Building the Capacity of Farmers and Food System Leaders in Tucson, Arizona

At the request of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, SCALE, Inc president, Anthony Flaccavento provided a week of on-site training and technical assistance to area farmers, along with a brief capacity assessment and guidance to the Food Bank's staff and board members. Farmer training was focused on increasing both the productivity and profitability of a core group of small farmers working with the food bank to supply emerging markets in the Tucson area. As part of that, SCALE updated two grower planning tools it had previously created, including a production planning tool and a crop enterprise budgeting spreadsheet. Additionally, SCALE worked with the board and staff of the Community Food Bank to increase their understanding of the challenges and requirements of operating a food aggregation and distribution business, which they were in the process of launching.