Local food in Minneapolis - how to make it happen
RED Market is where the action is.
My advice to help it along:
Channeling my friend Peter Woo:
- Technology upkeep will be more than you expect
- In part therefore: You need a plan to grow to be sustainable
He and i argue about the need to grow to be sustainable, but ability to pay oneself properly and hire and train one’s replacement are the bare minimum, and that requires a certain scale, and scale brings costs of its own. Peter would be an awesome business mentor, i’m figuring the program your in has got you pretty well set up, but if not, i can introduce.
Channeling Seth Godin:
- If you have 10,000 people who support what you’re doing, and want it to succeed in general, you will be able to find a way to be a sustainable.
That’s part of why i say to be certain to use all the publicity you will generate trying to get restaurants signed up to give people a way to connect directly with you also; even if the restaurant angle doesn’t pan out as hoped, if you have thousands of people who want more local food grown and eaten. Maybe that seems a little broad but i don’t think anyone else is in that space, is there? So own it! (I only found https://localcrate.com/ and https://eatgoodathome.com/ and https://www.mnlocavore.com/ even close searching for “local food minneapolis”. And none put purpose first. And maybe https://www.slowfoodmn.org/ but that didn’t come up in search and their page on local referenced in http://w.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@cped/documents/webcontent/convert_269947.pdf is no longer even there.
Also noticed that a few restaurants bragging about local sourcing come up, like https://www.harrietsinn.com and https://www.commonrootscatering.com — have you tried to see if already-committed restaurants would join the market just for the efficiencies… and perhaps for a little more recognition, even help on becoming the outspoken advocates you’re looking to find?)
And heck maybe go full blast for the solidarity / hybrid cooperative model, as you said; i think you even mentioned Our Table as a model?
And put as much of your research and plans and polemics as you can online. Yes i’m professionally biased but it’s a an inexpensive first step to finding your audience!