Value Chains for Sustainable Procurement in Large School Districts: Fostering Partnerships

David S. Conner, Andrew Nowak, JoAnne Berkenkamp, Gail W. Feenstra, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Toni Liquori and Michael W. Hamm

Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2011, vol. 1, issue 4

Abstract: Values-based value chains and farm to school programs are two aspects of the alternative agri-food system that have received a great deal of attention recently from scholars and practitioners. This paper chronicles two separate pilot efforts to create value chains for mid-scale farms to supply large school districts' food-service operations with more healthful, local, and sustainably produced foods, using a modified farm to school model. Early farm to school efforts were mostly farm-direct, a model that poses difficulty for large districts, which often require some kind of intermediary to procure the volume and form of products required for the scale of their food-service operations. Value chains have the potential to address this issue, as part of a more broad-based sustainable school food procurement model that can met the needs of large districts. The lessons learned about the various roles scholars and community partners might play in creating, sustaining, and monitoring performance of these value chains are highlighted.

Keywords: Production Economics; Research Methods/Statistical Methods; Community/Rural/Urban Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/359412/files/56.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:joafsc:359412

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development from Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().