Business Engagement
Grower & Buyer Connection Events
Grower-Buyer Connections Events are designed to connect individual growers to individual buyers in a facilitated and respectful setting, with the hopes of forging sales connections. Each grower meets face-to-face for 8-10 minutes with each buyer, with buyers moving from table to table. Growers at each table share product lists, photos of their farm, and samples with buyersĶ¾ and buyers share their requirements for volume, insurance, delivery terms, and their specific product needs.
The NC 10% Campaign previously hosted many of these events in partnership with the NC Growing Together program. Now, we offer our planning guides and resources free to the public to use. These connection events can be utilized by any organization or community to build trust between farmers and food businesses, improve sales relationships, and boost economic growth in their local farming industry.
Learn more about the NC Growing Together program at the Center for Enviornmental Farming Systems' website.
Local Food Spending Data Collection
For over a decade, NC 10% Campaign worked with businesses and institutions state-wide to track their locally-sourced food spend. Partners reported how much money was spent weekly on NC grown, raised, or caught foods. At it's peak, the Campaign had 110 actively reporting businesses and institutions. From 2010 to 2015, those businesses spent over $62 million on local foods.
NC 10% Campaign worked with RTI International to build visualizations of the local food spend data for businesses and institutions. Start at the map to view the data statewide or click a specific county. You can exclude counties to see more detail or to group into a region. Other data will filter to that county. Use the dropdown menu to select various Measurements to view or click on a box in the Business Partner Count to look at more detail for that business type.
$62,000,000
spent on local foods state-wide by businesses and institutions from 2010 to 2015
Data Visualizations
Data visualizations cannot be viewed on mobile. Instead, view this page using a computer or tablet browser.
Thanks to RTI International for their work creating visualizations of the data.
Funding for this project was provided by a Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE) grant: “Quantifying the Multiplier Effect: What sustainable local food systems can mean to local communities,” (LS12-248).
Curious how your business or institution can increase local food spending?
Contact the NC 10% Campaign's Statewide Coordinator, Robyn Stout at rdstout@ncsu.edu