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Western NY Buyer-Grower Regional Conference

Western NY Buyer-Grower Regional Conference
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This event is designed to build valuable connections between regional farms and food providers to heighten awareness of Western NY’s vast agricultural products, their quality, and accessibility to restaurants, institutions, and the food industry at-large. 

Your co-hosts Cornell Harvest NY and Field & Fork Network, have designed a program that fosters business-to-business networking, knowledge sharing, access to financial resources, and building overall awareness of the regional food and ag industries. Some of the topics to be covered will be: financing and investing in the food & ag industries, market channel assessment, supply chain facilitation and more!

The schedule for the day: ***PLEASE NOTE SCHEDULE CHANGE***

8:00am-9:00am: Vendor Marketplace set up

9:00am-10:00am: Registration and Vendor marketplace

10:00am-10:30am: Welcome

10:30am-11:45am: Workshop Session 1 (concurrent sessions)
Market Channel Assessment (growers)
Matt LeRoux, Agriculture Marketing Specialist, Cornell Cooperative Extension
This workshop will cover the factors of market channel performance, how to evaluate market channels, and how to maximize your effort in each channel through marketing strategy. The target audience for this workshop is farmers of varying sizes.

Finding/Buying Local Foods (buyers)
Cheryl Thayer, Cornell Harvest NY
Finding local foods poses many challenges for today’s chefs and food buyers. This workshop will feature some innovative ways to tap into the local food supply that will work for any business model. The target audience for this workshop are food buyers interested in sourcing products from local farmers.

11:30-1:00: Lunch & Keynote - Defining the Food System Asset ClassToby Rittner, Council of Development Finance Agencies
With funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) is researching how traditional development finance tools – such as bonds, TIF, tax credits, RLFs, and more – can be utilized to develop and enhance local food systems. The premise of this project is to suggest and then prove that, if organized and defined properly, the food system can become a defined asset class worthy of traditional investment, similar to the way roads, bridges, schools, libraries, and other critical infrastructure pieces are financed. During this session, CDFA will present their approach to create the food system asset class by sharing the CDFA Food Finance White Paper Series and presenting pilot projects as case studies.

1:00-2:15: Workshop Session 2 (concurrent sessions)
Supply Chain Facilitation (small scale - restaurants, small grocers, etc.)
Tim Bartlett, Lexington Cooperative Market
Speakers TBA
The best way to learn about local supply chains is to hear from those who have made it work. This workshop will focus on small scale supply chains – restaurants, small grocers, etc.

Finding Capital To Support Your Food System Business 1 (development finance overview)
Toby Rittner & Allison Rowland, Council of Development Finance Agencies
Food systems are a critical component of local economies. Although financing for food and agriculture businesses may be perceived has difficult to access, communities throughout the country are financing their food system with various innovative strategies to support local markets, first time farmers, new food enterprises, and neighborhoods lacking access to fresh foods. This session will explore the various development financing tools available for food-related businesses and projects, such as access to capital lending sources for food businesses, bonds for farmers, tax credits for food processors, and many other financing tools used to support the local food system industry. Creative and tangible food system financing case studies will be presented alongside the fundamentals of development finance.

2:15-3:45: Workshop Session 3 (concurrent sessions)
Supply Chain Facilitation (large scale - school districts, hospitals, etc.)
Bridget O'Brien - Wood, Buffalo Public Schools
Dave Walczak, Eden Valley Growers & Western NY Food Hub
Speakers TBA
The best way to learn about local supply chains is to hear from those who have made it work. This workshop will focus on large scale supply chains – school districts, hospitals, etc.

Finding Capital To Support Your Food System Business 2 (panel discussion)
Joel Moyer, Fair Food Fund
Bob Doyle & Yanush Sanmugaraja, Westminster Economic Development Inititative
Genga Ponnampalam, Go Veggies
Speakers TBA
Hear from funders and food business entrepreneurs about the challenges on finding the right funding to support your food system business.

3:45-4:00: break

4:00-6:00: Vendor Marketplace/Networking Happy Hour

We look forward to seeing you there!

Views - 14/01/2020 Last update
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The Foundry Suites
1738 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, 14207, NY, US
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