Best Practice Action 27.4
GreenStep City Best Practices: Resilient Economic and Community Development
Local Food No. 27
Strengthen local food and fiber production and access.
Best Practice Action Detail
Best Practice Action 4
Measurably increase institutional buying, and sales through groceries and restaurants.
a. Purchasing of local/organic/humane/equitable foods by schools, hospitals, nursing homes and event centers.
b. Sales of local/organic/humane/equitable food in markets, retail food co-ops, rural grocery stores, urban convenience stores, food carts/trucks, hotels and restaurants.
c. Promote the Healthy Corners Initiative
- The Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships in Minnesota help connect University of MN and other resources to strengthen local food economies.
- Healthy Food, Healthy Communities (PolicyLink, 2011) provides strategies for communities to increase access, work with local businesses, and connect local farmers to customers.
- Learn more about rural grocery stores and Farm to Grocery Toolkit with UMN Extension.
- See also Farm to school resources from MN Extension or contact the Regional Marketing Specialist at the MN Dept. of Agriculture, for assistance.
- The Food Co-op Initiative Program based in Savage, MN helps develop new retail grocery co-ops, which sometimes access financing through USDA’s Rural Cooperative Development Grant program.
- Resources and ideas about preservation and revitalization of rural grocery stores from Minnesota Extension, the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska and the Rural Grocery Store Sustainability Initiative of Kansas State University. Improving Energy Efficiency in Convenience Stores (MN Dept. of Commerce: 2013) recommends a program design that cities could urge their local utility to deploy.
- A planning resource, the Food Access Planning Guide from the Minnesota Food Charter provides guidance for comprehensive plans.
- The Good Food Purchasing Program: A Roadmap for the Post-Pandemic Food System We Need (Center for Good Food Purchasing, 2020) addresses nutrition, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, local economies, and animal welfare through equity, accessibility, and transparency.
- Communities can support corner convenience stores to encourage healthy eating habits through the sale of fresh and local fruits and vegetables. See Healthy Corner Stores Guide (USDA 2016), and examples and resources from Healthy Food Access.
- See Minneapolis' Healthy Corner Store pilot project.
- The USDA Healthy Food Financing Initiative provides grants to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas, create and preserve quality jobs, and revitalize low-income communities.
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Document city efforts, via city resources and through a local food campaign, to increase purchases of food with at least one of the following attributes: local, Minnesota-grown, organic, humanely raised, grown by fairly compensated growers. |
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Report increased sales of local food through groceries and restaurants; document increased institutional buying of local foods by schools, hospitals, nursing homes and event centers; document increased percent of households able to access fresh fruit/vegetables within 20-minutes walk, bike, transit travel of their home. |
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Implement a Healthy Corners Initiative and/or incentivize local businesses to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for sale; create a city health/nutrition policy with healthy/local food goals and implementation plans. |
Who's doing it
Brainerd -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed:
Implementation details:
The Farm to School program delivers local foods to the Brainerd School District schools. This enhances the local foods industry and promotes healthy eating among school students.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Pounds of local foods sold, and number of students exposed to local foods.
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links:
For more information contact:
Sarah Hayden Shaw (Community volunteer) | sjhaay@gmail.com | 218-760-6837
Partners: Farm to School; Sprout
Fergus Falls -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed:
Implementation details:
Lakes Country Service Cooperative started a food hub for the school districts they serve. Meadow Farm Foods, Premier Meats and Seafood and The Market all sell locally grown food products in their local stores.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links:
For more information contact:
Len Taylor (City staff) | len.taylor@ci.fergus-falls.mn.us | 218-332-5418
Partners:
Stillwater -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed: 2000
Implementation details:
River Market Community Co-op is a consumer cooperative located downtown Stillwater, committed to selling fresh, local, and organic produce and naturally-raised meats.
Axdahl Garden Farm and Greenhouse is a farm in Stillwater licensed by Minnesota Grown and certified by Food Alliance Midwest, that has wholesale accounts local grocery stores, restaurants, and distributors.They can be viewed at www.axdaflfarms.com
Axdahl Garden Farm and Greenhouse is a farm in Stillwater licensed by Minnesota Grown and certified by Food Alliance Midwest, that has wholesale accounts local grocery stores, restaurants, and distributors.They can be viewed at www.axdaflfarms.com
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links: http://rivermarket.coop/
For more information contact:
Bill Turnblad (City staff) | bturnblad@ci.stillwater.mn.us | 651-430-8821
Partners:
Austin -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed:
Implementation details:
c)Honey Tree Farm sweet corn/local grown sweet corn sold at Hy-Vee and SuperFresh (local own store with many more organic foods such as honey, bread, etc.)
*KAAL TV/ABC 6 News Good Morning has weekly Fresh & Simple segment with Hy-Vee Dietician Jen Haugen
*Jen Haugen also has weekly column in Austin Daily Herald
*KAAL TV/ABC 6 News Good Morning has weekly Fresh & Simple segment with Hy-Vee Dietician Jen Haugen
*Jen Haugen also has weekly column in Austin Daily Herald
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links:
For more information contact:
Janet Anderson (Community volunteer) | janetanderson2840@gmail.com | 5072190680
Partners: Hy-Vee, SuperFresh
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed: 2012
Implementation details:
Fond du Lac Ojibwe School has an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy that includes a requirement to "maximize the proportion of goods and services that come from local providers with acceptable environmental practices, thereby reducing the environmental impact of transportation wherever feasible and supporting a sustainable local economy".
Fond du Lac is currently gathering input from a food purchasing practices survey to gauge interest in locally grown produce, meat, and specialty items.
Fond du Lac is currently gathering input from a food purchasing practices survey to gauge interest in locally grown produce, meat, and specialty items.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HTL3CWG
For more information contact:
Shannon Judd (City Staff) | shannonjudd@fdlrez.com | 218-878-7123
Partners:
Grand Marais -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed:
Implementation details:
Promotion of Local Food. A number of restaurants that promote and use local foods. The Angry Trout is the primary restaurant that is almost exclusively local, and actively promotes it. A local dairy processes non-pasterized products for local sale.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links:
For more information contact:
Shane Steele (Contractor) | sustainability@grandmarais.city | 507-884-5790
Partners:
Jordan -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed: 2015
Implementation details:
Organic foods are sold by Jordan's grocery store, Radermachers. While all residents have access by car, the city has made improvements to its sidewalk and trail system allowing the majority of residents access via trails or sidewalks.
The local meat market, Pekarna's, sells locally sourced meat to at least three local restaurants.
The local meat market, Pekarna's, sells locally sourced meat to at least three local restaurants.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links: http://places.singleplatform.com/the-station-bar--grill-0/menu?ref=google
For more information contact:
Nathan Fuerst (City staff) | nfuerst@jordanmn.gov | 952-492-7929
Partners:
Maplewood -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed:
Implementation details:
The city initiated a local foods campaign in the summer of 2012 in partner with the city's internal wellness committee. The final action for the campaign was a spotlight on local organic foods. A local foods brochure was included in the seasons. The city also created a website dedicated to local food production in the area.
In 2019, a local affordable food guide was created for Maplewood that will be distributed through various local institutions.
In 2019, a local affordable food guide was created for Maplewood that will be distributed through various local institutions.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links: http://www.ci.maplewood.mn.us/index.aspx?nid=940
For more information contact:
Shann Finwall (City staff) | shann.finwall@maplewoodmn.gov | 651-249-2304
Partners:
Richfield -
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed:
Implementation details:
The City's Farmers and Winter Market are licensed to be a wholesale food handler to aggregate available product from local farmers and sell to local institutions. Richfield is the only site undertaking this process in the Metro (there are 8 total in the state).
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links: https://farmersmarketaggregation.wordpress.com/
For more information contact:
Bonnie Hanna-Powers (City staff) | BHannapowers@richfieldmn.gov | 612-861-9362
Partners:
Greenstep Advisor
Mike Zastoupil, Agricultural and Food Systems Planner, MN Department of Agriculture: 651/201-6369, michael.zastoupil@state.mn.us, https://www.mda.state.mn.us/business-dev-loans-grants/local-regional-markets