SCALE, Inc worked with the Leopold Center from April of 2010 through February 2011 as a speaker, trainer and consultant to the Center and three of its regional food groups. The consultation began with a keynote address at the Leopold Center’s annual meeting in April in Des Moines, a gathering that included nearly 200 farmers, University and Extension staff, small businesses and local foods advocates.
“Based on requests from several of our food system partners across the state, we brought Anthony back to Iowa for focused consulting work, following his keynote presentation at our annual meeting. His set of skills stood out from others that we were considering to work with our local food businesses and practitioners. Based on the feedback we’ve received from them, there is no question that we’d bring him to Iowa again!”
In November, SCALE worked intensively on-site with three regional food groups in different parts of Iowa, each linked to the Leopold Center. This consultation was customized for each group (using email and conference calls in advance) to better meet their stage of development, with a common focus on increasing the scale of both food production and markets. Farmers markets, value chain development and working with existing food businesses to enhance aggregation and distribution were among the topics explored during these training sessions. Two of the groups also engaged SCALE for follow-up consultation by phone.
The contract concluded with a webinar lead by Rich Pirog, Associate Director of the Center, and SCALE’s Anthony Flaccavento, along with three other consultants involved in food system work.