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Spring Forum Registration Now Open – Local Food for Schools, Hospitals, & Other Institutions – May 22

By on April 16, 2013 in Front Page Only, Local, PVGrows Forum

The PVGrows Spring Forum will be held May 22, 2013 at UMass Amherst.  Thanks to UMass Dining Services for being our Lead Sponsor.

***Register Now***

Local Food for Schools, Hospitals, & Other Institutions

How can we advance Farm to Institution connections in the Pioneer Valley?

In a healthy food system, nutritious locally grown foods are being served in schools, hospitals, prisons, and other institutions.  Come to the PVGrows Spring Forum to learn how these partnerships are being built, and what you can do to support their growth.

Our first plenary speaker is Kelly Erwin, Founder and Director of the MA Farm to School Project, on the important role of farm-to-institution connections in building a healthy food system.  Kelly will give a primer on the many forms these partnerships can take— ranging from a farmer selling direct to an institution to other models with multiple “middlemen.”  See the full list of Forum presenters.

We’ll be hosted by UMass Dining Services, which sources an impressive 28% of its produce locally.  We’ll learn about their relationships with farmers, distributors, and students, and then we’ll enjoy one of their locally-grown lunches.

Interactive sessions are designed to connect you to people and organizations with Farm to Institution challenges and solutions similar to your own.

And as usual, the Forum includes structured networking, opportunities for collaboration, and a locally grown lunch!

Spring Forum Agenda & Presenters

Read more about the PVGrows Forum

  • This event is open to anyone working for a healthy food system in the Pioneer Valley.
  • Space is limited to 120.
  • The Forum is free. ($10 lunch food donation suggested).
  • Wed, May 22, 9:00 am – 1:30 pm
  • 10th Floor of the UMass Hotel & Conference Center, Amherst

***Register Now***

 

LEAD SPONSOR:

SPONSORS:
                    
         
                        
                                       
                             
                                                     
    
    

 

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Slow Money PV Chapter Meeting – May 22

By on April 8, 2013 in Local

The Slow Money Pioneer Valley Chapter is pleased to host its third meeting on May 22nd.  The chapter formed in 2012 to catalyze community-based investment in the local food system by connecting investors, farmers and entrepreneurs in order to strengthen our local and regional food economy.

Since our last meeting, we have formed a leadership team, refined our focus, and initiated a new structure that promises to offer some shared thinking and an opportunity for action.  While we still have far to go, we’re taking our next step on May 22nd, and we want you to join us.

Slow Money Pioneer Valley Chapter Meeting

Wednesday, May 22, 1:30 – 3:00 pm

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

UMass Conference Center, Room 162-75 (1st Floor)

Register for this free event here.

 

Are you:

  • an investor or individual serious about local investing?
  • a food system entrepreneur looking to find investors who “get” what you do?

If so, this meeting is for you!

Please note that the meeting is NOT focused on “food system financing” in general.  It will be focused on farm and food businesses receiving direct investments (equity, debt, etc.) from individual investors.  We will also be hearing from a few local investment institutions that are currently taking local investments to support those same farm and food businesses.

Meeting Agenda:

  1. Panel Discussion – Hear from farm and food entrepreneurs whose businesses faced an investment challenge and the investors who are helping overcome that challenge.
  2. Learn about opportunities to invest locally today– and hear about some options on the horizon.  Presenters:
    1. Equity Trust, Jim Oldham
    2. Cooperative Fund of New England, Spirit Joseph
    3. Common Capital, Michael Abbate
  3. Meet the new leadership team, and offer your opinion on the chapter’s strategic direction.

This event is a big step in advancing the mission of the Slow Money PV Chapter, and we hope you will join us.  If you can’t attend, but are interested in engaging with the leadership team or attending future Slow Money events, please join the working group by becoming a member of PVGrows here, and clicking the “Slow Money” box.

 

The Slow Money Pioneer Valley Chapter Leadership Team:

  • Joe Grafton (co-chair), American Independent Business Alliance
  • Jeff Rosen (co-chair), Solidago Foundation
  • Paul DiLeo, Grassroots Capital Management
  • Kyra Kristof, Pollin8r
  • Dan Rosenberg, Real Pickles
  • Sam Stegeman, PVGrows
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New Funds Available to Farm and Food Businesses

By on March 9, 2013 in Finance, Front Page Only, Local, Press
The PVGrows Loan Fund has announced our new partnership with the Fair Food Network. Pioneer Valley farm and food businesses applying for loans from the PVGrows Loan Fund are now eligible for business assistance funds. “This is an exciting development for local farm and food businesses who might be considering financing an expansion, but who don’t have the time or money to do the planning required” says Sam Stegeman, Coordinator of PVGrows.

Our March 12, 2013 PRESS RELEASE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sam Stegeman
Coordinator, PVGrows
413.665.7100 x15
www.pvgrows.net

New Funds Available to Pioneer Valley Farm and Food Businesses

The PVGrows Loan Fund has announced a new partnership with the Fair Food Network. Pioneer Valley farm and food businesses applying for loans from the PVGrows Loan Fund are now eligible for business assistance funds. Selected entrepreneurs will be paired with a business assistance partner for a period of up to three months. The cost of business assistance services will be subsidized up to $10,000, with business sharing a portion of the total cost of the assistance.

“This is an exciting development for local farm and food businesses who might be considering financing an expansion, but who don’t have the time or money to do the planning required” says Sam Stegeman, Coordinator of PVGrows.

Background

The new funds are a result of increased collaboration among local food advocates through Pioneer Valley Grows (PVGrows), a professional network of 500 people dedicated to creating a healthy food system in the three counties.  Since 2008, PVGrows members have been investigating how local lenders and investors can meet the financing needs of the rapidly-expanding local farm and food sector.  PVGrows hosts its own $750,000 loan fund, and is currently developing a larger fund, which may offer needed alternatives— such as royalty financing and equity investments— to traditional loans.“It is great to see how the financing options have been expanding in recent years, because it gives farm and food entrepreneurs the ability to shop around for the best match,” says Michael Abbate, Chief Operating Officer of Common Capital in Holyoke.  “What has been missing, however, is the ability to provide the in-depth assistance businesses need so they can develop a plan to grow and utilize the capital sources.”

What Kinds of Business Assistance Are Available?

One type of business assistance PVGrows now offers is help putting together a financing package suited to the unique needs of a local food business.  An example is the recent decision by Greenfield-based Real Pickles to invite community members to invest in the company’s transition to a worker-owned cooperative.  “When we decided we would transition Real Pickles to a worker co-op, we faced an unusual financing challenge requiring a creative solution.  Thanks to the expertise at PVGrows and their willingness to engage with us to thoroughly evaluate our options, PVGrows played an instrumental role in our decision to launch an innovative community investment campaign that only a handful of small businesses around the country have tried before.“ says Dan Rosenberg, co-owner of Real Pickles.Other types of technical assistance the fund could provide include business planning, marketing, business communications, financial management training, process improvement (food processing and/or health and safety, etc.), entrepreneur networking, and more.

Applying for New Business Assistance Funds

Examples of businesses that might be a good match for the business assistance include:

  • Existing food businesses exploring the opportunities and challenges of sourcing more from local farms.
  • Expansion of food businesses already sourcing from local farms.
  • Expansion of individual farms or other businesses engaged in aggregation, storage, distribution, processing, marketing, information technology, or other means of supporting local food system viability.
Business assistance is available to selected enterprises applying for financing from the PVGrows Loan Fund.  Applicants begin the process by filling out a simple inquiry form on the PVGrows website.

The PVGrows Loan Fund

The $750,000 PVGrows Loan Fund was established in 2009 by nine Pioneer Valley organizations dedicated to improving the local food system.  These include four lenders (Common Capital, Franklin County Community Development Corporation, Equity Trust, and Cooperative Fund of New England); two foundations (Solidago Foundation, and the Lydia B. Stokes Foundation); two non-profits (New England Small Farm Institute and Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)); and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources.
Loans of up to $250,000 are available for all types of local farm and food businesses.  The Fund is particularly interested in projects that fill gaps in the infrastructure of the local food system and that expand the market for Pioneer Valley agricultural products.

The PVGrows Network

In addition to the Loan Fund, PVGrows coordinates a professional network of people dedicated to creating a healthy food system in the Pioneer Valley. PVGrows hosts forums twice a year to provide networking and learning opportunities for the 500 members of the network.
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“How well are you representing a vibrant food movement for the 21st century?”

By on March 6, 2013 in Front Page Only, Local, Race & the Food System

By Kamilah Weeks, PVGrows Contributor

“How did sustainability become an issue that was so easily put in a marginal category of people who are clearly not all like everyone else? The Prius driving, NPR-[listening], pinot noir drinking, fleece wearing, upper middle class white suburban folks?

That is how we are perceived as a field. We’ve got to figure out how to change that, legitimately and authentically, as well as in our perceptions.

So a huge part of this work is really about being able to tell the story of the food system and to tell the story in ways that resonate with everyone, with messengers that also connect with everyone.”

- Angela Park, of Diversity Matters, speaking at the SAFSF Forum

Below is a 5-minute clip of Angela Park’s keynote speech.  Watch the full talk here.

Over the past year, PVGrows staff and community members have discussed the role of race in the Pioneer Valley food system. To build a healthy food system, we must work to eliminate the disparities and inequities that remain in it. Of all the injustices in the conventional North American food system (economic, health, gender, etc.), race is often the most uncomfortable for people to address. To begin this conversation, PVGrows has formed a new working group called “Race and the Food System,” which will focus on understanding what racism is and how it relates to our food system work.

The first PVGrows “Race and the Food System” event will take place March 28th and will consist of a viewing and discussion of the video Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity (Thursday, March 28, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm, in Northampton.). In this session, we hope to provide participants with a better understanding of the internal biases, social determinants, and structural powers that inform racism in the United States. The event is open to anyone interested in creating a healthier Pioneer Valley food system, regardless of her or his familiarity with racial justice frameworks. Event details.

PVGrows is committed to becoming a resource for you to connect with local initiatives to address race and the food system. As a part of this pledge, we are working to create spaces and share resources that cultivate racial justice. In this way, we hope to further the movement towards creating a more ecologically and economically sustainable food system.

Below is a list of upcoming racial justice oriented events:

Upcoming Events:

  • The “Undoing Racism” workshop, facilitated by The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, and organized by the Undoing Racism Collective of Western Massachusetts.
  • Springfield, MA: April 5-7, 2013
  • Springfield, MA: June 2013 (Youth-focused Session)
  • Springfield, MA: March 21-22, 2013
  • New York City, NY: July 23-24, 2013
  • Springfield, MA: March 21 & 22, 2013
  • Springfield, MA: June 27 & 28, 2013


Announcement:

PVGrows is partnering with Live Well Springfield and Holyoke Food & Fitness Policy Council to co-host a special Undoing Racism workshop for PVGrows members in Fall 2013.  Details TBA. The intention of this collaboration is to create and sustain a more just and vibrant region in which people in food- and health-related fields can continue to support and challenge each other over the long term.  To get involved, join the Race & the Food System Working Group here.

For more information:

 

 

 

 

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