Growth Strategy
This is our core management consulting service. We help startups stabilize through sales and marketing strategy, financial management and operations assessment. We help later-stage companies grow by identifying and evaluating new opportunities using business case and capital budgeting analysis – tools similar to those we employ in our feasibility assessments.
And we help established food businesses develop strategies and innovations that drive growth because they are rooted in our understanding of the motivations and values that are fueling the good food movement, a seism that continues to reconfigure shelves, menus and plates in every channel of the food industry.
About Us
New Venture Advisors is a team of business consultants specializing in local food system planning and new enterprise development.
Growth Strategy Projects
Learn how we have helped our clients develop growth strategies below.
LocalShare By The Numbers: Measuring Impact
Hope, NJ
To expand the impact of its gleaning work, the Foodshed Alliance partnered with New Venture Advisors to design a robust system for measuring and communicating results. The LocalShare program has already rescued more than 925,000 pounds of surplus produce from New Jersey farms to feed neighbors in need. NVA developed a data management and reporting dashboard that tracks performance, partnerships, and community outcomes. These tools help LocalShare demonstrate value to funders while continuously improving program effectiveness. (2025)
Beginner Farmer and Rancher Development Program Evaluation
Appleton City, MO
New Growth is a rural community development corporation and a nonprofit affiliate of West Central Missouri Community Action Agency. New Growth’s mission is to build local ownership and lasting livelihoods from deep rural roots by building the entrepreneurship resources and culture that rural communities need to thrive. Funded by a USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grant and through a collaboration of seven organizations, they are helping beginning farmers scale up into wholesale and develop market outlets for their products. New Venture Advisors is providing evaluation services to measure the impact of the program in elevating participating farmers and increasing their success to remain in farming. (2025)
The Food Mill Food Infrastructure and Ag Corridor
Columbus, GA
In Columbus, Georgia, The Food Mill and its partners are transforming a corridor into a vibrant ecosystem for food access and entrepreneurship. New Venture Advisors helped design the model for this next phase, building on earlier facility expansion work. The project features shared kitchens, gardens, food trucks, and retail spaces supported by a Healthy Food Financing Initiative grant. The team also conducted capacity assessments to align partner strengths and expand opportunities across neighborhoods. (2024)
Windy City Harvest VeggieRx Strategic Plan
Chicago, IL
For Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest program, managing the rapid growth of VeggieRx required strategic realignment. New Venture Advisors evaluated the produce prescription program’s expansion and helped refocus its operations for long-term sustainability. The strategic plan redefined success metrics around impact and service quality while aligning ambitions with available capacity. NVA’s recommendations created a balanced framework for scaling health-focused food access programs sustainably. (2024)
Project EATS
New York, NY
New Venture Advisors partnered with Project EATS, a neighborhood-based urban agriculture and social enterprise organization in New York City, to strengthen business operations and growth strategy across multiple boroughs. The team analyzed logistics, distribution, and facility constraints, then crafted strategies to diversify revenue, launch prepared foods, and expand market reach. The outcome: actionable operational plans that improved financial sustainability while staying rooted in the organization’s community mission. (2022)
Cultivate KC Strategic Plan
Kansas City, MO
Since 2005 Cultivate KC (CKC) has promoted urban agriculture as a pathway to a more sustainable and healthy food system for all, believing that growing and eating food is how we nurture and care for each other and the world we live in. CKC provides resources and advocacy to increase the production of and access to fresh, nutritious produce in urban areas throughout the Kansas City metro. New Venture Advisors facilitated both a SWOT analysis and strategic planning retreat for Cultivate KC’s staff. This work provided the foundation for an updated strategic plan that leverages Cultivate KC’s strengths, takes advantage of new programming and policy opportunities, and builds diversity, equity, and inclusion into the organization’s mission. (2021)
Oahu Food Hub Expansion Planning
Honolulu, HI
New Venture Advisors guided the design of a multi-use facility for Oahu Food Hub, that brings Oahu Fresh and Ke Nui Kitchen together under one roof. The plan balances shared kitchens, aggregation/distribution space, and offices to serve entrepreneurs and local producers. NVA developed operating model options, aligned facility design with future growth, researched tropical operating challenges, and brokered partnerships across the island’s ecosystem. (2021)
Can-Do Kitchen Strategic Plan
Kalamazoo, MI
To support the bold transformation of Can-Do Kalamazoo from a shared kitchen into a full-scale business incubator and enterprise hub, New Venture Advisors led the organization through a comprehensive expansion strategy. The team developed a relocation and facility design plan that enabled sustainable growth while meeting the needs of local food entrepreneurs. In collaboration with Michigan Women Forward and LISC, NVA also supported the creation of a microloan program to expand access to capital for underrepresented business owners. These strategic initiatives positioned Can-Do Kalamazoo to scale its impact, deepen partnerships, and broaden its support for entrepreneurs across industries. (2021)
Shagbark Seed & Mill Growth Plan
Athens, OH
Working with Shagbark Seed & Mill—a mission-driven enterprise supporting Ohio and Appalachian family farms—New Venture Advisors helped chart a strategy for sustainable growth. The project began with a comprehensive business review and collaborative workshops with the team and board to uncover opportunities for scaling production, enhancing efficiency, and streamlining operations. NVA translated these insights into a detailed multi-year growth plan supported by financial and market models outlining three strategic phases. This roadmap positions Shagbark to expand its reach, strengthen regional food systems, and increase demand for locally grown organic grains and beans. (2021)
Sustainable Food Center Visioning Initiative
Austin, TX
The Sustainable Food Center (SFC) is an Austin-based nonprofit organization with involvement in every aspect of the local, Central Texas, food system. SFC works to cultivate a healthy community by strengthening the local food system and increasing access to nutritious, affordable food. In looking ahead, SFC asked, “How is the local food system likely to evolve, and what is our future as the centerpiece of this changing food system?” In 2018, SFC worked with New Venture Advisors to refresh its vision by answering these and the many underlying questions in order to clarify its future role, structure and plans. Since that time SFC has been implementing the plan, and NVA has provided coaching support in defining the purpose, structure and work focus of the newly formed organization. (2021)
Great Plains Food Bank Mobile Market
Fargo, ND
New Venture Advisors assessed the feasibility of a mobile market social enterprise for the Great Plains Food Bank, serving North Dakota and western Minnesota. Building on the food bank’s existing mobile pantry assets, NVA evaluated a model for selling fresh and shelf-stable foods—sourced from the food bank and regional producers—in communities without grocery stores. (2020)
Kōkua Kalihi Valley Strategic Plan
Honolulu, HI
New Venture Advisors supported Kōkua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services in strengthening the long-term sustainability of its ROOTS Program, which advances community health through food, culture, and connection. NVA developed a strategic framework clarifying program structure, analyzed unit economics across food-based enterprises and services, and delivered a roadmap to align operations, finances, and mission in support of healing and health in Kalihi Valley. (2019)
Cornell University Eastern Broccoli Project
Ithaca, NY
This project began at a time when high transportation costs, interest in locally grown food, and sustainability concerns had begun to create demand for Eastern-grown broccoli. Researchers at Cornell University along with other academic and industry partners have been focused on developing a reliable, high quality, year-round supply of Eastern-grown broccoli that is welcomed in East Coast markets. NVA assisted these efforts in exploring strategies for boosting trade acceptance of this promising specialty crop. (2019)
LISC Phoenix Commercial Kitchen Strategy
Phoenix and Mesa, AZ
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation, known as LISC, is one of the largest nonprofits in the country supporting projects to revitalize communities, transforming them into healthy and sustainable places to live, work, and raise families. Two projects in metro Phoenix, a cultural center and an affordable housing development, include commercial kitchens that will operate with a missional emphasis on job creation and serving small businesses, particularly local, women, native and minority-owned. NVA assisted in building the capacity of the management teams, and the refinement of their operating models. (2018)
Central Appalachian Food Enterprise Corridor
Abingdon, VA
Appalachian Sustainable Development and ACENet are two of the longest standing and most established food hubs in the U.S. These pioneering organizations recognize that between them is a corridor of farms and food businesses across VA, WV, KY and OH that may all benefit from coordinated marketing, operations, logistics and transportation services. Through funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the organizations have embarked on a joint planning effort to explore models that might enable them to operate more profitably in their rural settings. NVA assisted in this effort by highlighting examples of innovative, successful models that have been established worldwide in order to connect rural, dispersed agricultural producers to mainstream markets. (2018)
Commonwealth Kitchen Strategic Roadmap
Boston, MA
This innovative, non-profit kitchen incubator is among a small but growing class of kitchen incubators with an ambitious vision and complex model—combining shared kitchen space with hands-on business support for entrepreneurs, building co-packing capabilities, growing a brand and a sales and marketing arm, and operating with a specific focus on minority and women entrepreneurs. Through a detailed review of the current organization and business lines, NVA developed a set of proposed paths for the organization to follow to attain its financial goals, developed comprehensive financial projections for these strategies and established a five-year roadmap for implementation. (2017)
Headwater Food Hub
Rochester, NY
Facing capacity constraints in its existing facility, Headwater Foods, Inc. began building the business case to relocate its operation to a new site and expand into new lines of business. New Venture Advisors conducted market research to better understand the impact supply might have on their expansion, and the nature of demand for new products. (2015)
Blue Ridge Produce
Elkwood, VA
As Blue Ridge evolved from a business startup to an ongoing operation, New Venture Advisors assisted in setting up its bookkeeping system, developing a dashboard and creating tracking mechanisms for expenses and key performance indicators. (2014)
Prairie Crossing
Grayslake, IL
Through FamilyFarmed.org’s Building for Growth project, New Venture Advisors consulted with Prairie Crossing Farm in evaluating capital investments in its Farm Business Development Center to expand production on Prairie Crossing’s 90-acre organic farm. (2011)
