Producer Led Virtual Food Hub Pilot Project

Consolidation of production and distribution of foodhas had serious economic and health-related impacts on rural America. As farms haveconsolidated and turned to technology to replace human labor rural job opportunities havediminished. As smaller farms leave the area rural restaurants hospitals and schools arechallenged to find sources of local fresh foods which negatively impacts the health ofcommunity members. Many rural areas represent food deserts with high levels of food insecurityas well as diminished health. Food4All's proposed Phase I project will develop a next-generatione-commerce Local Food Sales Platform that enables rural food producers to transact directlywith local wholesale (and retail) buyers. It provides exposure to local wholesale buyers throughMarketMaker a network of 29 state and local websites that can be queried to display local foodproducers and wholesale buyers in a specific geographic region. Our technology will alsoprovide a streamlined method for third-party delivery services to move product from producer tobuyer.Phase I R&D will be built upon Food4All's MVP software which offers farmers a more- effective way to market and sell directly to consumers. Phase I objectives are to: 1) Demonstratethe feasibility of the design/functions of the software platform for rural food producers and localwholesale buyers in a pilot region; 2) Demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the platform forrural producers and wholesale buyers across the nation; and 3) Evaluate the economic impact andpotential socio-economic impacts and potential for commercial expansion across rural America.Anticipated Results and Potential Commercial Applications.Consumers' concernsabout the environment and desire for food transparency are main drivers for the increaseddemand for local food estimated to be a $20 billion market in the US.Additionally USDArecently increased funding for the Farm-to-School program while hospitals across the nation areseeking to increase sourcing directly from local producers.Producers need to efficiently marketmanage products regularly update products/inventories/prices and accommodate customers tomaximize profitability.Enabling producers to use a single platform to market and transact withlocal wholesale buyers and consumers through their own websites via our collaborator'sresource sites and through Food4All.com can help producers more effectively grow and managetheir operations. Anticipated results from this SBIR project will provide rural communities amore robust local food system connecting farmers wholesale buyers and retail consumers sothat rural farms can thrive and rural communities will have more access to fresh local producedirectly as consumers and through their local restaurants hospitals schools and businesses.