction of good food and to become a participant in initiatives that will improve good food access to all communities.
  

The work of building good food values into production and marketing activities involves both community advocates and the business community. The objectives of the Wallace Center’s Good Food Network are to enable and strengthen regional groups by increasing their access to knowledge and resources to do the work of their regions in more impactful ways and ultimately include programs that bring more good food to all communities in their regions.

ACTIVITIES

The Wallace Good Food Network is currently working to strengthen value chain development in four regions nationally, including extensive regional work being done in the Midwest region of Chicago and Michigan. In the first half of 2008, the initiative will send requests for proposals to value chain leaders to assess their interest in forming more formalized regional networks with Wallace Center support. 

NATIONAL GOOD FOOD NETWORK 2008 REGIONAL LEAD TEAMS

Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA)

Brett Melone, Executive Director

P.O. Box 6264

Salinas CA 93912

brett@albafarmers.org

(831) 758-1469

American Friends Service Committee

Don Bustos, New Mexico Area Director

1600 5th Street NW

Albuquerque NM 87102

dbustos@afsc.org

(505) 514-1662

Appalachian Sustainable Development

Anthony Flaccavento, Executive Director

PO Box 791

Abingdon VA 24212

asd@asdevelop.org

(276) 623-1121

Pamela Roy, Co-Director Farm to Table

3900 Paseo del Sol

Santa Fe NM 87507

pamelaroy@aol.com

(505) 473-1004

 
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Rich Pirog, Associate Director

Iowa State University

Ames IA 50011

rspirog@iastate.edu

(515) 294-1854

 
Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group

Kathy Ruhf, Coordinator        

PO Box 11

Belchertown MA 01007

kzruhf@verizon.net

(413) 323-9878

 
Occidental College, Center for Food and Justice

Vanessa Zajfen, Southern California Farm to Institution Coordinator

Urban and Environmental Policy Institute

1600 Campus Road, MS M-1

Los Angeles CA 90041

vzajfen@oxy.edu

(323) 341-5092

 
Sustainability Institute, Sustainable Food Lab

Hal Hamilton, Senior Program Director

3 Linden Road

Hartland VT 05048

hhamilton@sustainer.org

(802) 436-1277 x101

For more information about this initiative contact:
Marty Gerencer
Manager, National Good Food Network
Marty@morsemarketingconnections.com
231.638.2981