Our Story

The NC 10% Campaign was founded in 2010 as a collaborative statewide initiative led by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) and North Carolina Cooperative Extension with the aim of promoting locally-grown/caught food, farmers and fishers, as well as the businesses and people who prepare, distribute, and sell food grown in North Carolina.

NC 10 Percent Campaign Promotes Local Food in North Carolina

In the Campaign’s original form, it encouraged NC individuals, businesses, organizations, and institutions to spend at least 10% of their food dollars on NC-grown and caught foods. It is estimated that NCians spend over $35 billion on food each year. If 10% of those purchases were from NC farms, $3.5 billion would stay within North Carolina’s statewide economy. The Campaign collected local food spending data from individual consumers, businesses, restaurants, and institutions since July 2010. Data collection ended in January of 2024.

Today's Focus

Today, the Campaign is focused on stimulating economic opportunities for NC farmers & fisheries through the following approaches:

increase local food procurement in county-based institutions like our NC Farm to Senior Services program
Help county extension offices produce their own local food spend reporting through our handbook and resources
Provide resources to support local food promotion by counties, cities, farmers markets, grocery stores, co-ops, and more.

Our Mission

The Mission of the NC 10% Campaign is to create local food educational and outreach tools and generate demand for local foods in North Carolina as a way to promote job creation and economic development in the local food system.

Our Vision

The Vision of the NC 10% Campaign is that individuals, businesses, organizations, and institutions understand the benefit of strong and resilient local foods systems, know how to find local foods throughout the state, and are able to spend at least 10% of their existing food budget on NC-grown/raised/caught foods.