NC Growing Together News
Find news posts from 2013-2018 from our NC Growing Together Initiative. You can also find all these articles in our NCGT Newsletter archive.
Engaging Videos Highlight the Local Seafood Supply Chain, Local Foods as Economic Development
NC Growing Together has partnered with the NC 10% Campaign and Vittles Films to produce videos about local foods.
Whole Crop Harvest Brings Together Supply Chain Partners for Grade 2 Produce
Whole Crop Harvest (WCH) is bringing together partners from across the supply chain to reduce on-farm produce loss and increase farmer profitability.
NC Farm to Early Care and Education Brings Together Children, Food, and Community
In collaboration with early educators, CEFS' Farm to Early Care and Education (NC Farm to ECE) Initiative created a series of eye-catching posters for young children that portray farmers and the vegetables they grow for their community - specifically highlighting women farmers and farmers of color.
Whole Crop Harvest Partners with Ashley Christensen’s AC Restaurants to Research Economics of Preserving Seasonal Local Tomatoes for Year-Round Use
The team found that purchasing 100% North Carolina tomatoes in season reduces the restaurant group's cost by nearly half, accomplishes the goal of sourcing exclusively local tomatoes, and will likely reduce on-farm food loss.
New Resource Spotlight: How It Works Handbook
The How it Works Handbook: A Guide to University Food Systems and Local Food Programs explains the structure of the university dining system, steps for successful programs, and various pathways through which locally-grown food can reach campus community members.
New CEFS Initiative Tackles Farm-Level Food Loss
The goal of the Whole Crop Harvest initiative is to discover ways to recover and utilize produce that would otherwise not leave the field or packing shed.
UFOODS Supports Value Chain Collaboration to Bring Local Food to Campus at UNC-Pembroke
This past year, UFOODS worked with UNC-P Executive Chef Glenn Reynolds and produce wholesale/distributor FreshPoint to increase local sourcing for campus dining. The result of this collaboration? UNC-P more than doubled their year-over-year percentage of local produce (defined as sourced within 250 miles) purchased through FreshPoint, from 3.35% to 8.9%.
NC Choices Supports Whole Animal Purchasing Through Supply Chain Education and Capacity-Building
Whole animal purchasing benefits farmers in that they don't have to spend time marketing their meat, and is especially beneficial for rural farmers who don't have ready access to markets outside of urban centers.
Spotlight on New Resources
Two new resources from NC Growing Together: Hubs & Kitchens: Food Hubs, Commercial Community Kitchens, and Copackers in NC, and the Food Business Road Map.
Events for Local Government Officials Highlight Economic Development Potential of Local Food and Farm Businesses
In September, NCGT's Local Food Economies project and the NC 10% Campaign organized three Innovations in Economic Development through Local Foods gatherings to showcase investments that local and regional governments can make to support small and mid-scale food and farming businesses.
NCGT Apprentice Chase McCurry, Onslow County Cooperative Extension
August 2017 -- Chase is a rising sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill, studying business. He has lived most of his life in Jacksonville, NC, where both his parents retired from the military after being [...]
NCGT Apprentice Casey Auch, Feast Down East
August 2017 -- Casey Auch is a rising senior at UNC-Wilmington, studying English and Professional Writing. Early in her college career Casey got involved in environmental activism, and soon turned her attention to local [...]
NCGT Apprentice Molly Riddle, TRACTOR Food and Farms
August 2017 -- Molly Riddle is a native of Burnsville, NC and currently attends Brevard College, where she is majoring in Environmental Studies with a focus on Sustainable Agriculture. Her interest in agriculture began [...]
NCGT Apprentice Shannon Herlihy, TRACTOR Food and Farms
August 2017 -- Shannon Herlihy is a rising senior at UNC-Asheville. She is majoring in Environmental Studies, minoring in Health and Wellness, and has designed her own concentration focusing on Food, Land, and Community. [...]
NCGT Apprentice Kristen Wagner, NC Catch
August 2017 -- Kristen is a rising junior at UNC- Chapel Hill, where she is majoring in Environmental Science, with a focus on Energy Management. She became involved with local foods when she joined [...]
NCGT Apprentice Taylor Hayes, Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing Center
July 2017 -- Taylor Hayes graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill last December with degrees in Southern Studies and Information Science. She has hands-on production experience, having worked in community gardens through high school and on [...]
NCGT Apprentice Chanel Nestor, Piedmont Triad Regional Council
July 2017 -- Chanel Nestor graduated from NC A&T with a B.A. in Sociology and a M.A. in Agricultural Education. Her interests in agriculture began well before her undergraduate work, when she was exposed [...]
NCGT Apprentice Erin Welty, Lowes Foods
July 2017 -- Erin Welty is a rising senior at the University of South Carolina, majoring in English. She became interested in a career in local food and agriculture after interning at a community [...]
NCGT Apprentice April Hnit Oo, Transplanting Traditions
July 2017 -- April Hnit Oo was born in Burma, grew up in Hawaii, and is a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, where she studied Public Policy and Food Studies. Her main interests are [...]
NCGT Apprentice Ali Huber, Seal the Seasons
July 2017 -- Ali Huber is a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, where she double majored in Environmental Studies, (focusing on sustainability and agriculture) and Public Policy (focusing on food). Ali has worked in gardening [...]
NCGT Apprentice Rhyne Cureton, Foster Caviness
July 2017 -- Rhyne Cureton will be a junior at NC A&T University this fall majoring in Agricultural Education, after taking a gap year to explore his interests in agriculture. During his first two [...]
NCGT Apprentice Alex Borst, Working Landscapes
July 2017 -- Alex Borst is a recent graduate of Mississippi State University with a degree in International Studies. This summer, Alex is helping Working Landscapes to develop a new sweet potato value chain to supply [...]
NCGT/Poole College of Management MBA Student Teams Work with TRACTOR Food and Farms to Increase Access, Profitability
MBA student teams from NC State University's Poole College of Management Supply Chain Resource Cooperative have worked with NCGT staff and partner entities since summer 2013 to investigate and address food business processes and supply chain issues across the local-to-mainstream food supply chain.
Sneak Peak at the 2017 Local Food Supply Chain Apprentices!
NCGT's 2017 Local Food Supply Chain Apprentices are about to hit the ground running. Here's a sneak peak at who will be working where. Look for a complete write-up of their experiences at the end of the summer!
NCGT Partner Cheney Brothers Pilots “Chef-Driven Agriculture”
Last summer, Joel Sullivan, Director of Marketing for NCGT partner Cheney Brothers, Inc. (formerly Pate Dawson Co.), had a novel idea for his food distribution business: "chef-driven agriculture".