A Collaborative Supply Chain That Works

Forest City Food Collective acts as the bridge between local farms and the people they feed. By managing aggregation and logistics, and cultivating relationships, we help regional food flow where it’s needed most.

FARM-TO-FOODBANK

Delivering fresh, local produce to community partners who fight hunger every day.

FARM-TO-SCHOOL

Connecting students to regional farms through fresh food and food education.

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Connecting restaurants, retailers, and institutions to local ingredients, efficiently.

CONVENOR

Bringing leaders together to shape the future of the regional food economy.

FARM-TO-FOODBANK

Since 2022, we’ve partnered with regional growers to move millions of pounds of organic produce through Farm to Foodbank programs. Working alongside farmers, donors, advocates, and food bank partners, we’ve shown what’s possible when a region designs solutions together.

To date, this collaboration has delivered 4.6M+ pounds of produce, supported $700K in farm infrastructure investments, and moved 100+ semi loads of nutritious food to families across the region.

With federal funds now gone, our new pilot with Second Harvest—Feeding Communities, Growing Farms—continues the work: advance-payment contracts, secure markets for farmers, and consistent access to high-quality local food.

FARM-TO-SCHOOL

For almost a decade, Forest City Food Collective played a leading role in Ohio’s Farm to School movement—helping districts and producers build relationships and increasing local purchasing through partners like Feed Our Future, Pisanick Partners, Ohio Schools Council, and a dedicated network of farmers, producers, and school districts.

In 2022, we stepped back from direct program delivery as the needs of the work fell out of alignment with our capacity. Today, we support school meals by supplying regional farm products to processors who help get local food into cafeterias reliably and at scale.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to re-engage by designing supply chain pathways around new, school-ready local food items—aligning our growing producer network with the regional needs of school districts with consistency and care.

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

We connect restaurants, retailers, and institutions to fresh, regional ingredients through a distribution network designed for reliability and care. By aggregating products from farmers and food producers across Ohio, we make sourcing local both simple and efficient for busy kitchens and purchasing teams.

Our model streamlines logistics, provides transparent sourcing, and creates steady, values-aligned markets for the growers we serve. Buyers get consistent quality; producers gain predictable demand.

Together, we’re building a supply chain rooted in trust—one that strengthens local economies, shortens food miles, and brings high-quality, regionally grown food to more plates across our communities

COLLECTIVE COVENANT

We bring growers, buyers, and community partners into alignment through the work we do every day. Through ongoing collaboration and constant communication, we help our regional network solve problems in real time—grounded in the realities of farms, food businesses, and the communities they serve.

Our approach is guided by our Collective Covenant, a shared agreement that outlines how we partner, make decisions, and move good food forward with integrity and care.

As we grow, we intend to expand our role as a regional convenor—creating more structured opportunities for shared learning, coordinated action, and collective advocacy around the values we share.