Graham Givens

Graham Givens

May/June 2016 — The Center for Environmental Farming Systems’ Supply Chain Scholars are creating connections between business and local food systems work. Graham Givens and Kaitlyn Sutton are both MBA students at NC State University’s Jenkins Graduate School of Management. As Supply Chain Scholars, they are looking at ways to build a local and regional food economy.

Kaitlyn Sutton

Kaitlyn Sutton

Givens is working with NCGT partners to understand the strengths and weakness of using a distributor in local, sustainable food supply chains. He was recently featured as a guest blogger on NC State’s Supply Chain Resource Cooperative’s Supply Chain View from the Field. Sutton is working with NCGT and the new CEFS’ initiative UFOODS (University Food Systems) to identify market opportunities for small and mid-scale growers and ways to build a strong university food system that links the campus community to local food and agriculture.

Givens is also a co-lead for the planning of FoodCon 2016: The Business of Sustainable Foods, a one-day conference on November 11 hosted by NC State and sponsored by NCGT, the Poole College of Management’s Business Sustainability Coalition and Supply Chain Resource Cooperative, and NC State’s Net Impact chapter.

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2016 NC Growing Together Newsletter.