Raising the Grain: Reviving the Northeast Grainshed
Regional Food System Partnerships Program Fiscal Year 2020
Recipient: Tiny Seed Project, Inc., East Hardwick, VT
Project Type: Planning & Design
Award Amount: $246,893
Match Amount: $171,309
Total Project Amount: $418,202
Raising Grain: Reviving the Northeast Grainshed
The Northeast Grainshed Partnership consists of a diverse and growing number of key stakeholders in the Northeast (New England, New Jersey, and New York) regional grain system: grain growers, processors, producers, organizations, institutions, researchers, and the public. The Partnership operates as a networking hub and planning initiative, primarily to connect grain-related businesses and organizations. The Partnership’s vision is to revive a functional and resilient regional grain system.
The project goals are to:
• Establish a framework for a regional grain system, leveraging the Northeast Grainshed as both a networking hub for partnership stakeholders and a planning initiative that connects businesses and consumers.
• Unite the Northeast region under one staple crop `brand’ through a coordinated consumer awareness and education campaign to bring attention to the Northeast’s unique contribution to the local food industry and increase demand for regionally produced and processed grains.
The Partnership will meet both goals through our collective expertise, experience, and enthusiasm among grain growers, private industry partners, non-profits, and land grant universities. For example, GrowNYC, a project partner, has 50 years of experience supporting New Yorkers in accessing local food through their Greenmarkets network.
Over the project period, the Partnership will develop an Action Plan with methods to achieve the following: increased communication and networking between farms and grain-based businesses; a consumer education campaign to raise the profile of regional grains; identification of stakeholder needs, missing or weak links in the regional grain system, and missing partners; and development of a framework for a Northeast regional grain system.
GRANT PARTNERS:
Applicant and Grant Coordinators:
Emily Cayer and Laura Stone at Tiny Seed Project, Inc.
Partners and Affiliation:
Matthew Hoffman, Amy Carrington and 2 interns at University of Southern Maine
Tony Rosenfeld and Mateo Valez at One Mighty Mill
Andrea Stanley at Valley Malt and Ground Up Grain
Len Bussanich, Mike Hozer and Larry Mahmarian at River Valley Community Grains
June Russell at GrowNYC Grains
Mark Sorrels, Cheryl Thayer, Gary Bergstrom, Aaron Gabriel, Christian Malsatszki at Cornell University
Aaron MacLeod at Hartwick College
Amy Halloran – Author
Tom Adams at Reelife Productions
Lylee Rauch-Kacenski and Silene DeCiucies at Center for an Agricultural Economy
Heather Darby at UVM Coop Extension
Peter Allison at Farm to Institution New England
Ellen Mallory at University of Maine
Francis Domoy at Domoy Farms
Nadine Magac, Action Plan Coordinator
Cassandra Malis at The Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation, Chatham University
Alyssa Hartman at Artisan Grain Collaborative