North Central Regional Food Business Center Overview

Listen as we share an overview about the North Central Regional Food Business Center. Learn more at www.northcentralrfbc.org.

Transcript

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 Angela Anderson (00:13)

Hello! My name is Angela Anderson and I am the host of the Deep Dive with Region Five. Welcome and thank you for joining us today! In Deep Dive with Region Five we will share more about Region Five Development Commission and North Central Economic Development Association programs and the work we are doing in Region 5, which covers Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties in Central Minnesota.

Angela Anderson (00:36)

I have Cheryal Hills, our executive director with me today and she's going to share more about our Regional Food Business Center program, as we are one of 12 centers in the nation, and we're representing the North Central region. So, Cheryal, can you tell us a little bit more about the who? so the funder, the partners that we're working with and then who will benefit from this program and that's a lot of questions to ask you right up front.

Cheryal Hills (01:01)

Absolutely. Thanks, Angela. I appreciate it. And Region Five Development Commission is excited to be part of this amazing effort alongside lots of partners across a three-state area of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. So back in probably March and April of 2023, Region 5 Development Commission started reaching out to partners across the three-state area to see if there was interest in applying for USDA, United States Department of Agriculture, AMS, that's the Agricultural Marketing Services Division of USDA, had issued a RFA or a NOFA or a, that's a request for proposals. And we submitted our proposal. We did request about $31 million. We did receive $15 million to serve the three- state area alongside these amazing partners for five years. And so that much of the funding did go out in specific ways that benefit primarily small and mid-sized businesses within the food value chain. And so when we talk about the food value chain, Angela, we're talking about everything from the producer and farmer on the front side to the aggregators, processors, distributors, and food access points like cooperative grocery stores, farmers markets, et cetera. So, everyone in that value chain is part of what we're hoping to do is some very unique. and different type of work within the food value chain and serve those small to mid-sized businesses who have not participated in accessing USDA programs as much in the past. So Angela, the WHO, which is one of your questions, if I remember them all, was really targeted around those zip codes in our three-state area, again, that had been considered not as participatory or underserved within the food value chain and agricultural economy broadly. And so that was exciting for us to put together that proposal and it was received well by AMS, USDA AMS. And we entered into a cooperative agreement, which is different than just a grant. It's a cooperative agreement means that we're going to learn alongside USDA and they are going to be participatory and we have a lot of local on the ground talent that are actually doing the work in this space. And so in addition to who we're serving Angela, the who of the partners that are on our regional food business center website, and we are called the North Central Regional Food Business Center. We as Angela, you said, we are one of 12 in the nation. I think we are the smallest in terms of geographic area and in terms of dollars.

Most of the other recipients of these cooperative agreements or cooperators, we should say, are universities, systems of universities, very large organizations with 40, 50 staff. I think we were an odd member of the group, an odd, we call ourselves that unicorn, right? We were a unique proposal to this program, let's say that, in contrast to a lot of the other universities and other groups that were innovating and doing some great work in food value chain systems. 

Angela Anderson (4:25)

Cheryal, what is the purpose of the North Central Regional Food Business Center? 

Cheryal Hills (4:30)

The purpose is to, again, really make sure that we're thinking about this industry, the agricultural economy in different ways. I will tell you, Angela, that in all three states, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, there are amazing organizations that have been doing work in the food value chain sector for many, many years. Our approach was to say more hands make the load easier to carry and lighter. And so we really started reaching out to partners who had amazing expertise, but maybe hadn't been as participatory in the agricultural economy as the traditional orgs that were out there. So for instance, we teamed up with all of the economic development districts. These are regional development organizations across the three states that have amazing skill sets in terms of finding resources, writing grants, securing dollars, doing lending, business development, all those great things that they do, but maybe didn't have as deep of relationships in the ag economy. So those are new folks to the table who are finding out what their role is and figuring out what makes the best sense in their region to serve this economy. Angela, I like to tell folks across the nation that rural parts of our country are much more complex than just agriculture. In terms of all of our needs, we have so many important industries that create prosperity and quality of life, but agriculture is still an essential need an essential part of our rural framework and economic engines. And so it's really wonderful that there are more players figuring out how to tie environmental stewardship with economic prosperity alongside addressing the issue of the WHO, centering the WHO, which is a social cohesion equity issue for us. So yeah, I think it's really cool. Those are the partners.

Angela Anderson (6:38)

Can you tell us a little bit more about what the partners will be doing specifically?

Cheryal Hills (6:44)

In addition to providing technical assistance through all these amazing partners across the three States, they will be doing some grant writing, which makes our center unique to the other, uh, 11 centers across the nation. We are understanding that farmers and even food co-ops and other aggregators and processors, small organizations, small businesses, small ventures don't typically know how to sit in a kitchen and write a grant to a federal agency that wants logic models, theories of change, work plans, and a lot of details and bureaucracy, frankly, that make it unattractive for that small to mid-sized businesses to even think about accessing the amazing programs that we have at our federal and state agency partners and philanthropy.

So, we will be doing some grant writing. We will literally be sitting with folks, helping them do and learn those skills. In addition to helping them with that piece, you know, the technical assistance that our center will be providing goes beyond just writing grants, which is important. It is also about helping businesses navigate the reporting of these grants if they are awarded. It helps them with the problem solving if there's something that goes awry, a road that needs to go left instead of right.

Fixing that and navigating that with federal agencies can sometimes be daunting. Yeah, so that technical assistance is in all of that space. And then lastly, I will tell you an important part of our evaluation is also storytelling. So it goes to the very end of the project, like how did this effort, how did this investment of our tax dollars make a difference in people's lives, make a difference in family livelihoods, make a difference in ownership? of lands and systems. And so I think what I'm excited about is to see that transformational change, not only from the TA providers, but transformational change in terms of how we deliver and think about technical assistance and capacity building broadly. And so that's a nuance for us that makes us different. Another difference in our center is that we have really centered on evaluation has been incredibly important to all of us, and we want to measure the quantitative impacts that we can dashboard easily to showcase pounds and miles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and all those things that we want to do in terms of quantitative. But there's an awful lot of qualitative data that we are also collecting in our Center that reflects what's important to these three states, which happens to be centered around: Are we building cultural agility?

Are we helping bridge difference through food and through business development? Are we thinking about our region and our communities and our state's commitment to environmental stewardship or did that get set aside and put in a parking lot while we were trying to build jobs, right? Like, so we've gone way beyond the traditional indicators of success that in economic development, we know satisfy legislative requirements, but don't create long-term wealth and impacts for the people of the highest need in our places. And so we decided to evaluate different. And that's setting us apart a little bit. We are using the WealthWorks model for thinking about how are we building not just financial assets and built assets, but how are we building political systems changes even within like economic development organizations like I talked about. How are we building intellectual capital, individual capital, social capital, cultural capital? How are we building all those other elements that are important to retain wealth in rural places? So that's some of what we're doing that's different. I will tell you the other thing that I think is really cool, Angela, that I get excited about for our Center is that yes, we have a bunch of technical assistance providers who are amazing practitioners, expert practitioners across the three states. We also understood that in order to work in communities that maybe haven't been served as deeply as they could and should, that there would be some cultural agility training that needed to happen. And so we have three technical assistance advisors, advisory TA folks that can help us learn about how to reach Latino people or how to really build the trust that's necessary to work in tribal communities or Hmong communities or how do you do that in a way that honors culture and respects some of the discriminatory or trauma that shows up when there are new people engaged in work.

And so we're being very thoughtful about we, as technical assistance providers, also have some learning to do to help us serve better. And so we have technical assistance advisors that are helping us make sure that we understand the nuances of communities that have been underserved. And that's important. And I think it's just exciting to have that learning opportunity for us, because that will transcend this five-year investment. that will create relationships and start those relationships that seep into other industries like housing, broadband, childcare, whatever it is, right? And so that's a practice that I'm super excited about for our center as well. But do you have other questions for me, Angela?

Angela Anderson (12:28)

I do. So I obviously because I work here at Region 5 Development Commission, I do know some of the answers to these questions, but I also know there's some funding opportunities for people. So I was hoping maybe you could share a little bit more about that.

Cheryal Hills (12:41)

Mm-hmm. Mm, thank you. I forget. There's so much going on. It's so exciting. Part of the Regional Food Business Center model across the entire nation, and there is one I should mention that is also stood up that serve all of Indian country in and of itself. It's a National Regional Food Business Center. And there is a site with USDA where you can check out where all those centers are. But part of all of us who are these centers are doing is re-granting. A portion of the funds that we've received is called business builder subawards. Business builder subawards. Those are grants that are going to be reinvested into businesses that have really, really interesting and impactful projects or programs or maybe it's feasibility studies or et cetera that would address a bottleneck within a food value chain. So we all know that what's happening in the southwest corner of South Dakota might be very different from what's happening on the Iron Range in northeast Minnesota. So there's differences and nuances in each region and respecting that place-based effort approach to doing our work. Each region of this of this three states has created an action plan that identified bottlenecks. Like what is it that you need in your region in the iron range? Is it do you need storage for food for farmers? And then do you need or do you need aggregation? Or do you need more food access points like maybe mobile grocery markets? Like what is it that you need? Ice was highlighted within these action plans. The business builders subawards are intended to grant money to projects and programs that would address bottlenecks within a region that help them innovatively transform and advance their food value chain. And so the exciting part about the re-granting piece is that it's an opportunity for us to do place-based investments that really honor culture in ways that were identified by community. One size does not fit all. What is happening in parts of North Dakota are very different from what's happening in Southern South Dakota. And we need to respect those nuances. And so these investments take into consideration what people from those communities have said is important to them. And we feel like that's probably the fairest way. And then excitingly, we will have an opportunity for the technical assistance providers once a year to come together at summits and learn in person. They have monthly calls as well, all the TA providers across the three-state area. But we have a really cool opportunity to take those dollars that will be reinvested. It's not much money, Angela, to be very honest. It is only $200,000 a year per state.

So over a five-year period, each state will receive a million dollars in investment. Three million dollars total out of the 15 million are going to re-grant to projects and programs. With a whole lot of flexibility, that could be a range of from things from equipment to feasibilities to cooperative structures that need to be formed to bridging urban and rural issues and divides in the agricultural supply chains and value chains and so just an array of different types of things that can be done with those funds. We're excited to open that up. Hopefully that business builder program the first time by April 1st, 2024. Don't hold me to that date, but that's what we're targeting and excited to be working with the AMS team on this effort. Hats off by the way to USDA AMS team. I've participated in over a dozen cooperative agreements in my 19-year career as the director at Region 5 and this is probably the most interactive and cooperative that a federal agency has ever been in these in these cooperative agreements. Some days a little much but for the most part wow what an amazing resource.

And like I see them as partners in this effort versus compliance officers for a grant that we have received. And that's a different kind of relationship. And they have not historically been real great in our federal partners at those kinds of relationships in contrast to say philanthropy or our state agencies. So it's super exciting for me in my career to see a relationship with a federal agency that understands they have a role to play beyond compliance.

Angela Anderson (17:20)

Thank you, Cheryl. Is this the biggest agreement that we have had in our history?

Cheryal Hills (17:25)

This is by far the largest grant or cooperative agreement that Region 5 is executed with a federal agency for sure. If you took, for instance, solar or any kind of other kind of project and you added all of the investments and the investors into other projects for just our region, no. It's not the biggest, but the largest in terms of dollar volume for one award. Yes. And the scope being three States for sure is the largest. When I proposed this to the commissioners of the Region Five Development Commission, who are 25 elected official and appointed representatives to the commission. I'm not sure if they thought I was off my rocker or what, but I think it was quite aggressive. It was a very aggressive progressive approach for an economic development district, but having worked in food systems and food value chain development for over at that point, 13, 14 years, we knew we have the capacity. We knew we had the ability to bring in just really great partners who frankly know more than we do about this work even. And so it's been exciting to see a small organization like ours be able to serve not only our region because there's huge impacts for our region clearly, but also serve and see ourselves as more than just a five county region. That we are a piece of the fabric of a much larger quilt, AKA multi-state national that all fit into this global conversation. And so that's...that's sometimes hard to envision. And I was really proud of our commissioners for trusting our team, who is a dynamic team, to manage something of this scale. And I can tell you, honestly, it's been not only as a result of the bragging that I did about AMS and USDA, but it's also been a result of these amazing partners because there were times they caught things that we never would have caught. And so...you know, the phrase you're building it as you fly it. A little bit is true in that space, but we got engineers, and pilots and we've got folks standing by with the parachutes. So we've got everybody on the plane that we need as we're building it and flying it. The engineers, the practitioners, the folks standing by with parachutes if we need them. So that's comforting.

Angela Anderson (20:00)

It sounds like, I think the thing that's the coolest, I guess, about it is that it's about food and all of us need to eat. And so it's a good connecting point in a time when we can choose to be on opposite sides of things, right? So I think it's really impactful in that regard that it is for all of us.

Cheryal Hills (20:17)

Yeah, I want to mention, I think it's really cool also how our center pulled together people like the Farmers Unions who are just amazing in their own rights and the North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota Farmers Unions couldn't be more collaborative in nature and wow, are they amazing key partners to really help create a governance structure that is co-created and co-decision making all along the way. So that's really wonderful. They have been amazing to try to help us figure out how to shift when we need to shift, right? Plan, do, learn, adjust. And they have been just great partners in that space. And they just come with so much other experiences that that was a wise move. Our evaluation team is also extremely unique. We, you know, we love what the universities do. And many of these regional food business centers are being driven by universities and sometimes extension offices, which do outstanding work. But I think what we wanted to do in this space was something a little bit different, not more of what's been done, but something different to impact the food value chain.

So one of the other things I think is really fun about and the nuances of this regional food business center is the even around evaluation and who has stepped up to the table and are interested in doing unique evaluation. We have a private sector firm, a creative community consulting that's doing it in the state of Minnesota. We also have a really amazing partners in North Dakota that are a North Dakota Women's Business Center who do a lot around matrix and evaluation, but not traditionally looked at for this kind of a federal award. And then in South Dakota, we are just extremely fortunate to be working with the Valuated Agricultural Development Center who also have so many skill benefits and strengths that they bring to this consortium of evaluators.

You know, we could have gone to a very traditional approach, but we opted to try folks who might have different lived experiences, different viewpoints, different approaches to thinking about evaluation in a more holistic way and including areas of land conservation and etc. So it was really exciting to have the technical assistance advisors and and like the Specialty Producers Group and Akiptan and Latino Economic Development Organization to really be great advisors, but then couple that with a really unique evaluation team and then all of these technical assistance providers, over 20 of them across the three states, it's creating a different system, a different way with different partners that compliment what the universities are already doing through extension.

And we had just really hoped to have an effort that added value to the work that was happening with new voices, new experiences, new strengths. And I think that's been achieved with the amazing partners that you're seeing. I'm really proud of the regions as well, where one region would say, look, we just don't have the capacity to do this right now. And that's the reality of the busy times of which we're in.

Another region, neighboring region would say, hey, I'll work with you. I'll help you with your region to make sure you're served. And so that's really exciting that all points of these three states found a way to partner with groups like farms and others to really. We have a unique organization in Minnesota, Northspan, who does great work in the northeast part of our state, but maybe hadn't been involved in something with this kind of a unique set of partners before. That's going to create relationships that really transcend the life of this award, which for me is as exciting as the number of businesses, the number of pounds of food, the number of vehicle miles traveled, the number of jobs. All of those things are important, but the our ability to sustain this work beyond the life of this award will be the ultimate success or failure indicator of this USDA investment.

Angela Anderson (27:37)

Thank you, Cheryal. I I would like to let everyone know that you can learn more at our North Central Regional Food Business Center. That is north central R-F-B-C dot org. 

Cheryal Hills (28:04)

Yeah, thank you very much Angela and thanks to all the partners in USDA and partners like our department, partners like our state departments of agriculture that have just walked alongside us the entire way and we're grateful.

Angela Anderson (25:06)

The content of this podcast episode is solely the responsibility of the Region Five Development Commission and does not necessarily represent the official views of the United States Department of Agriculture.

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