Critical Food System Infrastructure

In addition to the services that WFHC provides for its farmer members to sell and move products from farms to more standard market channels (grocery retail, distributors like Sysco and Heartland, direct sales to business cafeterias), WFHC has stepped up as a key partner and collaborator in a number of state-wide programs to build a more robust food system, supporting farmers to get their products into wholesale markets, including food assistance programs. This has resulted in national and regional recognition for the important work of the Cooperative. Highlights include:

• Tara Roberts-Turner, founding farmer and General Manager, received a special invitation to present WFHC’s work at the September 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health (Conference videos, https://sustainability.virginia.edu/blog/white-house-strategy-end-hunger, CharlieBerens Cripecast Episode 121 on White House Conf. on Hunger and Nutrition.)
• WFHC’s position as key infrastructure for local food system development was featured in a recent Ambrook news report, “A co-op of Wisconsin farmers now has its own trucking company — which could be one small way to shore up America’s ailing food supply chain.”
• The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Local Food for Schools (LFS) program. WFHC has become a trusted partner for schools in connecting farmers to school food service programs, and getting local, nutritious food to students. LFS funding continues and also WFHC is building relationships for schools to buy directly outside of the LFS funding as well.
• Pilot program with the Wisconsin Early Childhood Education (WECA) program to get boxes of local, nutritious food to pre-schools and nursery schools. A USDA Value Added Producer Planning Grant has allowed WFHC to work closely with Kitchen Table Consultants and their transport logistics consultant to do route optimization for this box program. This allows the co-op to fully understand the true costs of aNbox program, with small orders and small transportation drops. The plan is to apply for a full VAPG grant in May 2024 to further support this work.
• WFHC has been a key coordination and logistics partner, along with Marbleseed, WFU, and DATCP in the USDA-funded DATCP Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program. The LFPA is focused on BIPOC and historically underserved farmer populations and supporting these farmers in getting local food to the food assistance programs across the state (food banks and food pantries). (LFPA website maintained by WFU, WisPolitics story)
• Tribal Elder Food Box Program gets culturally appropriate and fresh local food to tribal elders through a household box program. WFHC is a foundational partner and provides the key aggregation and distribution services for this collaboration with all 11 tribes of Wisconsin, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, and other partners. WFHC has also been providing advice to the tribes as they investigate a tribal cooperative entity. https://greatlakesintertribalfood.org/, https://feedingamericawi.org/tribal-food-security/
• WFHC is a partner in a FairShare CSA Coalition Local Food Promotion Program grant to support CSA farmers, especially HMoob and other BIPOC farmers, as they examine CSA and wholesale markets. WFHC staff participated in a technical assistance field day for HMoob farmers in Wausau in August, providing information for farmers on tips and tricks for projecting fresh produce production from field to box to market.

Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative, E502 State Road 54, Waupaca, W I 54981