Eastern Market is well known for its work as a large public market that has been a cornerstone in Detroit since the 1890s. Five different markets — a variety of year-round and seasonal markets — serve between 500-600 transient vendors. Its reach, though, is much wider. The market is managed by Eastern Market Corporation (EMC) a […]
New Venture Advisors launched the MarketSizer® and HubSizer® Toolsite earlier this year to enable anyone to conduct preliminary assessments of various types of food system infrastructure. The results allow users to refine their food business concepts and due diligence plans. The Toolsite has been used by more than 1,000 visitors since March 2018. We surveyed […]
A microblog series on the HubSizer® and MarketSizer® tools from New Venture Advisors. Over the past few weeks we’ve explored how to analyze a market for local food with the Local Food MarketSizer® tool; investigated how to turn a grocery store into a food hub with the Rural Grocery HubSizer® tool; and most recently we […]
A microblog series on the HubSizer® and MarketSizer® tools from New Venture Advisors. This week we’re looking into how to use the Local Produce HubSizer® tool to estimate the economics and potential markets of a produce food hub. For this post, we’ll take you on the journey that I went through while using this tool: […]
There are so many “new” terms out there describing our food these days. They are on the produce racks (natural, organic, local, sustainably grown, fresh) and they are in the grocery aisles (whole grain, gluten free, no preservatives) and in the meat case! (hormone free, grass-fed, antibiotic free, farmed, fresh caught). There are also some […]
The regionally-based, source-identified wholesale supply chain, once a creature of mystery reserved for the imagination of a handful of optimistic change-makers, is now a successful tool for creating market opportunities for agricultural producers and conveniently delivering safe food to consumers. Here at New Venture Advisors, we often work with groups that come to us with […]
In January Wholesome Wave hosted the Transforming Food Access Summit in Atlanta. We attended the conference to co-host a session with Farm Fresh Rhode Island, a food hub in Providence that is having tremendous impact on community health. Our panel explored the intersection of local food and healthy food access. It was an exciting opportunity […]
As the year comes to a close, many of us are reflecting on the year behind and making plans for the year ahead. I always find it inspiring when the NVA team meets to talk about how we’re doing, what we’re learning and the trends we’re observing. We use these insights to refine internal processes, […]
One thing I love about working in local food, and with food hubs in particular, is how the space is ever evolving. Planning organizations and current or aspiring food hub operators are constantly evaluating the business model – identifying opportunities to better serve their growers, improve access to local food in their community, and increase […]
After two years working with incredible, diverse and passionate local project teams on dozens of food system assessments, I always get excited when we start a new project. We have no preconceived ideas about the local food landscape or the direction we think a food enterprise model will take – we let the research and […]