The Greenbelt Fund partnered with the Wallace Centre on Value Chain Skills series, and most recently we partnered with the Greenbelt Foundation on a series of agricultural-focused webinars. Did you miss them? No worries, they’re posted here for your reference!
Municipal Capacity to Respond to Agricultural Issues: Research by University of Guelph's Dr. Wayne Caldwell
In this webinar, Dr. Caldwell and his team, Elise Geschiere, Emily Sousa, and Regan Zink will present the key findings from their research on assessing the capacity of Greenbelt municipal planning departments to respond to agricultural issues. After hearing from the research team, municipal staff from across the Greenbelt will share and discuss their experiences with supporting agricultural communities and their municipalities' approaches to addressing agricultural issues.
We partnered with the Wallace Centre on a Value Chain Skills series of 4 webinars.
Value Chain Coordination: Making Matches
A value chain is a set of linked businesses who work together to serve their customers' needs while also addressing larger societal goals.
In this webinar we look at how a third party goes about the work of linking the elements of the chain; a role we call “matchmaking.” Presenters from very different contexts—nonprofit, university, independent consulting—will illuminate the art of successful matchmaking.
Value Chain Coordination: Creating Partnership Through Policy
Value chains rely on multiple entities working together, even when their goals may not always align. One role of value chain coordination is to help these entities figure out how to collaborate. In this webinar we will look at how value chain coordinators engage in "policy thought leadership."
Vanessa Zajfen, of the Center for Good Food Purchasing, will share wisdom on working with institutions and look at which policies are effective for creating real impact on communities. Dan Hobbs, of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, will share ideas on how to create policies that respect the needs of all parties, while bringing them success.
Community Kitchens, Incubators and Accelerators
Value-added food production has great potential for communities, as well as individual entrepreneurs. This is, in part, because food production can be profitable even at small scales. One key to smaller scale production success is shared equipment and space.
In this webinar we bring two traditional examples to the fore: La Cocina in San Francisco and Union Kitchen in Washington, DC. You will hear the impacts of these operations, as well as some of the challenges, and details of what it is like to actually run an incubator. We will also hear from The Food Corridor, a virtual food hub that connects food entrepreneurs to commercial kitchen space.
Food Hub Key Performance Indicators
Many hubs have begun using key performance indicators (KPIs) to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their unique businesses. KPIs are quantifiable measures used to evaluate the success of an organization, employee, etc., in meeting objectives for performance.
In this webinar you’ll hear from two different hubs who have leveraged their financial data to create and track their own KPIs. Although their markets and models are different (one hub sells wholesale, one direct to consumers), by actively monitoring and analyzing their financial data, they each have increased their efficiency, and thus their bottom lines.