Small Bites
June 15, 2023

Creating opportunities to amplify & sell VT products to buyers in the northeast & beyond through regional relationships
It is mid-June. The season of five senses at stores & farms.
 
Schools are ending for the season, strawberries are ripe, stores are prepped for summer traffic, farms have harvested spring crops & high summer crops are in the ground.
 
Produce Departments across the state & the region regal the joys of the season. I can speak from experience that there are actual thrills of pure joy when farmers deliver DSD to stores. Produce staff are heavily invested in the emotions of receiving fresh, "squeaky" greens, early pea in pods all in uniform sizes that also tell the story of their freshness through their sound, the turgid greens on early root crops like radish & hakurei turnips says "summer". The smell & taste of fresh strawberries is intoxicating for workers! The senses come alive at the farm level too, with the scent & feel of soil tilth. The produce rinse water transitions visually from murky to clear in successive baths prepping for sale & distribution. Of course, there is the sound of cash-out at the end of the day when the sales are tallied at the farmstand & at stores!
 
Read on for more signs of the times, be it the roadside signs, current food related issues, or the creative ways folks engage at stores & with their distributors, Remember, we welcome you to share a thing or two with us in upcoming Bites. This includes our regional partners too!
Signs of the Times

Summer season begins! Stores of all sizes utilize several marketing tools to reach sales goals. In-store promotions can be designed around key promotional strategies such as cross merchandising, prominent endcap displays that feature complimentary products, & vendor in-person product demos. The demos create memorable experiences for the shopper & a sense of reciprocity leading to sales.
 
Mark Mulcahy, a friend of Farm to Plate & a national leader in developing retail sales capacity, has long been a proponent of the shared experience with demos & sampling. Increased sales are a given. The customer engagement through multi-sensory experiences between the vendor & the shopper show up in POS data.
 
In-store signage is another important piece of the customer experience that generates sales. Too many signs & they become "wallpaper" a retail term used to suggest they aren't seen because there are too many to read, they simply become a noisy backdrop. Clear, clean signage is a must at all displays & when sampling & doing in-store demos.
"Put a product on sale & sales double. Add a demo & sales increase 10 fold,
Add coupons to the demo of a product on sale & sales increase 20 times!"
-Mark Mulcahy
Organic Options
The Times They are a Changing

Updating outreach tools to improve marketing & sales is important throughout all aspects of getting food on store shelves. In these times streamlining the sales interface is critical. Time is money. Store buyers are busy. Having an easy-to-navigate customer relationship management platform is key to repeat purchases of products.
 
Recently Food Connects changed their online ordering to better meet the needs of internal product management & offering new tools for store buyers. All of this is to help create stronger sales with product photos, easier ordering functions, & more extensive searching & sorting, making reordering easier. Overall, there are better analysis tools, & streamlined billing along with new payment options. This is a sign of the times: upgrading ordering platforms with new technology.
Woods Market Garden reopened in Brandon. They have incorporated lessons from their training in the Farmer as Retailer winter training session from Farm to Plate & VAAFM. With the goal of creating efficient operations, great displays, procuring local products from distributors & attention to detail, they are off to a great start!
Signs of the Times:
The Return of In-person Trainings

Creating dynamic sales requires investing in staff. More & more stores & farms are reclaiming training as a staff motivator. The ramp for reengaging with training has been slow since 2020. Call it covid-caution or just running skeletal staffing teams, but now folks are reigniting the flame that training provides. Consultants, trade organizations, & distributors welcome back personalized engagement.
 
Of course, now we have become accustomed to attending training live-online, in-person, as well as utilizing on-demand topical video sessions. Trainings help identify opportunities for operational efficiencies, support staff wellbeing & improving overall understanding of basic business principles tied to the complex web of how food goes from farms through processing & manufacturing into different distribution options & onto store shelves.
 
All of this is a lot to take in, yet training professionalizes store operations leading to measuring success in multiple ways. 
Garuka Bars: a Summer must-have for hikers, boaters, & hammock loungers
Category Mgt: Summer Treats

Adventuring Season in Vermont has started. OK, it's not only Vermont! For all our readers across the country we know there are tons of fun summer snacks, we just happen to be partial to our own handcrafted, small batch goodies to take on the go.
 
Summer activities call for nutrient dense foods or maybe just good ol' fun snacks. Think Battenkill Wholesome, Maple Wind Farm's summer sausage made from pastured raised beef products, YOLO maple popcorn, or perhaps your store or farmstand could prominently display Slopeside Syrup's 'Untapped' Maple Waffle, based on the classic Dutch treat. Many of these are available through our regional distributors, DSD, or through online sales channels, including Mable. Up your summer fun food sales, think lakeside breakfasts with Klinger's Maple Pull-Aparts; they are crazy good & worthy of prominent shelf space.
 
If you need product ideas to expand your VT foods, reach out to us at the Grocer Project of Farm to Plate. We have been updating a producer database to help buyers find local companies. - we can find VT products to fit your needs.
Wilcox =Summer

Frozen novelties from Wilcox round out summer inventory. The 802 Bars & sorbets are pure Vermont. In addition to ice cream, they make non-dairy desserts with seasonal flavors.
 
Wilcox sends their fleet of trucks to nearly every corner of the state & into NY shipping not only their SKUs but also frozen products from other companies via BOL or as inventory.
Pay Attention

The great debate on hydroponics in Organic has been going on for 13 years. 2010 was the first time that the NOSB seriously considered the issue. Their answer was clear. Hydroponics can NOT be considered organic. In fact, it was not even a debate. Read more on current issues to stay informed. All stores are welcome to join & support ROP. Here is the 2022 list of VT Real Organic Certified Farms. Look closely at the picture above & you will notice the Ripton store has a ROP sign out front! YAY!
Migrant Justice has an annual campaign to educate stores & shoppers on the state of our dairy workers. Support their mission with the tools, resources & goods provided by Milk with Dignity.
Signs along the way: trucks move our food within the state & to all corners of New England
Looking for business skills support?

Business Sense, is a six-module series providing essential tools & resources for small businesses. The series accelerates growth while expanding leadership capacities. Check out the resources such as Human Resource skills development.
Food Hub Jobs

Are you good with operational puzzles? Like different variables every day? Have leadership skills? Love food? Lots of great leadership positions available at Food Connects, Farm Connex & if you want to take what you learned here in VT & head elsewhere, become the executive director at the Local Food Hub in Charlottesville, VA.
Around the Room
At the Vermont Specialty Food Association's annual meeting in early June, the room was a buzz with food manufacturers talking shop among each other, & with business advisers & distributors.
 
UNFI also had a recent gathering of buyers & vendors introducing their products. Numerous local businesses showcased products with the support & assistance of Equinox Food Brokers. It's this type of engagement that aligns with their goal, to help make small food producers more successful by increasing sales via ensuring healthy growth. EFB helps food producers promote their products, reach distribution & sales goals all while saving time & money.  
 
EcoBean & Greens, FinAllie Ferments, Sugar Bob's Finest Kind are some of the businesses reaching buyers through in-person events such as distributor tradeshows & trade group meetings. Area distributors that carry these companies include Associated Buyers, & Food Connects, UNFI, & Alberts. 
The New England State Food System Planners Partnership (AKA New England Feeding New England) commissioned a goal for the region to produce & consume 30% of its food by 2030. Included in the partnership are Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund/Vermont Farm to Plate, Food Solutions New England, & five other state-level organizations. In the release of the June 6th report, you will find loads of 'market channel' info & data on retail grocers & distribution of food in New England.
We recently lost two giants in our local food efforts with the passing of Howard Wilcox of the famed 'original Vermont Ice Cream' & Mary Manghis who for 20 years steered local produce buying at City Market in Burlington. Seven Days wrote a lovely piece on Howard & the historic ties of place & the family business.
 
Known as the “flavor master,” Howard Wilcox was the mastermind behind varieties such as mocha mud pie and raspberry cheesecake. The company distributes its tubs at more than 60 locations across the state, from chains such as Price Chopper and Hannaford to quaint general stores.
 
Mary was also very special. She was instrumental in steering our local food economy with her dedication to our farmers, wildcraft harvesters, her team approach & willingness to never stop learning as the food system changed over her 20 years.
 
Farm to Plate recognizes that it is our people, our relationships that make this state such a powerhouse when it comes to our 'Vermont Foods Brand'. Our people, collectively, make us outstanding. We convey our deepest sympathies to the friends & families of Mary & Howard. 
“Howard and his family … were always thinking about the future, the next project. Howard loved to make ice cream. He was very, very good at making ice cream.” -Anson Tebbets
June is Dairy Month

If you missed the May 31st Seven Days covering the many inter-related topics of dairy & the economic variables tied to our state, please read the extensive coverage here. The team of journalists did a fantastic job helping folks better understand the complexities of farming & the relevance to our economy.

Dairy farming occupies three-quarters of Vermont's working agricultural landscape and has been a leading industry since the 19th century. Its impacts are all around us: the rolling green pastures and ramshackle, slate-roofed barns; the smell of manure on fields in springtime; and, of course, creemees. -Matthew Roy 7 Days
Crooked Mile Cheese one of our state's small-scale producers is seeking to expand sales. It is a family-run micro-dairy goat farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. The animals are raised in a healthy & happy environment resulting in superior milk that makes quality cheese. The farm welcomes inquiries from stores & farmstands. They will continue to evaluate accounts based on distribution variables.
Farmer as Retailer

Around the state locals & travelers are seeing many roadside signs encouraging visits. Each farm is unique in its products, signage, & farmyard ‘curb’ appeal. Our farm visitors are so important to farm viability. AgTourism Tools from UVM Extension are used to create memorable & safe on-farm experiences for farms across the country.
Are You Tired of the New Normal?

Ready for big transformation to reclaim small food & food adjacent businesses? Contact your state representatives about the pressures & impact of the fallout from the lack of regulation as the Robinson-Patman Act dissolved under industry pressure in the 1970's. To learn more, read this excellent Opinion piece by Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
Small Bites comes to you via USDA & High Meadows grants. Content is created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales
Small Bites supports the New England State Food System Planners Partnership
Contact: Annie Harlow
smallbites802@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, photo credits are from company social media, websites or Annie Harlow
Photo & Artistic Credits:
Mary Manghis Courtesy of Glenn Eames
Howard Wilcox, courtesy of the Wilcon family & Seven Days

All info is subject to change; thank you to all who contributed to this issue