Co-op Workshop April '13

Food Hubs and Co-ops: How Local Family Farms Can Feed Our Communities Series
Part One: How to Start an Online Food Cooperative

Agenda

Session Descriptions

Rebuilding Local Food Systems  Darryl Birkenfeld
For years, Ogallala Commons has worked to support local food systems in a variety of ways– hosting conferences on the topic, working to create Community Internships based on local food production, and providing education workshops and tools for gardeners. In 2011 OC began Project: Local Llano. Local Llano is a blog about all things local food in the Llano Estacado Region. It features nearly 60 stories about local food producers, gardening, recipes, restaurants, Community Supported Agriculture Programs, farmers markets and more. With support from Farm Aid, OC will begin the process of putting together a book about local foods in the Llano Estacado based on the Local Llano Blog.

Untapped Potential?: Consumer Demand for Local Foods  Vincent Amanor-Boadu
Coming soon!

Co-op 101: What is a co-op?  Bob Mailander
We all have childhood memories of parents, teachers and others encouraging us to work together. A co-op is what "working together" looks like all grown up. From the outside, many co-ops look like any other business, since a co-op provides products and services like conventional businesses do. But it's what goes on behind the scenes that makes it different.
A cooperative exists to serve its members, but what makes co-ops unique is that the members are also the owners. So, in addition to getting the products and services you need, you also have a say in the business decisions your cooperative makes. Rather than rewarding outside investors with its profits, a co-op returns surplus revenue to its members in proportion to how much they use the co-op. This democratic approach to business results in a powerful economic force that benefits the co-op, its members and the communities it serves.

The Story of the Oklahoma Food Co-op  Kim Barker
In 2003, Oklahoma Food Co-op modeled a unique approach to connect local consumers and producers. Its approach was to bring consumers and producers together as owners of a cooperative. Through the cooperative, they created an online, virtual marketplace where local products could be ordered and distributed. Together, the consumers and producers shared the costs and risks, as well as the benefits, of establishing a new community food system. Since its launch, at least 16 others have started similar operations using the Oklahoma Food Co-op as a model to organize their operations and using the open-source software developed by the Oklahoma Food Co-op to support their operations.

Exploring the Insurance Needs of Direct Marketing Farms  Jeff Downing
As farms grow and expand into new markets, general and product liability coverage may become an issue. The Midwest Regional Agency, provider of KFU member insurance, is interested in developing appropriate insurance products for family farms who market their products directly to consumers and to restaurants, retailers and institutions. Jeff joins us to learn more about our farms and the type of insurance we may need in the years ahead.

High Plains Food Co-op: Creating New Market Opportunities for Small Northwest Kansas Family Farms  Chris Schmidt and Chris Sramek
Since 2008, the High Plains Food Co-op has grown from 15 farms to 40, 30 customers to over 300 and is currently selling over 500 items online to the growing local food "healthy lifestyle" consumer market in Denver and several Front Range Communities. This has allowed these family farms to add $200 to $1,500 of additional monthly income to their operations and the co-op to meet its original three-year business plan. Currently, the co-op is working with USDA, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Kansas Department of Ag, University of Nebraska Food Processing Center and Advancing Rural Prosperity (ARPI) to create a 3 to 5 year expanded marketing, distribution, production and organizational development plan. This includes hands on production and expansion planning with 5 to 8 growth producers within the co-op, to significantly increase their incomes, thus allowing for employment of a new farmer or a family member to return to the farm. Other desired results of this effort are to increase co-op revenues to a long-term sustainable level, provide new opportunities to beginning or socially disadvantaged farmers, and be the connecting link between rural High Plains family farms and the local food distribution system that evolves in Denver and Front Range.

Starting an Online Food Co-op: Tips from the Trenches  Bob Mailander
Starting a cooperative is a complex project. It begins with discussions within the community about the economic need that will be addressed by the cooperative. Next, the group analyzes the feasibility of the proposed co-op. If the decision is made that the cooperative is feasible, the group moves into implementation and the start-up of operations. In his previous position as Director of the Rocky Mountain  Cooperative Development Center, Bob supported the High Plains Food Co-op during its development and implementation.

Curbside Consulting  

Speaker Bios

Vincent Amanor-Boadu
Director, Kansas Ag Innovation Center

 Dr. Amanor-Boadu is an associate professor of agribusiness economics and management at Kansas State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada and worked for nearly a decade as the Director of Research at the George Morris Centre, an independent agri-food think-tank in Canada. His research and outreach efforts encompass business development and entrepreneurship, technology and innovation, and strategic management, with emphasis on inter-organizational relationships. Vincent teaches Economics and Management of Food Manufacturing, Distribution and Retailing (AGEC 570) and Advanced Food and Agribusiness Management (AGEC 890).  Vincent also conducts seminars on strategic thinking and visioning, change management, and mechanisms of governance.

Kim Barker

Kim Barker has been managing the family farm since 1970.  He and his wife, Norene have 3 grown daughters.  One daughter and son-in-law are presently working with him and another daughter plans to be with them soon.  They began direct marketing grassfed beef and lamb years 15 ago and now sell Mangalitsa and Berkshire pork, chickens, eggs, and turkeys under their Walnut Creek Farms label.  Kim has been involved with sustainable agriculture for 25 years and local foods for 20 years.  Kim has been on many food and agriculture related boards and is working to bring more young people into agriculture.


Darryl Birkenfeld, Ph.D.
Director, Ogallala Commons

Dr. Birkenfeld works as a community developer and educator. In recent years, he has worked extensively in rebuilding local and regional food systems, creating public education conferences, conducting local field days, and developing youth engagement projects. Birkenfeld also does extensive work in water conservation education, and has helped coordinate and build OC's Community Internship Program into 60 interns in 6 states in 2013.
www.ogallalacommons.org

Jeffrey Downing
General Manager, Midwest Regional Agency
A a young boy Jeff grew up on a small hog and cattle farm in Missouri.  When his family moved to Iowa he lived in a small rural community and through high school and college worked as a hand on area farms.  Jeff has spent 26 years in the insurance industry as an agent and as a district manager.  He was recently appointed general manager of the Midwest Regional Agency where he and his agents in Kansas and Nebraska work to insure and protect individuals in farming communities from property, liability and crop losses that would impact their ability to continue their standard of living.

Robert Mailander
Former Director, Rocky Mountain Cooperative Development Center

Bob Mailander was born and raised on his family’s farm in Eastern Colorado. After finishing college with a degree in accounting, Bob served two years in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, as a Peace Corps Volunteer working with coffee and cacao producers to establish cooperatives to process and market their crops. He returned to the United States and began a farming career raising wheat, corn and beans. He has been an active member of the many cooperatives in his community and served on several boards of directors. Bob has served on statewide boards of the Ground Water Commission, the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and the State Land Board. In 1997 he became the Director of the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Development Center. The Center is dedicated to helping sustain the viability of rural producers and their communities.  The emphasis of the work is primarily on establishing value added agricultural cooperatives to increase the incomes of farmers and ranchers. In 2007, Bob joined the Governor’s Energy Office as the Regional Representative for the Eastern Plains. He promoted energy conservation and efficiency as well as small renewable energy systems in rural communities. Bob retired in 2011, but now spends time volunteering and helping out on his farm in Logan County.

Dan Nagengast
Owner, Seeds from Italy

Dan Nagengast has farmed and promoted productive, personal agriculture his entire life.  He served as the Kansas Rural Center's executive director for twenty years, continuing to farm throughout.  Prior to that he dealt directly with hunger issues, both in the U.S. and abroad, serving as director of the Kansas Church World Service office, and working with farmers in remote villages in several countries over the course of eight years in West Africa.  He grew up in Western Nebraska on a diversified family farm and has been observing the changes in farming systems, in the Midwest and in peasant cultures, his entire life.  He and his wife, Lynn Byczynski, live, farm, and run their two businesses - Growing For Market, a magazine for market farmers; and Seeds From Italy, which imports Italian vegetable and cut flower seeds - outside Lawrence, Kansas.

Chris Schmidt
President, High Plains Food Co-op

Chris farms and ranches in far Northwest Kansas, near Atwood where his family raises corn, wheat, cane and has a cow herd and stocker operation. Chris and his wife, Sherri, were instrumental in the formation of the High Plains Food Co-op of which they are charter members. They market all natural beef, free range chickens and eggs through the co-op and directly to customers locally and ship their meat nationwide. Chris has served as President of the High Plains Food Co-op for the past 4 years. He is also currently on the Board of Directors of the Kansas Farmers Union. Chris and Sherri are parents of four grown children and have eight grandchildren.


Chris Sramek
Vice President of Consumers, High Plains Food Co-op

A charter member of the High Plains Food Co-op, Chris was raised on the  Sramek Family Farm in far northwest Rawlins County Kansas and is a graduate of Atwood High School Class of 1990 and University of Nebraska - Lincoln B.S. Meteorology / Climatology 1995. A meteorologist by profession, he is also a KECI business coach for aspiring rural Kansas entrepreneurs. He has 18 years experience managing a private weather business and co-managing the family farm along with his five siblings. They are 5th generation Rawlins County farmers, dating back to 1889 when the Vaclav and Joseph Sramek families migrated from Czechoslovakia. Chris served as Rawlins County Economic Development Director from 2005 to 2009, where many programs and new initiatives were implemented to create a more entrepreneurial environment for his hometown of Atwood, Kansas.  This included organizing and forming the High Plains Food Co-op.
Highland Community College’s Klinefelter Barn, 1774 230th St., Hiawatha, KS


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A $25.00 Registration fee will be charged to cover expenses, food and handouts.  A chuck wagon lunch and refreshments will be served.


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