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.
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 food [...]
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 when [...]
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. Growing [...]
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 garden [...]
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 years [...]
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 its Chopped [...]
New Resource Spotlight: A Guide to Hosting Mini Food Shows in Your Community
Mini food shows are community-led events designed to showcase local farms and food producers to a variety of audiences, including buyers like restaurants and specialty shops, food distributors, and residents. This guide outlines the planning, preparation, and marketing tasks for hosting your own event.
NC Growing Together Wins N.C. Cooperative Extension Award
NCGT was presented with the 2017 "Outstanding Subject Matter Program by a Team" award from the North Carolina Association of Cooperative Extension Specialists (NCACES).
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".
Upcoming Webinars Support Food and Farm Business Development
Hosting Agriculture & Food Entrepreneurship Training at Your Community College: A Webinar for Small Business Counselors and Cooperative Extension Agents July 18, 2017 | 11 a.m. to noon | Virtual | Online Registration Presented by [...]
Leveraging for Greater Impact: NCGT and UFOODS
NC Growing Together is working with a new "partner": CEFS' University Foods Systems: Farm to Campus, Campus to Farm initiative (UFOODS). UFOODS seeks to network campuses with their local food communities, specifically to develop new market opportunities for producers.
New Grant Supports Supply Chain Approach to Reducing Farm-Level Food Waste
The grant work will focus on two types of unharvested produce: cosmetically imperfect (does not meet USDA #1 standards for scarring, size, or shape, but is otherwise edible); and produce that meets USDA #1 standards but is left in the field because harvesting costs exceed the market price of the produce. Figuring out how to "recover" this otherwise wasted produce can both improve growers' bottom line and make our food system more efficient and sustainable..
NCGT and the NC Rural Center Collaborate on Webinar Series to Support Food and Farm Business Development
NC Growing Together and the North Carolina Rural Center are partnering to develop a monthly webinar series targeted towards small business counselors and other staff who work with food and farm business development around the state.
Partner Profile: Piedmont Culinary Guild
March 2017 -- NC Growing Together's newest partner is the Charlotte-based Piedmont Culinary Guild (PCG). The PCG is working to connect the food chain in the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina by [...]
Spotlight on New NCGT Resources
March 2017 -- NC Growing Together has released several new resources that will be of interest to producers, buyers, educators, and other audiences.
FreshPoint Open Houses Attract Farmers Ready for Business
FreshPoint, in partnership with NC Growing Together and NC Cooperative Extension, hosted two informational sessions for interested growers on February 21 in Raleigh and February 23 in Charlotte.
Upcoming Events: Webinar for Small Business Developers & Good Agricultural Practices Workshop
March 2017 -- Two webinars for small business developers and a Good Agricultural Practices workshop are coming up in April and May.
NCGT Supports Local Foods at Camp Lejeune and Surrounding Community
Participants of the Season Extension workshop held February 8th at the Onslow County Incubator Farm. February 2017 -- Last April, NC Growing Together reported on Farm-to-Base and Base-to-Farm Efforts at Camp Lejeune in [...]
NCGT Supports Planning Focus on Agriculture & Food Systems in Partnership with the NC Chapter of the American Planning Association
NCGT presented at the February APA-NC meeting in Saxapahaw, NC. February 2017 -- NC Growing Together's Local Food Economies initiative is providing resources and tools to professional associations around the state for supporting [...]