Explore Our Services
We work at the intersection of regional food systems, institutional procurement, and supply chain strategy: helping farms and food hubs reach institutional markets, helping institutions build supply chains that reflect their values, and helping funders and public agencies understand where investment creates lasting impact.
About Our Work
SupplyChange is a national food systems and supply chain consultancy founded on the belief that the food system can be more equitable, more resilient, and more connected to the people and places that grow our food, and that strategic, practical expertise is what bridges the gap between that vision and the procurement systems that govern how food actually moves.
We are method-based and tool-driven. We bring proven frameworks and proprietary diagnostic instruments developed over a decade of applied practice across thirteen states, and we adapt them to the specific conditions of each region, buyer context, and food system we enter.
Our team includes practitioners with deep backgrounds in organizing, advocacy, farming, foodservice operations, farm-to-institution work, local government, and private-sector procurement—people who understand both the operational realities of growing and aggregating food and the institutional dynamics that determine whether it ever gets bought.
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Regional food hubs and small and midsized producers are consistently locked out of institutional markets, not because of a lack of will on either side, but because of structural barriers: consolidated distributor contracts, foodservice management company rebate systems, food safety compliance requirements, and the administrative complexity of moving local food through supply chains designed for scale.
Meanwhile, institutions committed to sustainable and equitable sourcing often lack the internal expertise to translate those commitments into operational procurement change.
We sit in the middle of that gap. We understand both sides: the realities of running a food hub or small farm business, and the procurement dynamics of hospitals, universities, school districts, and corporate dining programs. That dual fluency is what makes our work move.
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We take a value chain coordination approach: mapping the full chain from producer to plate, identifying the specific friction points that block regional sourcing, and designing targeted interventions that work within—rather than around—existing supply chain infrastructure.
Four principles guide every engagement:
Diagnosis before prescription
We assess readiness, market fit, and structural barriers before recommending a path forward.
Soft infrastructure first
Sales relationships, trust, and operational alignment must precede investment in hard infrastructure. We build both, in sequence.
Tools that travel
Our frameworks and instruments are designed to be transferable to other regions, buyer types, and food system contexts.
Equity-centered
BIPOC/woman/LGBTQ+ producer ownership, farmworker conditions, and food access are woven into how we assess readiness, design pilots, and measure success.
Values-Based Procurement Strategy
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We help institutional buyers — hospitals, universities, school districts, county agencies, corporate dining programs, and the foodservice management companies that serve them — translate procurement commitments into operational reality. Our work spans value chain pilot design and facilitation, supply chain analysis, distributor and aggregator engagement, values-based sourcing framework development, and the long-term relationship infrastructure required to sustain regional sourcing programs.
Our Values-Based Procurement (VBP) Diagnostic is a proprietary instrument currently in development that helps institutional buyers assess the maturity of their procurement practices against a values-based framework — identifying where policy commitment, operational practice, and supply chain infrastructure are aligned, and where the gaps are.
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This was our first major value chain pilot, launched in 2021, and it remains one of the most instructive examples of what sustained value chain coordination can achieve. We identified six BIPOC and regenerative farmers affiliated with Kitchen Table Advisors' business advising program, developed an aggregation partnership with BIPOC-owned aggregator True Harvest, and secured True Harvest's onboarding with contracted distributor Vesta Foodservice. We then developed the ordering protocols and workarounds needed for seven Bay Area Good Eating Company accounts — including PayPal, Broadcom, LinkedIn, and Genentech — to source local, BIPOC-grown products aligned with a 15 percent regenerative spend goal. Over the following two years, we iterated on the program's structure: transitioning from True Harvest to software-based broker Permanent, expanding to more than 40 growers, developing crop reservation and standing order functionality, and establishing a standing order of more than 300 cases per week. Good Eating Company subsequently engaged us to expand the program to Colorado and New York City, where we operationalized a regenerative sourcing scorecard — adapting a framework developed by World Wildlife Fund — to qualify existing supplier spend and onboard new producers through contracted distributors in each market.
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The FruitGuys / Aramark — Farm Fit Program, Multiple Geographies We have worked with The FruitGuys for three years to design and stand up Farm Fit, a specialized sourcing program developed in partnership with Aramark. The FruitGuys, an approved Aramark vendor that expanded from office fruit delivery into full-service produce brokerage during the pandemic, serves as the vendor of record for the program. Working with Aramark corporate, we identify key geographies and Aramark verticals where BIPOC, local, and sustainable growers can be matched with institutional buyers — with direct delivery facilitated under The FruitGuys' vendor relationship. We provide technical assistance to participating growers and to The FruitGuys, support product and buyer matchmaking, and deliver marketing and reporting support to document and communicate the program's impact. Kaiser Permanente + Foodservice Partners / Sodexo — Bay Area Patient Meals Working under a contract with Anchors in Resilient Communities (ARC), we engaged with Foodservice Partners, Kaiser's third-party patient meal manufacturer, to evaluate ingredient sourcing for patient meals. We identified eight high-opportunity items available from local farmers, introduced Foodservice Partners to regional distributor Bay Cities Produce, and substituted eight products — bringing local purchasing from 8 percent to 34 percent in the patient meals program. When Kaiser subsequently transitioned its patient meal production to Sodexo, Sodexo's operations utilized the same Vesta Foodservice supply chain infrastructure we had built for the Good Eating Company program. As a result, local and sustainable sourcing in Kaiser's patient meals program reached 52 percent by Kaiser's own definition — a direct, compounding outcome of layered value chain coordination work over several years.
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Now heading into Phase 3, we have served as primary consultant to the UC GCLC, a sustainability initiative spanning the University of California system. Our work combines culinary education and engagement with supply chain technical assistance — helping UC campuses onboard sustainable producers and products within their procurement systems, and building the systemic infrastructure for values-based sourcing across one of the country's largest public university systems. See our reports and other resources about this effort here: https://agroecology.ucsc.edu/gclc/
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An active engagement in which we are designing and facilitating a sourcing pilot connecting regional food hubs to a meal provider serving supportive and interim housing residents in Santa Clara and San Benito Counties. The project combines stakeholder alignment and messaging with procurement readiness assessment, food hub selection, pilot design, and data collection infrastructure. It is Phase 1 of a multi-year initiative to build a regional procurement strategy for Santa Clara County and develop the investment case for food hub infrastructure as a public health asset.
Food Hub Assessment + Technical Assistance
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We help food hubs and farm-based aggregators understand where they stand, what is in their way, and how to build toward durable institutional sales relationships. Our work spans readiness assessments, technical assistance planning, hub-to-buyer matching, market landscape analysis, and feasibility studies around programming and expansion. Our proprietary Food Hub Readiness Assessment evaluates hubs across six domains:
organizational profile and equity ownership
operational readiness
sales strategy and financial model
buyer relationships and market experience
values and environmental practices
self-assessed confidence
The instrument produces a scored readiness profile that identifies gaps, surfaces strengths, and informs a tailored technical assistance plan. The assessment was prototyped in collaboration with Fresh Approach and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), where it was used to evaluate four early-stage food hubs across California. Since then, we have adapted it for a range of contexts—most recently to match food hubs to supportive housing meal providers in Santa Clara County—and will continue to deploy further iterations across the country as the tool evolves.
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We conducted a comprehensive market analysis to support Fresno BIPOC Produce's potential expansion from its Central Valley base into the Bay Area and Los Angeles markets. Deliverables included a full demand institution map and spreadsheet across seven buyer segments, buyer interview methodology and completed interviews with Alameda County Community Food Bank, Fresh Approach, and Farm2People, and actionable recommendations on market prioritization and expansion sequencing. Our findings were integrated into a broader feasibility study for the hub's long-term design and growth.
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We provided six months of intensive technical assistance to ByWay Foods, a fresh-cut produce processor affiliated with Working Landscapes that sources from BIPOC farmers in rural North Carolina. Our engagement spanned sales strategy development, a full demand map and prospect spreadsheet across five institutional segments, segment-specific marketing one-pagers and farmer profile materials, a CRM pipeline buildout with standard operating procedures and training, a pricing calculator and product specifications, logistics vendor research, and outreach to more than 50 institutions including initial vendor approval conversations. We concluded the engagement with a detailed roadmap for ByWay's next phase of growth.
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We provided financial modeling and analysis for Veggielution, a nonprofit urban farm and community food hub in San Jose, CA. Deliverables included detailed profit and loss statements for their farm stand operation and a financial model for both a proposed wholesale produce box program and a Food as Medicine box program opportunity, giving the organization a clearer picture of unit economics and program viability.
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We provided wide-ranging operational and sales support to 4P Foods as the hub expanded into North Carolina and Maryland. Work included marketing materials development, market positioning and catalog analysis, and relationship-building support with institutional buyers, distributors, and supply chain partners across new geographies.
Research + Advocacy Strategy
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We work with researchers, advocacy organizations, and funders to understand and shift the structural conditions that govern institutional food procurement — documenting barriers, developing strategic frameworks, and translating findings into actionable policy and practice recommendations.
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Our with with CSPI is focused on documenting supply chain transparency practices and barriers across institutional foodservice, arming the organization with insights so that they can decide on a strategy with foodservice management companies (FSMCs) that is either collaborative, agitational, or a hybrid approach.
Our work includes building stakeholder interview infrastructure, developing interview guides for foodservice management companies, school food authorities, Good Food Purchasing Program coalitions, and healthcare institutions, and producing a multi-phase findings and strategy document.
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Friends of the Earth is committed to advance climate-friendly food procurement in California K-12 schools by helping to get climate-aligned plant-based and organic products more accessible through distributor networks.
Our work includes developing outreach and survey tools that gathered responses from 22 school districts on their plant-based product experiences and demand, conducting in-depth interviews with senior leadership at Gold Star Foods (one of California's largest K-12 distributors) and developing a plant-based ordering guide proposal tailored to Gold Star's catalog and school network. We also provided strategic advising on engagement with Sysco and Daylight Foods as part of a broader distributor-focused advocacy strategy, helping FoE expand their strategy beyond increasing organic supply to unlocking demand within K12 buyers.
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We provided strategic advising to a coalition led by the Food Systems Action Lab at the Illinois Institute of Design, in support of their efforts to use design thinking and charettes to map Chicagoland’s food system and prototype a framework of indicators for regional food system success.
We are now continuing with the Lab and our fellow project partners The Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University to expand our work into three additional geographies, so that we can fully test the framework in different geographical, political, and cultural contexts.
Research + Writing
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Our applied work is grounded in and contributes to a growing body of practitioner knowledge and peer-reviewed research on food systems, institutional procurement, and value chain coordination.
Unlocking Institutional Food Purchasing: Contract Strategies for Values-Based Sourcing
Heather Nieto-Friga and Katie Barr. Forthcoming in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD), Value Chain Coordination Editorial Circle. A practitioner primer examining how institutional foodservice contracts shape — and can be used to expand — regional and BIPOC producer access.
Unlocking Transparency in Supply Chains
Published 2025 by the Farm to School Evaluation Initiative (FIG). A research brief and full report examining supply chain transparency practices in institutional foodservice. Available at californiafarmtoschooleval.org.
Innovations in Northern California Farm to Institution Strategies: Unpacking and Upleveling Institutional Supply Chains for Mega-Regional Success
Heather Nieto-Friga for Anchors in Resilient Communities. A comprehensive practitioner report documenting five years of Bay Area farm-to-institution learnings, with case studies of Good Eating Company, Kaiser Permanente, Alameda Health System, Spork Food Hub, Capay Valley Farm Shop, and the Yolo Food Hub concept.
We are members of the JAFSCD Value Chain Coordination Editorial Circle, a peer network of practitioners and researchers advancing knowledge and practice in value chain coordination for regional food systems.
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An active engagement running through November 2026, funded by Builders Vision, focused on documenting supply chain transparency practices and barriers across institutional foodservice. Our work includes building stakeholder interview infrastructure, developing interview guides for foodservice management companies, school food authorities, Good Food Purchasing Program coalitions, and healthcare institutions, and producing a multi-phase findings and strategy document.
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We supported Friends of the Earth's effort to advance climate-friendly food procurement in California K-12 schools by helping to get climate-aligned plant-based and organic products more accessible through distributor networks. Our work included developing outreach and survey tools that gathered responses from 22 school districts on their plant-based product experiences and demand, conducting in-depth interviews with senior leadership at Gold Star Foods — one of California's largest K-12 distributors — and developing a plant-based ordering guide proposal tailored to Gold Star's catalog and school network. We also provided strategic advising on engagement with Sysco and Daylight Foods as part of a broader distributor-focused advocacy strategy.