Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) Program

Strengthening Kentucky’s Local Food Supply Chain Through Targeted Technical Assistance Abstract The Food Connection (TFC), an applied food systems institute anchored in the College of Agriculture, Food, and the Environment at the University of Kentucky, exists to serve farmers, food producers, students, and consumer by cultivating creative strategies and partnerships to support a vibrant, healthy, and equitable local food economy. As a part of the land-grant mission, we support innovative and interdisciplinary instruction and research, and deliver high- impact services and programs that support local food systems development. TFC proposes to use a portion of the Regional Food Systems Infrastructure Cooperative Agreement with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture to strengthen the Kentucky Value Chain Collaborative and the Cultivate Kentucky Partnership—programs designed to reinforce Kentucky’s local food supply chain by supporting farmers pursuing new market opportunities and buyer-mandated third-party produce safety certifications. The Kentucky Value Chain Collaborative, spearheaded by The Food Connection, is intended to bolster the “soft infrastructure” of Kentucky’s local food supply chain by cultivating meaningful and sustainable markets for farmers their local food products and relationships with scale-appropriate distribution channels. The Kentucky Value Chain Collaborative team is led by Dr. Ashton Potter Wright, Executive Director of The Food Connection and includes three regional Value Chain Coordinators (VCCs)—Heather Graham (Eastern Kentucky), Faye Kuosman (Central Kentucky), and Brandi Button Johnson (Western Kentucky). The VCCs serve a variety of roles (market matchmaking, technical assistance, relationship building, innovating ideas, resource prospecting, research & assessment) to meet farmers where they are and assist them with selling their products and meeting the demand for locally grown food in a coordinated and collaborative way. The VCCs will each be responsible for one of the three Extension Administrative Regions–West, Central, and East–and will leverage the UK Cooperative Extension network, regional universities and stakeholders, and infrastructure to amplify their connections to farmers, buyers, and stakeholders in each of the three regions. These VCCs will work collaboratively with existing partners and organizations involved in VCC work while serving as anchor personnel whose primary function is to develop intentional, transparent, and sustainable relationships with farmers, processors, distributors, and buyers in their regions. The VCCs will work across commodities (produce, protein, small grains, dairy, value-added products, etc.) and will regularly convene meetings and/or conduct site visits with farmers, processors, distributors, and buyers to continue to build sustainable and equitable local food value chains in Kentucky. The Cultivate Kentucky Partnership, spearheaded by The Food Connection in collaboration with the Kentucky Horticulture Council, the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Food Systems Innovation Center, and the Center for Crop Diversification, was established in 2016 to provide produce growers with targeted technical assistance to prepare them for a third party good agricultural practices (GAP) audits so that they can access wholesale, institutional, and large retail buyers. Our Senior Extension Associate, Bryan Brady, works directly with Kentucky farmers and food aggregators to deliver one-on-one technical assistance, field days, workshops, webinars, and publications around produce food safety to continue to bolster our specialty crop sector in Kentucky.