A core capability of Cornerstone Ventures has been its principals’ and associates’ experiences with businesses that play key roles in local food systems and supply chains. Their focus on supporting the diversity and scope of local food producers and family managed farms has informed their ability to respond to the logistical and marketing challenges these food enterprise operators face. Cornerstone Ventures is informed about how to improve access to healthy foods by residents of economically challenged urban communities and to support the distribution of locally grown foods. Clients that have benefited from work with Cornerstone Ventures include grocery stores, green houses and mobile food markets within urban food deserts, aggregation and distribution of locally produced foods, and the processing of local foods for institutional sales. 

 

Our expertise ranges from store development and financing to operations. Additionally we have served as business development advisors for food entrepreneurs, as service directors for regional Food Innovation Centers, as consultants to the USDA, and, as senior managers for multi-national grocery store operators. Our ability to help clients extract benefits from value chains linking foods from farms to forks and to create self sufficient, profitable enterprises in a variety of arenas has been demonstrated by shopping centers, inner city supermarkets, delivery and distribution programs and in food production ventures.