Wallace Center Releases New Report

Innovations in Local Food Enterprise: Fresh Ideas for a Just and Profitable Food System

Innovations in Local Food Enterprise: Fresh Ideas for a Just and Profitable Food System addresses one of the most complex issues facing food access and regional food system development allies today: how can consumer price and producer cost meet in ways that transition healthy, local food from a privilege to a right?  Innovations in Local Food Enterprise analyses and aggregates a collection of innovative solutions to overcoming difficult food access and food equity issues with a focus on market-based consumer-driven solutions for low-income underserved communities.

The report is based on learning from our Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development (HUFED) Center and from the work of others who are creating and implementing market-based and non-market-based food access solutions in a very hands-on, practical way. 

Key findings include:

• Food access solutions need to reach beyond physical access to healthy food (e.g., distance to store or food pantry) to address social, environmental, cultural, and other factors.
• The role of business or market-based solutions needs to be maximized.  These market-based solutions appear to be more sustainable and offer more opportunity to low-income communities by supporting them in both entrepreneurial thinking and healthy eating.
• There are four main areas of innovative that support a market-based approach: 1) innovations in affordability and profitability; 2) innovations in infrastructure and logistics; 3) innovations in community engagement; and 4) innovations in marketing.  Each innovations section in the report includes a synthesis of trends and introduces two outstanding enterprises through directed case studies.
• Enterprises working in this field integrate innovations from two, three, or all four of the main areas of innovation, in an effort to make healthy food affordable, attractive and accessible.   

Our hope is that this report will inform, inspire, and prepare readers to innovate in their own communities and for those in decision making roles, to have this knowledge in mind as they envision and develop programs.   You can read the report and download a copy here.  Thank you to our network of partners, Wallace Center supporters, and the countless individuals and food enterprises across the country working to promote local food systems and address food access. We hope you enjoy.