SBIR-STTR Award

A vastly under-served community, located in an impoverished, 1,500-acre tract in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, is in dire need of increased accessibility to nutritious food. Most of the buildings are torn down, decayed, and abandoned. There are no grocery stores selling nutritious, local, and fresh foods; it is very much a food desert. However, a great opportunity to enrich the lives of this community has sprung from a forward-thinking, $8.1 billion, “NorthSide Regeneration Plan” which is developing this area through the strategic planning of building 10,000 new homes, along with parks, schools, churches and three major employment centers. Good Natured Family Farms will promote and support this community’s robust regeneration through research funded by the Small Business Research Innovation grant to determine the feasibility of developing a Good Natured Food Campus that will increase the accessibility of local and fresh food to an under-served population, while assisting small to mid-size farms to process and commercialize their meats, dairy and produce. The purpose of establishing the Food Campus is to bring the aggregation and distribution of fresh, local food from small to mid-size farms to the family tables of vulnerable populations, thereby creating more marketing opportunities for the farmers and better nutrition for the at-risk population. The program will also provide educational and job training in food science and nutrition. Good Natured Family Farms has successfully developed and implemented a similar concept if or an under-served community in Kansas and now strives to develop a sister Food Campus in this Missouri community. An overarching goal of the Good Natured Food Campus is to contribute to the improvement of the nation’s nutrition and health, to support local, small and mid-size family farms, stimulate monetary circulation in the local economy, increase commerce and tax revenues, and reduce vulnerability to oil shortages, transportation problems, and large-scale food contamination.

Rainbow Organic Farms Co., DBA Good Natured Family Farms, proposes to establish The Good Natured Food Campus - a local food aggregator, wholesale distributor and value-added facility of locally-grown food from small/mid-sized farms, to be located in the heart of the North side Regeneration Plan Community in North St. Louis, MO. The Food Campus will address the fresh-food needs of a vulnerable population in an impoverished food desert, and incentivize local small and mid-sized farmers to grow and sell more products locally - thereby strengthening the sustainability of the local farming community. The City of St Louis is ranked as one of the nation's leading areas in critical food shortage - it is nearly impossible for the underserved community of North St. Louis to access local, healthy, and affordable food; 25.7% of households with children are struggling with food security and hunger issues daily. On the other hand, in 2010, Missouri ranked second in the country for number of farms (108,000). However, the availability of locally produced fresh foods in Missouri is limited due to the lack of production of fresh market fruit and vegetables and a scarcity of facilities able to clean, process, repack, and market fresh foods. Another compelling reason for the unavailability of locally produced fresh foods in Missouri is that local food producers face market-access challenges, such as: Supply Most farmers don't grow enough to consistently or adequately supply larger distribution channels Most farmers are unable to compete with agri-business Insurance Most farmers can't afford to meet costly liability requirements of food merchandising and food service purchasers Packaging Requirements often too costly and sometimes too difficult to meet on a small farm or at a small enterprise Logistics Shipping to many customers is not efficient or economical The Good Natured Food Campus, along with the recruitment and mentoring of local farmers into a large Farmer Alliance network will help to negate these obstacles and would enable even the smaller farmers to participate in selling their products. Local small/mid-sized farmers will have increased income through new revenue streams through membership in the Farmers Alliance. The Farmers Alliance will enable farmers to consolidate sales, packing and transportation, incur lower risks with higher profits - and will become GAP Certified (Good Agricultural Practices) which will enable them to pursue sales to large grocers. GAP Certification is a requirement of grocers, but many farmers are in the dark on how to proceed with this program. The Food Campus and the Farmers Alliance will mentor farmers to get them up to speed to meet the GAP requirements, ensure food safety, and promote and encourage sustainability of local farm enterprises. The outcome of including more farmers in the Good Natured Family Farms Alliance is increased income for sustainable farms, increased land value, beginner farmers joining the farming industry, and local, fresh food availability will thwart natural and man-made disasters. Growth in the local foods industry could support more young people who stay on the farm - or come back to the farm after college - to carry on the family business. The vulnerable, underserved population in the inner-city of North St. Louis is the other targeted audience group that the Food Campus will assist. This area is impoverished and lacks any resource for fresh, local food. The Food Campus will be established in the middle of this area and will focus on wholesale food distribution and EBT food programs that will help stretch the food dollar of the families who rely on food assistance. Missouri Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) is the method by which households receive and use Food Stamp benefits. According to the USDA, the percentage of EBT users in St. Louis City is 36%, compared to 14.3% of Americans nationwide who relied on food stamps in March, 2011.The Food Campus will build strategic community