Evaluating Best Practices - Farm to Institution

Kentucky farmers, especially small- and moderate-sized farms, continue to search for new production opportunities to replace tobacco as an income-producing mainstay enterprise. In recent years, there has been a growing number of farmers producing foods for direct marketing to Kentucky consumers. However, there remains much potential to expand the total value of local food sales. In July 2002 the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) created the Kentucky Proud Restaurant Rewards Program (KPRR) to encourage restaurants, schools, universities and other food providers to source a greater proportion of their food from Kentucky farmers and to better identify this locally-sourced food to restaurant/food service patrons. Although the KPRR program has grown significantly in program funding and food service firm membership, the linkage building with local producers has been slow. There likely are a number of reasons for the relatively slow growth in KPRR producer/suppliers. The primary purpose of this proposal is to address these issues, to measure Kentucky farmers' awareness of the program, to identify key barriers or costs of their participation in the program, and to identify ways that the program can be made more effective in growing the demand for locally sourced foods, especially for institutional buyers in the Promise Zone. Research outcomes will identify the primary sources of benefits as well as important barriers/costs realized by both restaurants and farmers, and will inform state policy makers as they consider changes in the KPRR going forward so as to provide expanded opportunities for marketing Kentucky grown food products to Kentucky restaurants.