The COVID-19 crisis shocked the nation’s food industry, resulting in forced closures of meat processing plants, reduced capacity at large distributors, and disrupted long-distance supply routes, shining a bright light on our efforts to decentralize local and regional supply chains. Food Connects and its producers and customers believe in the importance of strengthening transparent, source-identified regional food systems—if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be doing what we do!—and now we have a chance to prove it as community partners, old and new, are looking to Food Connects to lead the charge. 

The coming year is Food Connects’ most important year yet. In New England, household shoppers aspire to replace more items on their shopping lists with products that have real names, faces, and stories behind them. One of our top priorities is to meet these demands by building a stronger, more diverse catalog of fresh and value-added foods from both our immediate area as well as from around Vermont, New Hampshire, and the rest of New England. To do that, we look for producers with a discerning eye for quality, capacity, and consistency. Here are a handful of key elements we will seek in our new producer relationships:

• The product(s) serve an unmet need with our customers.

• The product is high quality, something that inspires lots of “Wow!”s and repeat purchases.

• If the products are geared toward retail sales, they must be packaged and labeled in a presentable and professional manner that meets regulatory requirements.

• The producer already has enough extra capacity to serve our customers with room for growth, OR the producer has a good foundation and wants to push on growth to match ours. 

As a small but rapidly growing food hub, we’re looking to work with producers as eager as we are to step into this moment. It’s our chance to prove that there is a viable alternative to conventional supply chains and food systems—a new system, built on decentralized, transparent sourcing from small and medium-sized businesses with real people at the helm. Thanks to all of you who have been part of our journey so far! Let’s explore this new model of food, together.