Huddle Notes from June 1st, 2020

    By
    Zacary Smucker-Bryan
    -

    The huddles this week focused on economic projections, food bank news, plus food and farm business trends across the country.

    Talking Points

    • Funding
      • PPP – Trying to get more flexibility for people on how businesses can spend fund, % on labor vs. rent amounts, timelines, etc. nothing passed yet though
        • House legislation would change terms for payback vs. grant
        • Stay in contact with banks and on top of what’s going on
      • EIDL and farms – Clarity is needed on whether farms can apply if the business is making money
    • Food Bank News – Latest Food Bank/Pantry headlines
      • No centralized data collected on Food Bank activity/food pantry usage
        • Strongly correlated with long-term unemployment
      • Mobile SNAP takes off because of COVID
      • Pandemic hastens Meal Prep at Food Banks
      • Innovation occurring with home delivery of food from food pantries
      • Farm to Food Bank Connections on the rise
        • Western MA Program puts young farmers on farms, $150K spent per year to buy from the farms, they use the land in exchange for a % of their harvest
      • Food banks are projected to need another $1.4B over the next 6 months
    • Economist Jeremy Siegel from the Wharton School of Business – Article
      • Stock market is [really] big companies and in the food business, thesecompanies’ sales are up
      • Stocks reflect company future performance (1 year and out)
      • Big companies have been less affected than small businesses by COVID
    • Foodshot Global – Company working to engage tech money into reimagining food system management. More about them here.
    • Farm Harvest and Immigrant Labor
      • Farm worker infections are on the rise due to workers living together in close quarters, many are illegal and will not seek medical attention
      • Highest rates per capita is in Washington state where fruits are in season
      • Fishing boat brought back into Seattle – all 85 crew members have COVID
    • Decisions, Decisions.
      • Due to the end of stimulus funding looming, businesses are starting to determine whether or not to close their doors permanently such as childcare and restaurants
    • More businesses closing (now due to protests)
      • In addition to small downtown stores: Target, Walmart, CVS shutting select stores. Target has closed 200 stores out of 1900
    • Business opportunities everywhere right now
      • People are going to be fundamentally changed by these times, creating a shift, and therefore more opportunities
      • Meat Processing Facility Purchase 10 years ago
        • Poorly designed and marketed, lost a lot of money and closed the doors
        • Wrangled up a group of investors to purchase the building again
        • More interest in ever from farm fresh products and a demand for processing facilities, this could be a great opportunity
    • Meat Processing
      • We’re only 1,000 animals/week short compared to last year, which means themeat processing volume is improving, supply constraints are less
    • Community – The scale of life has changed, for the good?
      • Blocks and neighborhoods are more important
      • Social distancing parties, micro-safety net, bookshelf food banks, and garage medical supply distribution centersTips & Next Steps
    • Preparing for the Future – Recovery
    • What do you want to hear more on or talk about? We want to keep these huddles as a place to share updates, get a national view, and help us all getting better at achieving our mission. Send us your ideas for topics and companies to leverage across our network.

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