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INVESTIGATOR: Feng, K.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
ORANGEBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA 29117

ENHANCING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR RURAL SOUTH CAROLINA THROUGH FOOD MARKETING AND AGRIBUSINESS CENTER

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The integrated project addresses one of NIFA's priority areas, rural communities for the 21st century (expanded opportunities for small business and small farms). The NIFA's Need Areas addressed in this project include a) extension delivery/methodology (extension), b) studies and experimentation in Food and agricultural sciences (research), (c) curricula design and materials development and student experiential learning (teaching).The goal of this project is to enhance economic development for rural South Carolina through establishing a food marketing and agribusiness center. The extension objective is to provide assistance to rural communities through technical support and outreach to South Carolina small farmers and food entrepreneurs in food marketing and contracting, food hub development, food safety, and food waste reduction. The research objective is to support the extension objectives through investigating the drivers and obstacles of creating a food hub and evaluating the impact of food hub on food waste reduction. The teaching objective is to incorporate new development and research findings in food marketing and supply chain areas into the existing business school curricula and offer experiential learning opportunities to students.Through effective collaboration of School of Business, Region Small Business Development Center, and 1890 Extension at SC State University, the project is expected to (a) address the rural area's need for food marketing, food hub development, food safety, and food waste reduction, (b) enhance the economic development in rural South Carolina, (c) build and strengthen the extension, research, and teaching capacity of SC State faculty and students in Agribusiness and related areas.

OBJECTIVES: The major goal of thisproject is to enhance the economic development for rural South Carolina and strengthen the extension, research, and teaching capabilities in one of NIFA priority areas, rural communities for 21st century (expanded opportunities for small business and small farms), at SC Stat University. The goal will be achieved through the following three objectives. (1) Development of an Extension Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness: The Center will be established at the School of Business and fall under the management of Regional Director of the SBDC. Programs will be created and established for the Center, including a focus on contracting assistance. The following lists four sub-objectives: (a) Establish and develop a center for food marketing and agribusiness, (b) Hire and train an Agribusiness Specialist/ Project Director and staff, (c) Establish a food hub, and(d) Collaborate with Colleton Commercial Kitchen on value-added activities. (2) Innovative Research: Research will be conducted to investigate the drivers and obstacles for creating a food hub and evaluate the impact of food hub on food waste reduction. (3) Curricula design and materials development and student experiential learning: The related agribusiness curricula will be revised and included with the new development in food marketing, food supply chain, and food safety. Students will have the opportunity to work in the Center as assistants or interns. This will allow them to interact with businesses outside the academic setting.

APPROACH: Extension methods: (1) Establish and Develop a Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness. The center programs will focus on contracting opportunities, marketing development, food safety, value-added processes, food hub development, local food system development and other basic business concerns. (2) Hire and train a Food and Agribusiness Specialist / Center Manager and staff. This specialist will manage the programs and work to develop clients. (3) Create a Food Hub. The hub will be used to open small farmers more opportunities and assist farmers who do not have an outlet for their current goods. (4) Collaborate with Commercial Kitchen The Commercial Kitchen will be utilized by the Agribusiness Specialist to work with clients on Value Added processes such as packaging, flash freezing, processing, and marketing issues.Research methods: (1) Research on drivers and obstacles of the creation of food hub. (a) Literature review: A thorough literature review will be conducted to review the "status quo" of the food hub development. (b) Data collection: The proposed research will employ mixed approaches to examine the drivers and obstacles for the creation of food hub. Survey methods will be the primary methods used to collect data from potential producers and buyers of a food hub. Interview methods will be the secondary methods used to collect data. (c) Analyze and Document research findings: The results of surveys will be analyzed to identify the main drivers and obstacles, propose the strategies to overcome the obstacles, and develop a framework for creating a new food hub. (2) Research on the impact of food hub on food waste reduction (a) Literature review: A thorough literature review will be conducted to review the existing research on food waste reduction and related literature. (b) Data Collection: This project will use survey approach to investigate the food waste level in the food hub supply chain before and after creating the food hub. (c) Analyze and Document research findings: The survey results will be analyzed and summarized. The research findings will be documented and used to propose strategies for food waste reduction.Teaching methods: (1) Curricula Design and materials Development: Develop a new undergraduate Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Agribusiness course and revise three existing courses: Agricultural Policy (AGBU440), Supply Chain Management in Agribusiness (AGBU545) MBA level, and Entrepreneurship (MGT412). (2) Student Experiential Learning: we propose to include the experiential learning opportunities, such as the assistantships and internships in the proposed food hub, in Agribusiness Internship (AGBU 460).

PROGRESS: 2020/04 TO 2021/04
Target Audience:The target audience for the outreach component is farmers and food entrepreneurs with an emphasis on racial minority groups, women, and veterans. The target audience for the teaching component is college minority business students. The audience for the research component is primarily farmers and food entrepreneurs but also includes the general academic public. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The CBG grant has offered the staff and faculty of the SC State College of Business and SBDC a great opportunity for professional development. The center agribusiness specialist and director have attended several conferences, including the Farm to Instruction conference, South Carolina Agribiz Expo and conference, and the Sustainable Agriculture conference in North Carolina. The staff has also participated in several professional development programs, including the South Carolina New and Beginning Farmers Program and the Clemson Palmetto Leadership in Environment, Agriculture and forestry (PLEAF) program. The staff has been asked to judge many competitions and give lectures in other program courses. We were able to audit these courses including, Feeding Innovation, Agricultural Center for Research and Entrepreneurship's (ACRE) business competition, as well as Clemson's New and beginning farmer program. Dr. Feng attended the Southeast Decision Science Institute Webinars on Data, Analytics, and virtual learning workshops. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The center works with the SBDC in its service area of seven counties as well as statewide. Outreach information has been spread through the many networks that were created through personal relationship development. Key relationships exist with the following entities: SC Dept. of Agriculture, Clemson Extension, SCSU 1890 Extension, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Colleton Commercial Kitchen, Rural Resource Coalition, Grow Food Carolina, Food share SC, Orangeburg Library, NRCS/USDA R/FSA, County of Orangeburg, Midlands Local Food Collaborative, and more. The center has over 40 resource partners we identify as marketing stakeholders. Food hub information is disseminated to communities through the hub website (www.acefoodhub.org) and Orangeburg County Public Library network. The research results will be disseminated to academic communities through academic conferences, conference proceedings/presentations, and journal publications. The teaching results due to the revised course modules will be disseminated to business students at SCSU. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The center will continue to see its existing farm clients and add new clients. We have agreements and partnerships with many agricultural resources, including the SC Department of Agriculture ACRE program and Specialty Crop Association, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Clemson Extension, 1890 Extension, USDA Rural Development, NRCS, and various other groups. We plan to finish up the mini-grant program and commercial kitchen grant and grant all funds allocated for the program. We will expand the food hub through additional partner sites and extra employees. We hope to continue to increase sales for the food hub and increase the customer base. We would like to increase the number of small farmers who supplied fresh vegetables and fruits to our food hub. We plan to continue with our training and incorporate online webinars. We plan to reapply for a second round of funding in 2021 to continue the excellent work of the team that has been assembled. For the research section, we will distribute the survey for food waste reduction to food hubs in SC and collect the data for the research study on food waste reduction. We plan to analyze, evaluate, and summarize the survey data and document the research findings. For the teaching section, we will continue to implement changes in the agribusiness curriculum by adding the supply chain management course, continue to revise the existing courses, and teach the new development to business students.

IMPACT: 2020/04 TO 2021/04
What was accomplished under these goals? ? Established in 2018, the Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness continues to operate and has grown from a small program serving a handful of farmers to now serving over 100 small farms in South Carolina. The program includes technical assistance with farm marketing, social media, website development, business and marketing planning, funding and financing, record keeping, food safety, food waste reduction, grant writing, and educational outreach or training. During the reporting period, the center successfully administered the mini-grant program to farmers and food entrepreneurs for value-added projects and good agricultural practices (GAP) projects. The center also helped four farmers receive $1,000,000 in grants which gave a $2 million dollar impact to the businesses. The center held 18 workshops from November 2018-April 2021. Additionally, the center established a food hub in 2019 with sales of about $15,000. At the end of the year 2020, the food hub grew successfully with over $250,000 in revenue and impacted the communities positively. In research and teaching components, we conducted research on food hub and food waste reduction issues and presented research findings at conferences. We modified the current business courses to incorporate the latest research findings and developments into the new and existing courses. Objective 1.1 Establish and Develop a Center for Food Marketing and Agribusiness The center continues to operate and grow steadily. The center has been able to create strong partnerships with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, 1890 Extension, Clemson Extension, and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. SC State University SBDC and the College of Business are now regularly recognized as legitimate technical assistance providers in the agricultural industry in South Carolina and beyond. We have offered assistance to farms in the Virgin Islands, Georgia, and Arkansas as well. Grants for Value-Added Projects, GAP Projects, Commercial Kitchen: The center has been very successful in administering the mini-grant program to farmers and food entrepreneurs for value-added projects and good agricultural practices (GAP) projects. To date, 12 grants for a total of $25,000 have been funded to farms or food entrepreneurs. 10 of those were value-added grants, and 2 were GAP grants. We still have three grants pending funding, 1 VAP, and 3 GAP grants to be funded. A total of $23,000 has been awarded, and $5000 is pending. Trainings and Webinars: Over the grant period, we held 18 workshops from November 2018-April 2021. The total number of attendees was 315. We held 7 GAP/food safety workshops, 8 marketing workshops, and 2 miscellaneous topics such as introductions or grant programs. In addition to center-organized workshops, the staff attended and participated in numerous resource partner workshops and events. Objective 1.2 Hire and train a Food and Agribusiness Specialist / Center Manager and staff. The agricultural specialist has done a great job of managing the center along with the help and guidance of the SBDC region director. To date, the SBDC currently has registered 102 active farm clients. The center has spent over 450 hours of counseling time with farmers. The center helped start 12 farms, creating 20 jobs, and creating a capital formation of $3,800,000. The center helped four farmers receive $1,000,000 in Rural Development Value-Added Producer grants which gave a $2 million dollar impact to the businesses. We are currently writing 8 grants for the 2021 USDA VAPG program. We worked with 15 farms on GAP preparation and saw 4 farms receive their GAP certification. A graduate assistant, Khala Pace, was hired and continues to work for the USDA program. Objective 1.3 Create a Food Hub. Our food hub continues to grow with a solid financial standing and receives strong community support. The Food Hub has been supported by the Tri-County Health Network through a Duke Endowment Grant. The hub has received over $130,000 in grant funding from the entity to offer fresh fruit and vegetable access to the community. The food hub has also been financially supported by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, the University of South Carolina, One SC Fund, and private donations. The food hub operates a program called Foodshare South Carolina which sells produce boxes to an EBT/SNAP target audience. The food hub currently works with over 30 local farms to source produce for the food box. The Ace Food hub is part of the South Carolina Food Hub Network With the advent of COVID-19 in 2021, the food hub added free produce giveaway programming in addition to their Foodshare box program. This program was highly successful and resulted in over 20,000 boxes of produce given away in 2020. The Food hub ended the year 2020 with over $250,000 in revenue. Objective 1.4 Collaborate with Commercial Kitchen. The center works with the Colleton Commercial Kitchen in Walterboro, SC, to achieve the objectives of commercial kitchen utilization by farmers and food entrepreneurs. The center has a mini-grant for potential users of any publicly used commercial kitchen in South Carolina. The agribusiness specialist used the Colleton commercial kitchen as a location to meet farmers in that region. In addition, we put on several workshops at the facility. Research Objective 2.1 Research on Drivers and Obstacles of the Creation of a Food Hub. Under this objective, literature review and data collection have been conducted. A research paper about food hub literature review was published in the International Journal of Strategic Management in 2019. We designed the survey instruments to study the feasibility of a local food hub in Orangeburg and the surrounding area. Based on the survey data on farmers and consumers, we presented our results at Southeast Decision Science Institute in 2020. The researching findings are currently documented as a working paper and will be submitted to a journal for publication. A graduate research assistant was hired to assist Dr. Feng in conducting literature and design survey questions on this objective. Objective 2.2. Research on the impact of food hub on food waste reduction A literature review on the impact of food hub waste reduction has been conducted. The survey instrument has been designed. The survey will be distributed in summer 2020, and the survey responses will be collected and analyzed. Teaching objective 3.1 Curricula Design and Materials Development. Dr. Selassie proposed a new supply chain management in agribusiness (AGBU345) course to update the existing agribusiness curriculum. The process of officially adding the course into the University catalog has been approved by the Education Policy Committee of the university. At this reporting time, Dr. Selassie has requested to teach the course in the fall semester of 2021 for the first time. Regarding the agriculture policy class (AGBU440), Dr. Selassie has incorporated chapters on food safety, security, and policy alternatives. This course is at the senior level. This section introduces graduating seniors to the dimensions of food safety and major public concerns and issues in food safety. Dr. Feng has revised the AGBU544, Supply Chain Management in Agribusiness, and included a class module for the food hub supply chain. The AGBU545 was offered in summer 2020, but it was canceled due to low enrollment. Mr. Jim Johnson modified the curriculum of MGT412 (Entrepreneurship) in spring 2019 to include a study of food hubs in the class as a sample business model. Students were asked to perform a project on solving the problem of getting local produce to markets. 3.2 Student Experiential Learning. A graduate student was hired and worked as a student assistant in the center, conducting research and outreach activities. ?

PUBLICATIONS (not previously reported): 2020/04 TO 2021/04
No publications reported this period.