Protein Puzzle Short Course - New England Beef-to-Institution Initiative Chelsea Bardot Lewis Senior Agricultural Development Coordinator Vermont Agency of Agriculture

1. NEW ENGLAND BEEF-
TO—INSTITUTION
INITIATIVE

2. THE BARRIER
 Producers express difficulty in
accessing appropriately scaled
processing
 Special equipment required for
processing procedures required
by institutional market
 Regulatory literacy

3. NEW ENGLAND BEEF-TO INSTITUTION
INITIATIVE
New England Beef
Market Study
Regional
Leadership
Building
Pilot project

4. RESEARCH TEAM
Kate
Rumley
Rose Charlene Louise
Wilson Andersen Calderw
Rosalie ood
Kamigo
J. Marketing Everyth
Wilson LLC ing
Busines Agricul
s ture
Develop
ment
Service

5. PROCESSORS SERVICING INSTITUTIONS
Prod
Proce Use
ucer Loc
Processor ssor Distri
Mode al
Model butor
l
Baretta
x
Provisions, CT
Litchfield
x
Locker, CT
Herring
x x x x
Brothers, ME
Sanford’s
Butcher Shop, x x
ME
Royal
x x
Butcher, VT

6. PREFERRED PRODUCT FORM

7. SOURCE PREFERENCE

8. PURCHASING DECISION POINTS

9. RECOMMENDED MODELS
Producer-driven Processor-driven
• Small scale volume • Create markets
• Involved in sales • Optimize resources
• Beef- selling on • Culls as costs
features and benefits of • Volume based
the meat not just local • Competitive price
• Premium price
• Local is the
• Institution seeks local feature/benefit
• Relationship, • Existing channels
Community & Education • Positive impact on
building many
• Logistical hurdles
• Slow adoption process

10. IMPLEMENTATION
 6 State Leads
 Monthly networking calls
 Compiling success stories
 Competitive Grant for Regional Pilot Project
 Integration into FINE network

11. SUCCESS STORY
 “The Burlington Meatball”
 Burlington School Food Project (BSFP) & Burlington School District
(11 schools)
 2010-2011: 2000 #; 2011-2012: 4000 # local beef (demand
is 10,000 # annually)
 Price points
 $2.50/# raw meat sold from processor to 2 nd processor NPC
 $1.50/# for NPC to make into meatballs
 $1.30/# for delivery by Reinhardt
 Total paid by school: $5.30/#

12. BURLINGTON MEATBALL PILOT
 Keys to success
 Dedicated Food Service Director
 Local processor able to seek competitive price
 2 nd processor, NPC that was willing to work on meatball, beef
crumble, and taco meat recipe variations that kids would eat
 Frozen product allows for year-round availability
 Future challenges
 Still cannot access enough local beef (at the right price) to meet
ensure District demand (only anticipating 40% local beef for current
school year).
 Limited by processing capacity (not highly profitable for processor)