Cornerstone Ventures is an outgrowth of Cornerstone Consultants-US, which was established in 1992 to help US and international nonprofit organizations and philanthropies identify and support strategies for growth, change and success.  Through this entity, Cornerstone Ventures has played roles in sustainable development, local economy studies, cultural tourism, asset development, community action and economic development initiatives. They have worked with foundations, financial institutions, universities, community action agencies, nonprofit groups and cooperatives on programs that helped improve circumstances for residents of people living in urban settings, on Native American reservations, in rural and remote wilderness locations and in developing nations such as Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and South Sudan.  

 

Since then, they have:

 

• Participated in the development of Fields Foods, a $14 million supermarket and Food Hub in a St. Louis Food desert,

• Assisted small scale farm operators in organizing healthy food growing and/or distribution initiatives in Oregon, Missouri, Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey,

• Participated in efforts to launch food linked marketing and distribution programs at two Federally Qualified Health Care Centers in Pennsylvania,

• Supported the formation of Veterans to Farmers in Colorado,

• Advised organizers of Heroic Farm, a Veterans Farm Skill Training Center in New York,

• Provided strategic planning assistance to St. Louis’ pioneering Juice Box program, a youth development program that offered inner city youth a safe space to grow and eat healthy foods, exercise and record music together,

• Assessed the merits of a Columbia, OH Mosque’s involvement in the City’s major East PACT development initiative,

• Developed a concept for a self-supporting cluster of food hubs, controlled environment agriculture production centers and healthy food mini-mart outlets for Los Angeles’ NE LA River Redevelopment initiatives,

• Provided advice to organizers of cooperative CSA in Oakland, CA that provided work opportunities to ex-offenders,

• Provided advice and assistance to the City of Denver on the development of a Food Hub for the Denver metro region,

• Participated in the design of a virtual (online) Food Hub linking Fields Food suppliers to wholesale and retail buyers’,

• Worked with Philadelphia, PA’s pioneering Greensgrow Project on a number of projects including a Feasibility Study and Business Plan for Greensgrow’s Camden Food Hub, an Assessment of the Greensgrow Kitchen Incubator’s Performance, and a Market Analysis for a West Philadelphia Greensgrow Food Hub that has since expanded to include nursery products,

• Developed a plan for a health facility linked Food Hub for a Harrisburg, PA area food desert,

• Worked with Institute St. Onge on development of a Hershey Healthy Food Hub project involving the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, the Hershey Farmers Market and Federal Qualified Health Centers in Pennsylvania’s Capital Region counties,

• Secured a Wallace Foundation Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development (HUFED) grant for a food desert area mobile market,

• Advised City of Lancaster planners on Kings Street Historic Corridor redevelopment plans,

• Produced a Veterans to Farmers business plan for a multi-acre, Co-Gen powered Controlled Environment Greenhouse complex, and

• Supported expansion of Preferred Produce, a New Mexico based Controlled Environment Agriculture enterprise through a series of ECO Farms in Virginia and California.