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Summary <br />Institutions are big food purchasers, and so they are attractive markets for local food. <br />However Cabarrus farmers are currently not producing enough to supply these markets. <br />Beef has more potential than produce to be a viable product for institutions, but much <br />needs to happen before that is possible. The Cruse facility needs to open and local beef <br />producers need to scale up production. Relationships must be built between farmers and <br />the distributors who supply these institutions. <br />Department heads working to adopt the Cabarrus County Local Food Purchasing Policy <br />offer a more immediate opportunity. They are interested in complying with the policy, <br />but need information about where to buy local products and what to buy. <br />Recommendations <br />1. Connect County department heads with restaurants and other food businesses that <br />buy locally - sourced ingredients. <br />2. Educate them about ways to substitute local - sourced products for commonly -used <br />processed food, as well as ways to include locally- raised meat options. <br />3. Explore models for producer cooperatives that will allow farmers to pool <br />resources so they can address education and processing needs and food safety <br />requirements with the goal of being better able to meet institutions' supply needs. <br />Examples include Eastern Carolina Organics, LLC (ECO) a farmer and staff <br />owned business that markets and distributes organic produce to retailers and <br />restaurants across North Carolina, ( www .easterncarolinaorganics.com). Hickory <br />Nut Gap Meats, a producer network and branded -meat company that serves <br />restaurants and grocery stores, is another, (www.hickorynutgapmeats.com). <br />D. Retail Market Channel: Grocery Stores <br />Food retail can take a number of forms, including convenience stores, specialty food <br />stores, grocery stores and supercenters, or club stores. Consumers across the country buy <br />almost 60 percent of the food they consume at home from grocery stores.' <br />Cabarrus County has 29 grocery stores." This section includes key points from telephone <br />and in- person interviews with representatives from some of those stores, a group that <br />includes small store owners and staff from larger chain stores. Interviewees include Kim <br />Bradford, Jason Surface, Devin Barbee, and Lupitas Paulino. A brief conversation was <br />held with a produce manager from a Concord Food Lion store, and staff from an organic <br />food distributor was interviewed. Questions were designed to establish demand and to <br />indentify opportunities and challenges associated with selling locally produced food <br />through this market channel. <br />Many grocery stores were difficult to contact. Repeated efforts were made to identify and <br />communicate with staff and buyers at Fresh Market, Food Lion and Earth Fare, but these <br />efforts were unsuccessful. Information from company web sites was included to fill in <br />some of the information gaps relating to larger grocery chains. <br />21 <br />Attachment number 1 <br />1 -1 Page 256 <br />