Farm to Institution project seeks interested institutions

Posted by on September 1, 2006

Fair Food, a project of the White Dog Caf? Foundation, is dedicated to bringing locally grown food into the Philadelphia marketplace. Since 2001 Fair Food has worked to build bridges between family farmers in the Mid-Atlantic region and the Philadelphia marketplace.

FARM TO INSTITUTION
The global distribution system that feeds the institutional supply chain provides limited access to high quality, locally farmed food. Despite this, a growing number of food service providers, distributors, and institutions on the cutting edge of current food trends are developing local food purchasing programs. This trend is driven by customer demand, increased shipping costs, a desire for fresher, better tasting food and a commitment to supporting local family farmers.

Fair Food?s ?Farm to Institution Project?
With recent funding from the Claneil Foundation, Fair Food has embarked on a Farm to Institution Project to facilitate distribution of local foods to colleges, hospitals, retirement homes and other institutional dining operations in the Philadelphia area. Fair Food is conducting fieldwork, interviews, and surveys to discover how institutions, distributors and farmers can work together to bring local food into institutional kitchens and campuses. We are developing tools to facilitate local purchasing for institutions and will present training workshops for farmers interested in selling to the institutional market.

Fair Food welcomes inquiries from anyone working in institutions, food distribution or farming who may be interested in partnering with us on this Farm to Institution project. We are planning a series of Round Table discussions with stakeholders (selected institutions, distributors and farmers) to address the barriers to buying from local farms and find solutions.

Contact:
Lindsay Gilmour
Program Coordinator at Fair Food
A project of The White Dog Caf? Foundation
http://whitedogcafefoundation.org/fairfood.html
lindsay@whitedog.com
215 386-5211 ext.105
3428 Sansom St. 2nd floor
Philadelphia PA 19104