Faces of New England Project Call for Applications: Farmers

Call for Applications! Farm businesses needed!

We are looking for farm, fish and food businesses to join the Faces of New England Project!

Applications are due March 31st, 2017 by the end of the day.

Some applicants may be asked to participate in a phone call to help us further understand their operations.

Applicants will be notified by April 24th about their participation in the program.

1. About the project:
Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) supports the development of a sustainable New England food system. To meet this goal we work with healthcare facilities to increase their procurement of local foods and farm and food businesses to meet that demand.

The Faces of New England (FNE) Project will provide a variety of opportunities for up to 20 farm, fish and food businesses to increase their sales to hospitals and other health care institutions. Members of the Faces Project will receive technical assistance to support development of their business plan, free marketing materials developed for their businesses including a 2 minute video to tell their story, and connections to a network of 150 hospitals throughout New England who are actively looking to purchase local foods.

This project is funded through a US Department of Agriculture Local Food Promotion Program grant.

2. What you get:
If selected for this program you will get a free marketing promotional video and the opportunity to significantly increase your annual sales. You will also be provided with multiple opportunities to connect to interested purchasers from hospitals throughout New England. Our success will be measured by your success increasing your revenue and hospital connections. See 5.1 for details of marketing strategy. All travel related to the program will be reimbursed.

3. Project goals:
a.     Support a group of up to 20 farm, fish and food businesses grow to meet institutional demand. These businesses will receive support through workshop style and one on one technical assistance and free marketing promotion.
b.     Increase institutional customers, by an average of two per business, for the FNE Project businesses.
c.     Assist FNE Project businesses to become approved by a Group Purchasing Organization, Food Service Management Company, and/ or broad line distributors, if desired.
d.     Ensure that all businesses of the FNE Project receive the support needed to obtain insurance and food safety certifications necessary for selling to hospitals.

4. Program period:
Selected businesses will participate in the Faces cohort for 24 months: May of 2017 – April 2019.

Potential Purchasers:
HCWH works with a network of 150 healthcare facilities in New England. This network is committed to purchasing local and sustainably produced foods. They are a diverse network in terms of scale (small critical access hospitals to large teaching hospitals) and location (across all six states in rural and urban communities). This network of hospitals understands that this type of product may be more expensive than the commodity market but they do seek a cost effective system of business. This typically reflects a willingness to pay 10-15% more than market rate for high quality regional foods.

These purchasers are looking for a variety of items. Below are examples of sought after items; however, this list is not exclusive.
-       Meat / poultry / pork raised without nontherapeutic antibiotics
-       Wild caught seafood from the Gulf of Maine
-       Second priority for processors and handlers of other domestic wild caught seafood
-       Minimally processed products that extend the season for regionally produced items (ex: tomato sauce, frozen fruits and vegetables)
-       Fresh winter greens
-       Peeled and cut root vegetables

5. Faces of New England Details

5.1 Free Marketing and Connections to Interested Purchasers:
a.     Members of the Faces Project will benefit from a variety of promotional strategies designed to help you succeed.
                         i.         Each business will be featured on a new Nourished by New England website.
                        ii.         Working with a professional videographer, HCWH will develop a two minute promotional video for your business. This video will be used to promote your business through the Faces Project and will be available for your own uses, free of charge.
                       iii.   We work with a network of 150 hospitals committed to buying local. We will help you connect to institutions who are interested in your product. To extend your reach, HCWH will develop virtual trade shows where your 2 minute promotional video will be shown to purchasers, who will then have a chance to ask you questions in real time.
b.     We have developed a robust technical assistance program using a combination of group workshops, a panel of purchasers, and one on one meetings to support everyone in the FNE Project. We are highly interested in your success. Technical assistance may include:
                         i.         Assistance in development of business plan
                        ii.         Assistance in determination of best pathway for sales to institutions (direct, distributor, management company)
                       iii.         Assistance in development of relationships for developing news sales and pathways.

5.2 Participant responsibilities:
a.     Participate in two in-person meeting:
i. orientation training in May 2017
ii. program commencement April 2019
b.     Participate in a virtual trade show in which your business is promoted to hospitals in New England
c.      Inform and appear in the video about your business.
d.     If requested, lead a farm tour for institutional buyers.
e.     Engage with technical assistance provider contracted by HCWH to develop and execute a strategy to improve your institutional readiness.
f.       Complete all reporting requirements (listed below).

5.3 Reporting Requirements:
Members of the FNE Project are required to complete a baseline survey and follow up surveys at the end of the first and second years of the program.

Survey questions will include, but will not be limited to:
a.     Type of products grown, caught or processed
b.     Volume of products grown, caught or processed
c.     Total sales
d.     Sales to institutions
e.     Number of institutional clients by sector (college, K-12, hospital, etc)

6. Eligibility:
To be eligible to participate in the Faces of New England Project you must own and operate a farming, fishing or food processing business in one of the six New England states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont).

The business can not be held by a parent company that is located outside of New England.

7. Applications:
Applications are due March 31, 2017 by 5pm. The final decisions will be announced on April 24th, 2017. You may be contacted for a phone call to discuss details of your application between March 31st and April 24th.

7.1 Evaluation:
This may be a competitive process, so please include as much information as possible in your application. We are recruiting producers from all New England states and the goal will be to select a diverse group of entrepreneurs who produce a variety of product and represent the entire region. However, potential for success will be our highest priority when evaluating the applications and will be weighted more than variety.

7.2 Questions:
Any questions can be submitted in writing to Lauren Kaskey at lkaskey@hcwh.org. All attempts will be made to answer questions publicly to the group of applicants. Please submit questions no later than March 24, 2017.