BFRDP Projects

Supporting Beginning Farmers in Scaling-up into Wholesale Production
[Final Report]

Award Amount: $563,810
Grant Program: 2018 Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program Awards
Project Director: Katie Nixon
Email: katherine.m.nixon@gmail.com
Organization: West Central Missouri Community Action Agency

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  • Overview
  • Results
  • Materials
  • Delivery Area
  • Comments

Project Overview

This project provided support and training to beginning growers as they navigated new market opportunities. This project provided farmers with on-farm technical assistance and ongoing mentorship from established growers; crop planning, business and marketing skills from regional experts all while providing connections to wholesale opportunities. The demand for local is increasing: nearly fifteen million people live within 250 miles of Kansas City and we helped our beginning farmers reach this market. Selling at farmers markets and through CSA demand different skills than the wholesale market requires. To bridge this skill gap, we held workshops providing in-depth knowledge of wholesale markets, crop planning by plant family, season extension, marketing, business and transition planning. A ‘Demystifying Wholesale Markets’ guidebook provided scripts, sample record-keeping materials, infrastructure design, relationship development and branding skills to our farmers. The guidebook was paired with an 8-part video series. Activities were guided by an advisory board of new and established growers, buyers, non-profit and university personnel to direct activities and resources to be most responsive to opportunities. Wholesale market development was co-emerging as staff worked to grow new buyers through education and promotion. Finally, the project tied all the pieces together through an extensive GIS map that includes farms, market opportunities, food rescue and agriculture inputs companies by creating a comprehensive map of the foodshed.

Number of Participants: 467

Results

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Delivery Area

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