Farmers

Selling your farm products to schools, child care centers, colleges and hospitals and healthcare settings can benefit the bottom line of your farm business, build ties with your community and demonstrate how agriculture is a valuable part of the local economy. 

What are Institutions?  

You might picture big residential brick buildings, but eating happens in a range of dining settings from family day care centers to school cafeterias, college buffets to “grab'n’go” cafés, group homes and senior meal providers. They all share a mission to serve healthy, good tasting meals to meet the nutritional needs of the eaters, and locally-grown and raised foods fit the bill!

Buyers for smaller venues may be interested in buying directly from you, visiting your farm and inviting you to their special events. Chefs and buyers for larger kitchens may also want to meet you to learn about your farm and what foods you offer, and order your products through their distributor or a food hub. Building relationships with individual buyers is key – it is the story of your farm and the quality of your farm product that will build customer loyalty.

Farm to Institution Market Readiness 

FINYS has trained Cornell Cooperative Extension and other agri-service professionals from across New York State to assist farmers in learning about institutional markets, how to build relationships with institutional buyers, and how to assess if they are "market ready". Here is a list of the trainers and resources you can use.

How can buyers find you?

Farm Food Safety Plans

Food safety is a top priority when we are cooking and feeding children, students and adults in cafeterias, dining halls, or hospitals, and it starts on the farm. Most wholesale buyers will require a Farm Food Safety Plan, and sometimes third-party GAP certification. Find out how to create a Food Safety Plan or sign up for an online or in-person workshop training. To help pay for the costs of GAP certification, apply for a grant from NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Resources

  • Cornell Farm to School

    Cornell Cooperative Extension's Farm to School website has tips and resources for food service, farmers, teachers, parents, community members, and extension educators.

  • The Public Plate in New York State: Growing Health, Farms and Jobs with Local Food

    Boosting public spending on fresh foods grown on New York State farms and served in schools, childcare centers, older adult centers, food pantries and other institutions, has the potential to improve health for more than six million New Yorkers, while increasing economic opportunities across the state. The findings are part of a new report, The Public Plate in New York State: Growing Health, Farms and Jobs with Local Food, by The New York Academy of Medicine and American Farmland Trust. 

  • The Economics of Local Food Systems: A Toolkit to Guide Community Discussions, Assessments and Choices

    The Local Food System Toolkit was developed by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to help communities reliably evaluate the economic impact of investing in local and regional food systems. The Local Food System Toolkit provides detailed guidance in seven modules to measure and assess the expected economic impacts of local food investments. Using real-world projects, experiences, and applied research, it provides grounded, credible, and useable assessment methods. The Local Food System Toolkit can be used by policy makers, community leaders, private businesses or foundations to offer specific estimates that will help them decide whether to invest in initiatives that increase local food activity. 

  • NYS Farm to School Support Service Provider Contact List

    Harvest NY has compiled a list of Farm to School Support Service Providers. The list contains people and organizations that can help advance F2S in a multitude of different ways including, but not limited to (1) F2S program development, (2) assistance with finding and getting NY farm products, (3) menu (re)development that incorporates NY farm products, and (4) best practices to bridge the 3C's of F2S (cafeteria, community, classroom). 

  • Locally Grown: Farm to School Programs in New York State

    New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released a new report, "Locally Grown: Farm to School Programs in New York State," an overview of farm to school in New York State, the challenges facing farm to school programs and suggestions for improving their success. 

  • FUNDING for Farmers

    Grants, loans and crowd funding sources compiled by Cornell Small Farms Program - not just for "small" farms!

  • Food Safety - Create Your Farm Food Safety Plan

    From FamilyFarmed.org, the On-Farm Food Safety Project (OFFS) helps you learn about food safety, create an individualized on-farm food safety plan, and become food safety certified.

  • Food Safety - Cornell GAP Training

    Cornell offers on-line courses and workshops to create Farm Food Safety Plans.

  • Food Safety - A Step-by-Step Introduction

    A good overview of why and how you can develop a Farm Food Safety Plan, from FamilyFarmed.org

  • Farm to School USDA Census

    Look up School Districts who reported to the 2015 USDA Farm to School Census on their procurement and education activities in 2013-2014, and those who plan to start farm to school programs in the future. 

  • Farm to School Legal Toolkit

    Working with institutional buyers and providing farm fresh foods to new markets is an exciting opportunity. However, entering into a new business arrangement with a school as a local farm can be a daunting task. What are the relevant laws around distributing to schools? What are the necessary steps to secure a contract to provide produce to a school? The Farm to School Legal Toolkit from The Food and Beverage Law Clinic  (FBLC) at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, in partnership with Common Ground Farm, seeks to help answer your legal questions on farm to school and present options available to you when starting a new farm to school venture.

  • Farm to School Farmer Self-Assessment Guide

    This Farmer Self-Assessment Guide from Missouri Farm to School is a good place to organize information about your farm and consider what you need to have in place before marketing to school districts. It is applicable to many other institutional markets as well. 

  • Farm Food Safety Video Overview

    This video is an overview of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) through on-farm risk assessment from Cornell Cooperative Extension. Learn more about GAPS Training offered by Extension and NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets, as well as updates on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and economic information on the implementation of GAPs collected from growers through extensive interviews.

  • Become New York State Grown & Certified

    New York State Grown & Certified is the first statewide, multi-faceted food certification program designed to strengthen consumer confidence in New York products, address food product labeling, and assist New York farmers so they can take advantage of the growing market demand for foods locally grown and produced to a higher standard.