Interview – Fruition

June 3, 2021Flip

Meet the Local Foods Team: Lauren Olson

Tell us about your role on the local foods team.

My role is working with food producers and food entrepreneurs to help with their marketing strategies. I started this position in April of 2021 and I am interested in learning what services I can offer to farmers and food producers that would be of most use to their business. Currently, I am working on educational materials that would be helpful to producers as they’re scaling up their business. In addition I promote consumer education surrounding local foods to help spread awareness of the delicious bounty we have here.

So you could meet one-on-one with a producer that’s trying to change something about their business, for example.

Yes, I help educate farmers and food entrepreneurs about marketing tools. It could be anything from discussing E-commerce options for online stores, advising on websites and social media accounts, giving input on logos or accessing new markets.

I think the reason I like marketing is because it is about supporting your local network of consumers and producers and a lot of good can happen from that. Especially when it comes to food since we all need to eat and it’s a great way to invest in your community.

May 27, 2021Flip

May Fruition Showcase

We live in a vast rural county, larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island. In a place this spread out, sometimes it takes a while to know who is doing what. There’s a brand new way to learn more about agriculture in our area and the stories behind our area’s food businesses.

In addition to this blog, just launched in May 2021, the Extension Local Foods team is bringing the farmers and food businesses right to your computer screen with a new livestream called the Fruition Local Food Showcase. We are passionate about connecting consumers with the people who grow or sell food items available in St. Lawrence County.

The showcase features three new people every month, who have their chance in the spotlight for a 15 minute interview. Community members tune in on YouTube or Facebook, where it’s livestreamed and also saved as a recording to view later. The program gives viewers a unique opportunity to learn directly from the people who run these businesses about what drives them, what’s new this season, and how to access and best use their products.

Meet the Local Food Team: Flip Filippi

What is your role on the local foods team at CCE and what services do you offer to community members?

Here at Cooperative Extension I work in the Ag and Food Systems Department as the Local Food Program Leader, I started in April of 2017. We have a shared-use kitchen onsite called the Harvest Kitchen at the Extension Learning Farm. I manage that space which gets used for a lot of neat things including classes, technical assistance and rentals. The kitchen covers everything from consumer education classes through our Master Food Preservation Program to our Celebrating Local Food series which engages folks in the area through foods that are available seasonally and making them more capable, excited and comfortable using these ingredients in the kitchen.

In addition, I work with new food entrepreneurs, answering 1-1 technical assistance questions on everything from value-added production, to regulations, labeling, inspections and record keeping. If a grower wants to create a product and I can help them through the process of learning how to do that.

The Harvest Kitchen is a shared-use commercial space that can be licensed for someone who owns a business. It might be a caterer that wants to bring food offsite for meals or events. Maybe they are somebody that wants to make a product and then distribute it wholesale or retail. Basically, the Kitchen exists to get people excited about food in many different ways.

What do you like about your position?