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The ACRE Collective, an initiative led by The Common Market Southeast and other food and health organizations that aims to shift procurement among institutions toward values-based purchashing, is proud to include Health Care Without Harm as one of our key partners. Recently, The ACRE Collective's Program Manager Emily Hennessee sat down to chat with Molly Riordan, Eastern Regional Program Manager of Healthy Food in Health Care of Health Care Without Harm about the importance of healthcare institutions engaging in values-based food procurement.

Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-2), CMGL Executive Director LaToyia Huggins, Harold Wilken of Janie’s Farm and Mill, and Glenwood Academy leadership, spoke passionately about what investing in local food systems means for children, farmers, and communities alike.

Congresswoman Kelly praised the initiative for its dual impact—supporting student wellness while fueling the regional economy. “Programs like Local Food for Schools show what’s possible when we invest in our communities,” she said. “Every meal can be an opportunity to nourish both our children and our local farmers.”

This year, The Georgia ACRE Collective awarded its first-ever Farmer Infrastructure Grants to 10 farms across the state, each one working to scale up and meet the needs of wholesale markets like schools, hospitals, and other anchor institutions.

The grants total $130,000 worth of investment, with each grant averaging $11,500, including personalized technical assistance from the Georgia Grown Innovation Center. These farms are making meaningful investments in infrastructure that will help them grow more food and more efficiently sell to wholesale markets. From cold storage units to irrigation systems and fencing, these upgrades are breaking down barriers of entry for small farms and creating a foundation for long-term impact.

Across the country, institutions like hospitals, universities, and public schools are beginning to tap into their purchasing power to support a more equitable and sustainable food system. These groups serve hundreds, sometimes thousands, of meals a day—and what they choose to put on the plate matters.

Meanwhile, smaller farmers—especially values-aligned, sustainable producers—have historically faced barriers to accessing institutional markets.

But that’s beginning to change. Through intentional relationships and forward-thinking procurement strategies, institutions are making deeper commitments to their communities and the local food economy.

Agriculture is Georgia’s number one industry. Yet too often, schools, one of the largest food purchasers in the state, struggle to access the fresh, healthy food grown in their own communities.

Institutional food systems often operate on a scale that does not leave room for small and mid-sized family farms to participate. Buying local isn’t always easy for schools, as school nutrition is functioning on increasingly tighter budgets with little room for innovation.

Now, a pilot program is helping to bridge that gap. In 2023, The Georgia ACRE Collective, led by The Common Market Southeast, launched the Local Foods Incentive School Pilot Program. The initiative connects local farmers with school cafeterias, and in doing so, improves student nutrition and the state’s rural economies.

How Can You Measure Sustainability?

The demand for healthy, sustainably produced food is on the rise. This is true for consumers at the grocery store, and also evident in the actions of key food system players. Institutions, cities, and companies increasingly prioritize environmental and social sustainability in their procurement practices. They are seeking suppliers who can help them meet their goals to support local economies, mitigate climate change, improve animal welfare, and safeguard human health and nutrition. But how can these sustainability leaders be sure that the food they are purchasing is truly sustainable? And without clear market signals to provide confidence that their sustainable methods have marketable value, are enough farmers and ranchers producing this kind of food at scale?

Four Georgia colleges—Agnes Scott College, Mercer University, Oglethorpe University, and Spelman College—have been honored with a Farmer Champion Award by Georgia Organics. This recognition highlights their shared commitment to strengthening local food systems and supporting sustainable agriculture. The awards were presented by Bill Green of The Common Market Southeast in conjunction with the SOWTH Conference, a gathering of more than 1,400 farmers and food system leaders dedicated to advancing agricultural sustainability in the South.

In the wake of Hurricane Berryl, CMTX provided critical financial loans to rebuild farms and build resiliency.

This year’s devastating storms have severely damaged the farmers and ranchers we work with across Texas. In Harris County and beyond, relentless winds and heavy rains erased months of effort, leaving many farms struggling to recover. Hurricane Beryl hit especially hard, flooding fields and damaging infrastructure that our local food system depends on. In July, Beryl brought wind speeds over 86 mph and dropped 10 to 15 inches of rain across parts of the state. Wharton and Matagorda counties were among the hardest hit, with agricultural losses totaling nearly $90 million, according to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Many farmers we know and trust lost crops, equipment, and essential infrastructure. While they waited for insurance claims and federal aid, which could take months to arrive, we took action to expedite their recovery, to keep farmers farming.

The Midwest is a land of plenty with a strong agricultural tradition. Yet despite being surrounded by rich farmland, too many who live here cannot access fresh local food due to the erosion of pathways that connect farmers with their neighbors and communities. This breakdown of regional supply chains has also prevented many small and independent farmers from selling their products at a scale that keeps their businesses viable.

The Common Market has a vision to rebuild these supply chains, and a strategy to achieve that vision that’s been proven in the Mid-Atlantic and southern regions of the United States. Our latest hub, The Common Market Great Lakes, has already made strides to improve local supply chains in the greater Chicago area — and our current momentum will swiftly carry us to more milestones.

Read on to learn how The Common Market Great Lakes is blazing new pathways to direct the Midwest’s existing abundance onto the plates of its people.

Rush University Medical Center, along with partners The Common Market Great Lakes, a nonprofit local food distributor, and ChiFresh Kitchen, a cooperatively owned catering company based on the South Side of Chicago, is uncovering new ways to enhance food access and nutritional well-being in the Chicago metro. The Chicago Region Food System Fund fueled the engagement, awarding the partners an initial grant of $100,000 to support the purchase, incorporation, and delivery of locally sourced ingredients through medically tailored meals (MTM).

These days, more and more companies are pledging to source responsibly by reducing their environmental impact and fostering stronger equity and diversity in their supply chains. Food service companies, in particular, can achieve these goals thanks to their substantial purchasing power, and in doing so, make significant changes for the better in their local food systems. The Good Eating Company recently joined the sustainability commitment club when its leadership publicized a pledge to spend 15% of their food budgets in support of farms and ranches that embrace regenerative growing practices. Why would any food service company make a commitment like this?

Some of The Common Market’s most significant growth in 2023 stemmed from the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and Local Foods for Schools (LFS), two programs that jump-started deeper engagement with our farmer partners new and old. Although the characteristics of the programs varied across our states, they allowed The Common Market to diversify how locally grown food could reach people who need it. Both programs were inspired by the need to support our country’s hardworking farms and create resilient supply chains. But, what happens once the various program periods end? Read on to learn about our forward commitment program, and how it could fill the gap, ensuring farmers do not lose substantial market demand they just worked so hard to meet.

We sat down with the team from the Office of Harris County Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Ellis to dig into how their Texas community is taking steps to expand good health outcomes among its residents this National Nutrition Month and all year long.

The Georgia ACRE Collective just released its first case study, Structuring a Place-Based Collaboration to Advance Agriculture, Community, Resilience, and Equity through Values-Based Procurement, to highlight its collective efforts and accomplishments during its first year of existence.

Over 4.9 billion lunches are served in schools every year. That makes 4.9 billion opportunities to support local economies and strengthen our kids’ attitudes toward agriculture, food, nutrition, and the environment.

This November marked one year since Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) funding reached Georgia. Since then, The Common Market Southeast has distributed more than $2 million to support the expansion of small, local Black Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)-owned and women-owned farms, including Local Lands, a Black-owned, family-operated, pasture-raised cattle and poultry farm in Milner, GA.

Katie Barr from our team sat down with one of our partners, Dr. Rashi Sharma of New Jersey's Sanitas Medical Center, to chat about the success of their three-year-old Food as Medicine program. Get the full scoop on the impact of these programs on the communities they serve, and potential barriers to scaling these programs.

The Common Market has acquired the operations of Local Foods, a fellow wholesale distributor based in the Chicago metro dating back to 2013! We are presently represented as Local Foods Powered by The Common Market.

On Monday, September 19, 2023, The Common Market Great Lakes moved its first food – Apples from Flamm Orchards of Cobden, Illinois. In alignment with Cook County's commitments to the Good Food Purchasing Initiative, our values-based, mission-oriented food distributor has created a partnership with Cook County Sheriff's Office in Chicago to ensure access to local, fresh, nutritious, and responsibly sourced food is available for all.

Brittani Rowe, the culinary manager for the Marietta City Schools, is unafraid of innovation. “It’s something we thrive on,” she said.

Putting that philosophy into action will be tested this fall when the district’s high and middle school cafeterias introduce a notably kid-scary option: kale. The love-it-or-hate-it leafy green will be one piece of the fresh produce and meat options Rowe and her crew will receive this fall through a $60,000 grant from the Georgia Advancing Agriculture, Community, Resilience and Equity (ACRE) Collective, a new initiative co-led by nonprofit, regional food distributor The Common Market Southeast and other food and health organizations.

Forward commitments are a key component of our work to support values-based procurement practices within area institutions. But, what is a forward commitment and how do they benefit both farmers and institutional buyers? Read on to learn more about this impactful strategy to ensure community values and historically underserved farms are represented in procurement practices and how food service management company Aramark is adopting the philosophy in the Southeast.

At The Common Market, we’re aware that adopting a values-based approach to school food procurement – one that prioritizes community values, like supporting local businesses or climate, over price – can present unfamiliar challenges for school districts and their food service teams. We also know that once a program is in place, the benefits of local procurement can outweigh the burden of the initial effort it takes to implement. Values-based procurement strengthens communities, contributes to resilient local food economies, and positively impacts student health.

But, how do schools get there?

Emily has over 10 years of nonprofit experience working at the intersection of food systems, climate, and public health. Her background in policy, strategy, and program implementation makes her a perfect fit here at The Common Market and the Georgia ACRE Collective, where she works toward building a healthy, climate-friendly, equitable food system for all.

Our 2022 Annual Report highlights all the ways our organization has helped lift up local agriculture and improve access to healthy food over the past year. Together, with the help of our partners, we invested $13,000,000 in local economies through food purchases and supported 118 family farms across our regions. Be sure to explore the full report to learn more about our diverse programs, team members, and farmers!

A new program from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Local Food in Schools (LFS), provides dedicated funds to connect school food operations with local farmers, ranchers and producers across the state.