NATIONAL GOOD FOOD NETWORK: REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Application Deadline: June 16, 2008

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The Wallace Center at Winrock International serves the growing community of civic, business, and philanthropic organizations involved in building out a new good food system in the United States. In particular, the Center is focused on advancing regional, collaborative efforts to move good food – healthy, green, fair, affordable food – beyond the direct-marketing realm into larger scale, wholesale channels.

To accomplish this, the Wallace Center is establishing a National Good Food Network that will:

1. Serve as a networking, communications, and information hub, providing practical information, learning models, and valuable connections for the broad range of groups involved in building a new good food system.

2. Stimulate development of important, on-the-ground nodes of the National Good Food Network by investing in regional groups and collaborative efforts engaged in scaling up sales of good food from direct markets to wholesale channels.

The Wallace Center seeks proposals from organizations and collaborative efforts to serve as Regional Lead Teams (RLT) for the National Good Food Network. Awards of up to $30,000 are available to a total of seven teams, which the Center will select both for their ability to accomplish regional objectives and their commitment to serving as important nodes of the National Good Food Network.

In addition to this initial funding, Regional Lead Teams will:

•Benefit from sharing information and contacts with each other and with other national network participants through the Wallace Center as network hub.

•Gain access to additional funding the Wallace Center may secure in its work to build the national network and regional teams. The Wallace Center’s intent is to increase funding for on-the-ground regional work as part of the National Good Food Network; at present, only the current $210,000 in seed funding for launching seven Regional Lead Teams is available.

•Cultivate and serve a regional community of practice; that is, a learning network of nonprofit, business, government, and philanthropic efforts to put more good food into markets of scale.

•Share innovative models and learning with the National Good Food Network for purposes of making practical knowledge available to other regions.

•Offer a central point for farms, buyers, and other good food participants in the region to find networking opportunities, training and technical assistance, and funding contacts.

•Expand the field of those actively engaged in building the region’s good food system (e.g. engage farmers, buyers, consultants, and organizations not currently engaged but who would benefit or have something to contribute).

•Establish and work with a Regional Steering Committee that includes representatives from across the marketing chain (from production through distribution and purchasing) and from key locations in the region.

•Participate in conference calls and meetings of the National Good Food Network (including at least one national gathering), monitor progress of good food efforts in the region, and provide data and other information needed for project evaluation and reporting.

•Set goals for and work towards the Regional Lead Team’s long-term sustainability.

Regional Lead Team applicants have the flexibility to design their work plans and budgets within the available funding limit and the required one-to-one match. Activities, however, must tie directly to facilitating movement of good food into larger-scale markets and must include ensuring this work also addresses the availability and affordability of good food for those with limited means.

Successful candidates will present a clear set of priorities and associated strategies and activities for accomplishing specific outcomes. Examples of activities that a Regional Lead Team might present in its plan include but are not limited to. 

• Convening regional meetings of regional growers, nongovernmental organizations, scaled-up retailers and/or food service institutions and potential funders as a way to build needed business and organizational relationships.

• Assessing and piloting strategies to overcome distribution barriers for selected crops or products.

• Assessing and piloting strategies to overcome lack of production of selected crops or products.

• Offering grower-readiness training for participating in larger scale marketing channels.

• Working along the value chain to build relationships among various players such as growers, retailers, and food service partners.

• Developing strategies for increasing access to good food for vulnerable children, families, and communities, such as educational and marketing programs and partnerships with retail stores and food service groups.

A one-to-one match is required. Matching funds can be a combination of cash or in-kind support. We encourage all applicants to leverage Wallace Center funds to secure additional resources in support of their work. Innovation and entrepreneurial approaches are encouraged.

Organizations most eligible for the role of Regional Lead Team are nonprofit organizations or collaborative groups able to demonstrate the following:

1. Proven experience at the local, state, regional, or national level in facilitating market relationships and movement of good food products, such as developing new “value chain” systems in which farms are strategic partners with distributors and buyers compared to traditional supply chains, in which farms are passive “price takers.”

2. Successful history of collaboration within and outside the applicant’s own region.

3. Verifiable competency and capacity for working on a regional level with a broad range of groups.

4. Organizational ability to provide fiscal accountability, develop goals and objectives, collect data, prepare reports, and apply other management skills needed to accomplish the full scope of the project.

5. Willingness to share information with the National Good Food Network and the media about the Regional Lead Team’s scope of work, activities, learning, and outcomes.

Multiple organizations may share leadership of a Regional Lead Team, if they wish. Such a group should provide a detailed description of the collaboration and related division of labor and budget in the application.

The application deadline is June 16, 2008. Eligible applicants are required to submit the following via email:

1. Cover page with full contact information and proof of nonprofit status.

2. A proposal narrative no more than five pages in length (single space, 12 point Times New Roman or Arial font), which provides:

• A brief overview of your organization and the role you currently play in food systems.

• A description of specific priorities for your region in the areas of marketing, networking, and training & technical assistance, including the level of interest in developing innovative models. Please note applicants will need to address some of these priorities when they describe their scope of work.

•A comprehensive work plan, including:

     o The priority(s) you propose to address.

     o Strategies you propose to use in fostering a regional community of practice, as well as addressing identified priority(s).

     o Activities you will undertake to implement the strategies. Include a timeline.

     o Results and outcomes you will strive to achieve and how you will measure them.

     o A list of your collaborators and partners in the region, including names and contact information, and their roles or potential roles in accomplishing your good food objectives.

     o Your plan for establishing and leveraging the knowledge and advice of a Regional Steering Committee. A minimum of five members is required. The committee must include a grower, a distributor, a retailer or food service buyer, and representatives from key locations in the region.

• Letters of support from potential collaborators across your region, specifying how they will support the proposed work plan. Letters of support are not counted in the five-page narrative limit.

• Your organization’s capacity for successfully serving as a Regional Lead Team. Please describe available staffing and complementary funding sources.

• A list of potential members to serve on the required Regional Steering Committee.

• Actions you will take to sustain your role as Regional Lead Team after the term of this Wallace Center grant.

• A proposed budget, covering at least 12 months, for use of Wallace Center funding of up to $30,000 and one-to-one matching funds.

The Wallace Center will notify all applicants via email by July 31, 2008 about final selections.

Please submit all proposals or questions about this Request for Proposals via email to:
Cari Beth Head
Communications Manager, Community Food Enterprise Initiative
Wallace Center at Winrock International
cbhead@winrock.org