ROOM AT THE TABLE - Intersight - University at Buffalo

A Transportation Cooperative program would be a pooling system
for delivery if they chose to participate. Beyond farmers, there could be a
group of restaurants to form a subcomponent of the cooperative to make
purchase and delivery of local foods from local farms simpler.
Progress in this direction would lower the costs to farmers and make
valuable connections emerge between food producers and all other parts
of the food system. The Department should convene a meeting among
interested farmers and entrepreneurs to discuss the possibility of such a
cooperative with key stakeholders.
9. Support Social Entrepreneurs in the Food System (Medium Priority)
The County needs to reward energetic entrepreneurs interested
in starting or modifying businesses involved in the food system that may
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stranger to programs incentivizing upstart entrepreneurs, whether through
tiered tax abatement structures through local Industrial Development
Agencies (IDAs) or location in Excelsior Zones (formerly known as Empire
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entrepreneurs are rewarded for threshold levels of job creation, cooperation
with environmental standards, and even child care services. Sending a clear
message to institutions like the local IDAs that a component of how crucial
social entrepreneurialism will be to economic development is the next step.
Such institutions already exist locally; for example, the Food Shuttle
of Western New York collects food from grocery stores that generate unsold
but edible food left over, sending it to a food pantry. This function, currently
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into the private sphere, incentivized by policies of the County, and could
expand to other institutions involved in the distribution of food. Thus, when
developing checklists for entrepreneurial grants to business startups in the
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