Foodshed Cultivator: Increasing Institutional Purchasing of Local Farm Food
Local family farms restore the health & vitality of land, people and communities – ensuring long-term ecological resilience and mutual thriving for all life in a bioregion. Western North Carolina is home to 5,000 family farms, several food aggregators & distributors, and 40 farmers’ markets. Yet only 4% of the food purchased in this region is produced here. Blue Ridge Foodshed Commons is a public benefit LLC founded in 2025 to catalyze a thriving food economy centered around small-scale family farms in WNC. Moving beyond traditional fragmented charity, we guide local food leaders to operate as an interconnected ecosystem. We channel funding and other resources into multi-stakeholder grassroots initiatives, strengthening the relationships and infrastructure that will enable WNC to shift local food purchasing from 4% to at least 25% by 2035. Core stewards Holly, Andrea & Jean-Paul embody a unique synergy of expertise in regenerative food & farming, entrepreneurship, and finance.
Realize Impact is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2013 with a mission to fund and support impactful enterprises tackling the world's most pressing social and environmental challenges. Our three core programs include fiscal sponsorship, philanthropic investing, and impact fund management. All three programs further our mission to relieve poverty, create jobs, and improve social and environmental health by utilizing philanthropic dollars to support the charitable impact of companies that lack access to financing from conventional sources. Since 2020, we have moved over $100 million of philanthropic capital into impact investments around the globe.
Project story
The Challenge
Western North Carolina is home to 5,000 family farms, nearly a dozen established food hubs, and 40 farmers' markets — an unusually strong foundation for a regional food economy. Yet only 4% of the food purchased in this region is produced here.
The gap isn't a lack of farms or infrastructure. What's missing are the coordinated systems, economic structures, and shared operational capacity that would allow food hubs to work together to connect local farmers to the larger, more consistent buyers who could sustain them.
The largest institutions in our region — school districts, universities, and hospitals — are precisely those consistent, high-volume buyers. Yet they purchase almost exclusively through national distributors with supply chains that stretch across the country. Shifting even a fraction of that purchasing to local farms would create the stable sales outlets that allow small family farms to plan, invest, and thrive.
The Solution
Food hubs are the key to making that shift possible. They provide the critical infrastructure to safely and efficiently connect local farms to institutional buyers — aggregating across multiple farms, coordinating cold chain logistics and delivery schedules, supporting crop planning, and navigating the compliance requirements that institutions demand. They are the connective tissue of a regional food economy.
WNC already has a strong base of food hub infrastructure. What has been missing is coordination among those hubs — shared capacity, aligned logistics, and the deep mutual trust needed to pursue institutional purchasing together at scale.
Food hub leaders across WNC have the knowledge and experience to transform how our region feeds itself. What they rarely have is the time, the resources, and the room to work on the system rather than just in it.
The Foodshed Cultivator
Launching in June 2026, the first cohort of the Foodshed Cultivator will bring regional food hub leaders together for six months in an immersive experience to build the relationships and shared capacity needed to increase institutional purchasing, strengthen regional food system infrastructure, and develop business models that are self-sustaining rather than dependent on grants or subsidies — all while keeping money circulating locally.
Four of the region’s most established food hubs, serving the bulk of WNC’s most populous counties, have already committed to this journey. These are the people who know our local food system from the front lines. Together they will put that knowledge toward co-creating the systemic changes that allow our region to feed itself from local farms.
And critically, the WNC Food Coalition — the region's leading nonprofit focused on strengthening food hubs and advancing institutional purchasing — has also committed to participate. Their research, relationships, and regional reach are essential to translating the cohort's work into lasting systemic change.
The group will meet in person for ½ day each month, and in monthly 90-minute calls online. The cohort will be supported by a professional facilitator and project manager, ensuring the six-month journey is structured for maximum impact.
Our work will be focused on two strategic priorities:
Strengthen and integrate the local food supply chain — Reduce inefficiencies, map infrastructure gaps, expand capacity, and coordinate logistics between food hubs across the region.
Increase institutional purchasing of local farm food — Build the systems and relationships needed to safely deliver significant quantities of local farm food to schools, hospitals, and universities in WNC.
Intended Outcomes
By the end of 2026, the food hub participants will have:
Deepened relationships of trust with each other and a shared understanding of the regional system as a whole
Mapped current infrastructure and identified what is needed to support institutions shifting 25% of their food procurement budget to local sources — a commitment several regional universities have already expressed
Developed financial models for increased infrastructure capacity, including cold storage, refrigerated transportation, light processing, and GAP certification
Identified technology solutions for institutional ordering and multi-hub fulfillment
Mapped pathways for local procurement by regional institutions, including the status of multi-year contracts and the stated needs of individual buyers
Produced a detailed regional roadmap with staged phases, timelines, and specific steps for the region as a whole and for each participating food hub
Who We Are
Blue Ridge Foodshed Commons was founded to be the connective tissue between funders and food system leaders in WNC — channeling resources into grassroots initiatives with the relationships and credibility to use them well.
Andrea DuVall spent 13 years as CEO and co-founder of Mother Earth Food, one of WNC's pioneering food hubs, navigating every dimension of regional food infrastructure — from farm aggregation and cold chain logistics to institutional partnerships and cross-hub collaboration. She brings deep, hard-won relationships with farmers and food hub leaders across the region.
Holly McCann brings 30 years of executive leadership across three careers, now applied to designing the legal, governance, and operational architecture for the emerging food economy. Jean-Paul Lausell brings 20+ years in CFO, COO, and CEO roles — including in local food and farming — building the financial models that make regenerative vision economically viable.
Fundraising Goals
The Foodshed Cultivator is a venture studio for nurturing our local food ecosystem. Unlike most venture studios, however, no equity stakes are taken – the multiple forms of return flow to the participant organizations and our entire foodshed. And we don’t take any fees. In fact, we are paying each participating organization $5,000 ~ honoring their time, expertise, and the knowledge they bring to the whole.
The budget for the first cohort of the Foodshed Cultivator is $35,000. This covers the $5,000 stipends for five participating organizations, professional facilitation and project management, work-style assessments for each participant, food for the monthly in-person gatherings, journals for participants to track their journey, and a small thank-you gift for the land steward who has generously donated use of their sacred land for our in-person gatherings.
We have already received a $5,000 microgrant from Resilient Futures Co-Lab, meaning that our fundraising goal is $30,000.
One more thing worth naming: none of these funds go to us. Blue Ridge Foodshed Commons operates on philanthropic grants that cover our operating expenses, which means every dollar raised here flows directly to the food hub leaders and partners doing this work. No overhead. No administrative cut. Just resources going directly to building a self-sustaining regional food economy centered around local family farms.
Project updates
Team
Foodshed Cultivator: Increasing Institutional Purchasing of Local Farm Food
Local family farms restore the health & vitality of land, people and communities – ensuring long-term ecological resilience and mutual thriving for all life in a bioregion. Western North Carolina is home to 5,000 family farms, several food aggregators & distributors, and 40 farmers’ markets. Yet only 4% of the food purchased in this region is produced here. Blue Ridge Foodshed Commons is a public benefit LLC founded in 2025 to catalyze a thriving food economy centered around small-scale family farms in WNC. Moving beyond traditional fragmented charity, we guide local food leaders to operate as an interconnected ecosystem. We channel funding and other resources into multi-stakeholder grassroots initiatives, strengthening the relationships and infrastructure that will enable WNC to shift local food purchasing from 4% to at least 25% by 2035. Core stewards Holly, Andrea & Jean-Paul embody a unique synergy of expertise in regenerative food & farming, entrepreneurship, and finance.
Realize Impact is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2013 with a mission to fund and support impactful enterprises tackling the world's most pressing social and environmental challenges. Our three core programs include fiscal sponsorship, philanthropic investing, and impact fund management. All three programs further our mission to relieve poverty, create jobs, and improve social and environmental health by utilizing philanthropic dollars to support the charitable impact of companies that lack access to financing from conventional sources. Since 2020, we have moved over $100 million of philanthropic capital into impact investments around the globe.
Project story
The Challenge
Western North Carolina is home to 5,000 family farms, nearly a dozen established food hubs, and 40 farmers' markets — an unusually strong foundation for a regional food economy. Yet only 4% of the food purchased in this region is produced here.
The gap isn't a lack of farms or infrastructure. What's missing are the coordinated systems, economic structures, and shared operational capacity that would allow food hubs to work together to connect local farmers to the larger, more consistent buyers who could sustain them.
The largest institutions in our region — school districts, universities, and hospitals — are precisely those consistent, high-volume buyers. Yet they purchase almost exclusively through national distributors with supply chains that stretch across the country. Shifting even a fraction of that purchasing to local farms would create the stable sales outlets that allow small family farms to plan, invest, and thrive.
The Solution
Food hubs are the key to making that shift possible. They provide the critical infrastructure to safely and efficiently connect local farms to institutional buyers — aggregating across multiple farms, coordinating cold chain logistics and delivery schedules, supporting crop planning, and navigating the compliance requirements that institutions demand. They are the connective tissue of a regional food economy.
WNC already has a strong base of food hub infrastructure. What has been missing is coordination among those hubs — shared capacity, aligned logistics, and the deep mutual trust needed to pursue institutional purchasing together at scale.
Food hub leaders across WNC have the knowledge and experience to transform how our region feeds itself. What they rarely have is the time, the resources, and the room to work on the system rather than just in it.
The Foodshed Cultivator
Launching in June 2026, the first cohort of the Foodshed Cultivator will bring regional food hub leaders together for six months in an immersive experience to build the relationships and shared capacity needed to increase institutional purchasing, strengthen regional food system infrastructure, and develop business models that are self-sustaining rather than dependent on grants or subsidies — all while keeping money circulating locally.
Four of the region’s most established food hubs, serving the bulk of WNC’s most populous counties, have already committed to this journey. These are the people who know our local food system from the front lines. Together they will put that knowledge toward co-creating the systemic changes that allow our region to feed itself from local farms.
And critically, the WNC Food Coalition — the region's leading nonprofit focused on strengthening food hubs and advancing institutional purchasing — has also committed to participate. Their research, relationships, and regional reach are essential to translating the cohort's work into lasting systemic change.
The group will meet in person for ½ day each month, and in monthly 90-minute calls online. The cohort will be supported by a professional facilitator and project manager, ensuring the six-month journey is structured for maximum impact.
Our work will be focused on two strategic priorities:
Strengthen and integrate the local food supply chain — Reduce inefficiencies, map infrastructure gaps, expand capacity, and coordinate logistics between food hubs across the region.
Increase institutional purchasing of local farm food — Build the systems and relationships needed to safely deliver significant quantities of local farm food to schools, hospitals, and universities in WNC.
Intended Outcomes
By the end of 2026, the food hub participants will have:
Deepened relationships of trust with each other and a shared understanding of the regional system as a whole
Mapped current infrastructure and identified what is needed to support institutions shifting 25% of their food procurement budget to local sources — a commitment several regional universities have already expressed
Developed financial models for increased infrastructure capacity, including cold storage, refrigerated transportation, light processing, and GAP certification
Identified technology solutions for institutional ordering and multi-hub fulfillment
Mapped pathways for local procurement by regional institutions, including the status of multi-year contracts and the stated needs of individual buyers
Produced a detailed regional roadmap with staged phases, timelines, and specific steps for the region as a whole and for each participating food hub
Who We Are
Blue Ridge Foodshed Commons was founded to be the connective tissue between funders and food system leaders in WNC — channeling resources into grassroots initiatives with the relationships and credibility to use them well.
Andrea DuVall spent 13 years as CEO and co-founder of Mother Earth Food, one of WNC's pioneering food hubs, navigating every dimension of regional food infrastructure — from farm aggregation and cold chain logistics to institutional partnerships and cross-hub collaboration. She brings deep, hard-won relationships with farmers and food hub leaders across the region.
Holly McCann brings 30 years of executive leadership across three careers, now applied to designing the legal, governance, and operational architecture for the emerging food economy. Jean-Paul Lausell brings 20+ years in CFO, COO, and CEO roles — including in local food and farming — building the financial models that make regenerative vision economically viable.
Fundraising Goals
The Foodshed Cultivator is a venture studio for nurturing our local food ecosystem. Unlike most venture studios, however, no equity stakes are taken – the multiple forms of return flow to the participant organizations and our entire foodshed. And we don’t take any fees. In fact, we are paying each participating organization $5,000 ~ honoring their time, expertise, and the knowledge they bring to the whole.
The budget for the first cohort of the Foodshed Cultivator is $35,000. This covers the $5,000 stipends for five participating organizations, professional facilitation and project management, work-style assessments for each participant, food for the monthly in-person gatherings, journals for participants to track their journey, and a small thank-you gift for the land steward who has generously donated use of their sacred land for our in-person gatherings.
We have already received a $5,000 microgrant from Resilient Futures Co-Lab, meaning that our fundraising goal is $30,000.
One more thing worth naming: none of these funds go to us. Blue Ridge Foodshed Commons operates on philanthropic grants that cover our operating expenses, which means every dollar raised here flows directly to the food hub leaders and partners doing this work. No overhead. No administrative cut. Just resources going directly to building a self-sustaining regional food economy centered around local family farms.
Project updates
Team
Location
United States
Round 3
Jul 1-21, 2026
Supporting community-led nature projects around the world.
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