The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) will host a webinar for farmers and ranchers about selling to schools, hospitals, and other institutions. This free, one hour webinar is at 11:00 am, Thursday, March 2.
Institutions in Montana represent a huge, but largely untapped market for our farmers and ranchers. The webinar will address the major concerns about working with institutional buyers that we’ve heard from Montana producers, and it will offer the opportunity to hear from professionals around the state about what’s worked (or hasn’t worked) for them.
Topics include developing partnerships, direct marketing, wholesaling, contract agreements, and, briefly, food safety. If you’re looking to expand your market, NCAT is here to open our toolkit for successful relationships with institutional buyers to all those that attend this webinar.
This webinar will include presentations by Demetrius Fassas of NCAT’s Farm to Cafeteria Network, Brianna Ewert of the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center, Christina Angell of Root Cellar Foods, and Mariann Van Den Elzen of Quality Food Distributing. Presentations will be followed by a panel Q & A.
NCAT’s mission is helping people by championing small-scale, local and sustainable solutions that reduce poverty, promote healthy communities, and protect natural resources. Developed by NCAT, the Farm to Cafeteria Network is a group of Montana food producers, processors, food service professionals, and community members who collaborate to share best practices and resources about Farm to Cafeteria Programs across the state. Farm to Cafeteria Networks’ mission is to support vibrant local communities by increasing the amount of healthy, locally grown food served in public and private institutions.