Healthy Food Commerce Initiative (HFCI)

In 2011, Wholesome Wave launched the Healthy Food Commerce Initiative (HFCI), a new program with a mission to strengthen regional agriculture by catalyzing the development of regional food infrastructure.

The HFCI team works to direct capital and business development assistance to  mission-driven food distribution & processing enterprises, also referred to as “healthy food hubs.”  These hubs are centrally located facilities with a business management structure facilitating aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and marketing of regionally produced food products.

It is our goal to help the channels for “local food” expand so regional farms can more reliably, safely and efficiently source product to institutional buyers like hospitals, schools and large dining outlets.  While retail demand for locally grown food has exploded, consistent and simple local sourcing remains problematic for institutional buyers, partly due to challenges with logistics & distribution and marketing.

Across the country, a wave of entrepreneurs have emerged to tackle these challenges, launching farm-centric commercial distribution firms that aim to make local food sourcing easy while preserving farm livelihoods and increasing access to healthy food. HFCI is focused on directing early stage capital and business development assistance to these enterprises.  When managed effectively, these food hub enterprises have the potential to be viable businesses that efficiently connect rural production with urban demand.  The outcome of such commerce drives regional economic activity, raises farm incomes and preserves farmland acreage.

“As I talk to farmers across the country, regardless of what they produce or where, they all share one common challenge: how to best move product from the farm to the marketplace. This is especially crucial for small and midsize farmers who may not have enough capital to own their own trucks, their own refrigeration units, or their own warehouse space. They might not have the resources to develop sophisticated distribution routes, build effective marketing campaigns or network with regional buyers and customers.“

USDA Deputy Secretary, Kathleen Merrigan, April 2011

Research & Resources

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) > Food Hubs

Wallace Center/National Good Food Network Site

 

Meet our dedicated Healthy Food Commerce Initiative team

Daniel Ross, Vice President of Business Development, Wholesome Wave

Recognized as a leading social entrepreneur with a lifetime fellowship from Ashoka – Innovators for the Public Good. MIT Sloan Fellow for Innovation and Global Leadership, MIT Legatum Fellow for Development and Entrepreneurship.

16 years as Executive Director of Nuestras Raíces, a grass-roots organization to promote economic, human and community development in Holyoke, Massachusetts through projects relating to food, agriculture and the environment, nationally recognized for innovation.  He has helped community members start over 25 small food and agriculture businesses, launched Energía for-profit social enterprise energy-efficiency services company.  Founding leader of various local and state-wide food systems and environmental policy coalitions.

Founder and principal of DAISA Enterprises LLC conducting business planning and change management consulting. Daniel holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, BA in Political Science from Oberlin College.

Malini Ram Moraghan, Managing Director, HFCI

Malini has been working with farms and food systems since 2009.  With a group of farmers, she co-founded the Red Hills Small Farm Alliance, an organization focused on strengthening small farm enterprises through market-driven solutions and “right-sized regulation.”  The Farm Alliance, which operates in the fertile region of North Florida, was successful in launching an online farmers market and helping to change  state regulations which resulted in expanded market access for small and medium size egg producers in the State of Florida.

Prior to this, Malini was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Co., where she worked with corporate consumer products clients on growth strategy, international expansion, and sales & marketing.  Malini’s past experience also includes investment banking at JPMorgan in New York and serving her community as an AmeriCorps VISTA in New Jersey.

Malini has an MBA from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cooper Union.  She is based in Chicago.

Gabrielle Blavatsky, Researcher

Gabrielle graduated from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Gradate School of Public Service in 2011 with a Masters in Public Administration and Non Profit Management and Policy.

Passionate about food policy, Gabrielle’s graduate work focused on health and nutrition outcomes of low-income residents living in food deserts in New York City. She also spent the past year working as the head researcher on New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s FoodWorks initiative. Prior to moving to New York in 2008 Gabrielle worked in environmental policy in the city government and non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

She has come on board with Wholesome Wave’s Healthy Food Commerce Initiative focused on research and preparation of communications materials  She is based in NYC.

Join our Team