Good Food Business
Accelerator to Launch at 1871
Strategic partnerships
with Whole Foods Market, UNFI, and SBA make the accelerator a national leader
in advancing sustainable food businesses. “Accelerating Good Food” event
to be held October 1 at 1871
CHICAGO
(September 22, 2014) - The Good
Food Business Accelerator (GFBA), a major new fellowship program for regional food and
farm entrepreneurs, is being launched this month by FamilyFarmed.org. A
non-profit organization, FamilyFarmed.org has
been promoting local, sustainable, humane, and fair food for more than 15
years.
The
GFBA is headquartered at 1871, Chicago’s center for digital technology and
innovation, and will be its first tenant focused on encouraging broad-based
food entrepreneurship. The GFBA also will be the nation’s first business
accelerator focused on building supply chains of sustainable local food.
“The
Good Food Business Accelerator aligns perfectly with 1871’s mission to foster
economic and job growth by facilitating the efforts of creative entrepreneurs
across every important market sector,” said Howard A. Tullman, CEO of 1871.
“FamilyFarmed.org already has had a major impact in this industry and will open up important new avenues
at 1871 for businesses in the thriving Good Food sector.”
Applications
for the first class of Fellows are now being accepted. All manner of
food-related businesses that can leverage technology in the food sector
are eligible to compete for the fellowships including food artisans,
consumer packaged goods companies, farmers, technology firms, food hubs,
restaurants, retailers, and foodservice providers.
“The
Good Food Business Accelerator gets businesses ready for prime time, giving
them the skills to raise funding to launch or scale up," said Jim Slama,
president of FamilyFarmed.org. "The GFBA has first-class partners that
will support Fellows to be major players in a thriving Good Food Cluster."
Whole
Foods Market, the nation’s largest natural foods supermarket chain,
and UNFI, the nation’s leading distributor of natural and organic food, are strategic
partners on the GBFA project. Lead funding for the GFBA came from Food:Land:Opportunity – Localizing the Chicago Foodshed, an
initiative of the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust that seeks to
strengthen the resiliency of the region by increasing the supply of local and
sustainable food. In addition, the Accelerator recently earned a $50,000 grant
from the U.S.
Small Business Administration Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.
“Whole
Foods Market is pleased to be a partner in the creation of the Good Food
Business Accelerator,” says Michael Bashaw, Midwest president of Whole Foods
Market. “It is an innovative way to support food and farm entrepreneurs to grow
the supply of local and organic food.”
The
Accelerator project will build upon the successes of FamilyFarmed.org and its Good
Food Trade Show and Financing &
Innovation Conference, held each March in Chicago. They are the oldest and most
advanced regional Good Food industry gatherings in the U.S., and aim to build supply
chains to meet the fast-growing demand for sustainable local food. Illinois
alone is a $50 billion market for food, but currently 95 percent of that is
grown and processed out of state — underscoring the growth potential of local
Good Food businesses.
These
events bring together more than 1,000 food producers, entrepreneurs, trade
buyers, financiers, NGOs, investors and others engaged in expanding a robust
Midwest Good Food cluster. Regional businesses secured more than $5 million in
funding over the past two years through participation in the Good Food
Financing & Innovation Conference. The gathering also includes the Good
Food Festival, which last year featured seven chefs and authors
recognized by the James Beard Foundation and more than 3,500 attendees.
Those
accepted as Fellows will receive mentoring, strategic support, connections to
customers, and access to capital to launch and expand profitable local and
sustainable Good Food businesses.
The
impressive lineup of nearly 100 mentors and advisers include leaders from Whole
Foods Market, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, organic distributor Goodness
Greeness, Eli’s Cheesecake, One Off Hospitality Group, 2X Consumer Products
Growth Partners and many more.
The
programs for the Good Food Business Accelerator Fellows will begin in early
November and run for six months. Fellows will pitch their business plans at the
Good Food Financing & Innovation Conference on Thursday, March 19 at the
UIC Forum before a highly engaged audience of financiers and investors.
Speakers
at last year’s conference included Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, 1871 CEO Howard
A. Tullman, and Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb. Chicago is now home to the Sustainable Local Food Investment Group and
the Angel Food Network, which have together
more than 40 angel investors seeking to deploy capital in local food
businesses.
The
event Accelerating
Good Food will introduce the Good Food Business Accelerator to businesses
and the public and will be held the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 1871.
Joining Slama as speakers will be Howard A. Tullman of 1871; Eli’s Cheesecake
President Marc Schulman; John Hall, the founder of Chicago’s Goose Island
brewing company and lead investor of FarmedHere, a
large-scale, organic indoor farm in the Chicago suburb of Bedford Park; plus
other successful food and farm entrepreneurs.
“The
speakers’ lineup reflects the broad network of industry leaders that
FamilyFarmed has developed, and also signals the quality of the instruction and
mentorship that GFBA Fellows will receive,” Slama said. For more information
about the Good Food Business Accelerator or the Oct. 1 Accelerating Good Food,
please contact Bob Benenson of Family Farmed.org at bob@familyfarmed.org or
202-746-1378.
