Here’s what you have to do to compete. First, Register by April 26, 2016, at 10:00 CT. Then, create your submission using the application guidelines below. There are three sections in the application: Your Team, Your Plan, and Resource Requirements. The top five Finalists will be required to complete a Video Pitch as described below.
Please provide a brief summary of the solution that your team is proposing, in order to implement the most innovative solution to re-conceive supply chain practices that today limit the scale or efficiency of the Chicago region’s local and sustainable food market. Your brief summary cannot exceed 20 words. Be concise and compelling.
This application has been drafted to allow for the formation of a wide variety of teams. However, as we consider which teams are most likely to succeed, those that include members from multiple points along the supply chain and seasoned professionals who understand the difficulties of producing food in and for the Chicago region will be most competitive. We require every team to include at least one local Food Grower, who meets sustainable food production practices. A local Food Grower must consist of a farmer, rancher, or organization responsible for growing food or raising livestock or poultry within a 250 mile radius around the City of Chicago. While farmers and ranchers may represent the largest categories of local Food Growers, we welcome any individuals or other organizations that assume local food growing as the primary purpose of their operations. Your team must include a local Food Grower, so that any team proposing a solution that does not directly include local food production will take time to consider the needs of those growing food in the Chicago region.
The following information is required to capture a basic understanding of the leadership, structure, vision, and capabilities of your team.
TEAM LEADERSHIP
Each team must be led by an individual who takes responsibility for completing the application and assumes final accountability. This individual may delegate responsibilities to others but will serve as the primary point of contact for program administrators and coordinate responses to any questions and/or have a working knowledge of all team decisions.
TEAM LEADER
Please provide the name and title of your team leader for the purposes of communicating with your team.
TEAM STRUCTURE
Teams will be made up of at least two organizations or individuals with a minimum of one local Food Grower that serves the Chicago region and that meets our standards of sustainable food production. Each team must be organized to efficiently and effectively deliver a clear and compelling solution to re-conceive supply chain practices that today limit the scale and efficiency of the local food market. You will be asked to name each individual team member, outline how you work together, and explain both the legal and governing control of your team’s proposed solution.
Any summary description of your team may be used in other materials to provide a general overview of your team to others.
TEAM LIST – 250 words
Provide a description of the individuals or organizations, businesses, or expertise represented by your team, starting with the team leader. Please remember to include and describe one or more local Food Grower(s) that conform to the local and sustainable food production standards described on this website. Any food grower that is named here must register through this website and provide pertinent information about his/her growing practices in order to qualify. Without one or more Food Grower team member(s) meeting those standards, your team will be disqualified.
HOW WAS YOUR TEAM FORMED? – 150 words
Briefly, tell the story of how your team was formed. Emphasize where any long-standing relationships create stability and strength among the members. You are also encouraged to showcase where new relationships have emerged and under what conditions any new members agreed to participate. We seek teams that offer innovative solutions to increase the supply of local and sustainable food in the Chicago region, and we define innovative as either new and breakthrough concepts or tried and tested methodologies that, when applied differently, will yield greater results. Explain how your team is positioned to offer either of those approaches to innovation based on the track record of its members.
MANAGEMENT – 250 words
Please provide a narrative description of the management structure of your team by describing the key implementation responsibilities of the team members and their relationship to other team members, relative to your proposed solution. You may describe a formal organizational chart, but if your team is only loosely constructed please offer a description of how the parties share responsibilities and/or hold one another accountable. You may include a brief biographical statement for managing team members. You may also list the name and credentials of any key advisors who are not included as a member of your team, but who may counsel the team where management appears to lack relevant credentials.
In this section, you will respond to questions that help describe your team’s proposed solution. Your team should emphasize how the new solution aligns with the four traits that will be used to score each application (see Trait Scoring Rubric). You are expected to describe how your solution solves a specific problem that currently inhibits the scale or efficiency of the local and sustainable food sector in the Chicago region or makes lasting and meaningful progress in response to a specific problem. Take time to underscore both the specific strengths of your plan and how they represent broader qualities of an overall strategy to ensure meaningful progress towards the goals of Food:Land:Opportunity.
YOUR APPROACH
Each team must address a problem that currently inhibits the scale or efficiency of the local and sustainable food sector in the Chicago region. Each team will then describe the context in which the solution will be implemented.
YOUR PROBLEM AND SOLUTION – 250 words
Building on the brief summary of your solution, please provide a broader and deeper explanation from within the context of a specific market problem. Focus on how the solution will address the market problem; explain any real or perceived barriers to solving the problem, and how your solution will overcome these barriers.
TARGET MARKET ANALYSIS – 250 words
Describe the projected size and type of your target market, including the specific products or services you intend to supply. Your market may be as discrete as a school or neighborhood or as large as a city or region. The only requirement is that your market has a direct benefit to the seven-county Chicago region (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will). Once you have defined your market, detail current levels of supply and demand and show how you will meet demand relative to your proposed solution. This brief explanation must show that you understand your target market and that, through a financially sustainable or scalable approach, you are directing your focus on increasing supply or improving efficiencies in this market.
YOUR FINANCING – 200 words
Build on the description of your target market analysis above and explain whether traditional financing exists for your solution and, if so, whether you have pursued traditional options. Describe any financial hurdles you have faced or anticipate facing, in terms of either launching or accelerating your solution, and in what ways, if any, the Food to Market Challenge impacts your plans.
ALIGNMENT with Food:Land:Opportunity
You are required to identify how your solution advances the desired outcomes of Food:Land:Opportunity. Please take time to read a summary description of the initiative on this website. From the following list, select the area(s) in which you feel that your solution contributes to Food:Land:Opportunity’s charitable goals. You may select more than one option.
Explain your Selection(s) – 200 words
Please explain your selection(s) above as well as any other charitable goals met by your proposed solution.
PROJECT PLANNING
In this section, you will be asked to provide details about your plan. Please read all of the requirements carefully to avoid repeating points. Your project plan should provide judges with a clear roadmap that illustrates how you intend to realize your goals, the indicators by which you measure your success, and the steps required to achieve projected results.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – 200 words
The executive summary is your opportunity to provide an overview of your plan. This overview should reference your problem and proposed solution and include your goals and processes, including the systems, technology, infrastructure, or support by which you will produce measurable indicators of success . This portion of your application may be posted for others to see. Therefore, we encourage you not to mention any aspects of your plan that your team may feel is either proprietary or that upon revealing it would place your team at a competitive disadvantage.
Note: if chosen as a finalist in the Food to Market Challenge, you will be responsible for producing a short video pitch that captures this executive summary information.
WORK PLAN
In this section, you are asked to list the individual tasks needed to implement and manage your proposed solution and the team members responsible for ensuring the completion of each of them. This information is important for the judges to understand the feasibility of your plan.
PLAN DURATION – open field
What is the timeframe for the proposed plan? Indicate your timeframe in the total number of months (not to exceed 36 months).
OTHER SUPPORT – 150 words
Now that you have mapped your plan for implementing your proposed solution, please describe the use of any volunteers or other in-kind resources by describing those contributions against relevant tasks identified in the team’s project plan. Your description of any necessary project support is intended to show where difficult tasks may be mitigated through means other than funding. In your response, you may refer to relationship(s) that have been previously identified.
PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT – 200 words
Please describe any threats to your team’s proposed solution and your plan to address them. While every solution is different, we expect you to raise key potential risks and how you intend to manage them.
PLANNED TRACKING & METRICS – 200 words
Describe how you plan to measure the overall performance of the proposed solution. List your projected goals and the indicators you will use for tracking results/performance. While each team’s metrics will differ, our judges will also assess your metrics according to how well they will track your scale and efficiency over time.
In this section, we are asking for a detailed budget and notes explaining all resource requirements in order for our judges to understand both the viability and fiscal sustainability of your solution.
TOTAL CAPITAL NEEDS
Please indicate the amount of capital secured to date, if any. You may enter the source of the secured funding in the line item description. Also, please indicate any outstanding capital required to implement the proposed plan. Identify this amount by entering “OUTSTANDING CAPITAL” in the last line item description. The amount of “OUTSTANDING CAPITAL” cannot be greater than $500,000. If the need for any “OUTSTANDING CAPITAL” exceeds $500,000, then you need to provide a clear explanation for how you plan to secure the balance of any necessary funds in the “Other Considerations” area below before your application can be considered feasible.
EXPENSES
What is the total cost to implement the solution within the specified timeframe (not to exceed 36 months) in your team’s work plan? This includes capital expenditures and operational expenditures. Please list each cost category in the following table and provide notes for the cost categories if they require further explanation. Please clarify whether each cost category is a capital expenditure or an operational expenditure.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS – 250 words
The implementation of your team’s solution may require other resources, and you are welcome to explain them here. You are also welcome to offer any contingency planning, based on specific issues raised in the risk section of your proposal. This is your opportunity to more completely describe any outstanding issues that you could not offer in other sections.
SCALABILITY – 200 words
Now that you have established your capital needs and projected costs to implement the proposed solution, please explain how your team’s solution will continue once the award funds have been spent. Describe the long term scalability of the solution by detailing how the proposed solution will grow and/or increase in effectiveness over time.
Between June 29th, 2016, and October, 10th, 2016, all Finalist teams will be named and will have 3 months to prepare a presentation to the Selection Committee, to take place during a final public event. Those same Finalists will also be required to submit a video pitch, which can be used to summarize each team’s proposed solution and which may be posted on the website.
FINALIST VIDEO PITCH – YouTube ID # for Submission
If you are chosen as a finalist you will be asked to submit a video presentation, which captures your team’s pitch for why your solution should be funded. You will need to upload a short digital film by October 1st.
Video submissions should follow these guidelines:
Video submissions that do not follow these guidelines may be removed from the application.
Here are general suggestions for delivering a high-quality video pitch:
Hone your content:
Practice numerous times and solicit feedback from team members, colleagues, family, and friends. Do not submit a video pitch if you see room for improvement.
Here’s what you have to do to compete. First, Register by April 26, 2016, at 10:00 CT. Then, create your submission using the application guidelines below. There are three sections in the application: Your Team, Your Plan, and Resource Requirements. The top five Finalists will be required to complete a Video Pitch as described below.
Please provide a brief summary of the solution that your team is proposing, in order to implement the most innovative solution to re-conceive supply chain practices that today limit the scale or efficiency of the Chicago region’s local and sustainable food market. Your brief summary cannot exceed 20 words. Be concise and compelling.
This application has been drafted to allow for the formation of a wide variety of teams. However, as we consider which teams are most likely to succeed, those that include members from multiple points along the supply chain and seasoned professionals who understand the difficulties of producing food in and for the Chicago region will be most competitive. We require every team to include at least one local Food Grower, who meets sustainable food production practices. A local Food Grower must consist of a farmer, rancher, or organization responsible for growing food or raising livestock or poultry within a 250 mile radius around the City of Chicago. While farmers and ranchers may represent the largest categories of local Food Growers, we welcome any individuals or other organizations that assume local food growing as the primary purpose of their operations. Your team must include a local Food Grower, so that any team proposing a solution that does not directly include local food production will take time to consider the needs of those growing food in the Chicago region.
The following information is required to capture a basic understanding of the leadership, structure, vision, and capabilities of your team.
TEAM LEADERSHIP
Each team must be led by an individual who takes responsibility for completing the application and assumes final accountability. This individual may delegate responsibilities to others but will serve as the primary point of contact for program administrators and coordinate responses to any questions and/or have a working knowledge of all team decisions.
TEAM LEADER
Please provide the name and title of your team leader for the purposes of communicating with your team.
TEAM STRUCTURE
Teams will be made up of at least two organizations or individuals with a minimum of one local Food Grower that serves the Chicago region and that meets our standards of sustainable food production. Each team must be organized to efficiently and effectively deliver a clear and compelling solution to re-conceive supply chain practices that today limit the scale and efficiency of the local food market. You will be asked to name each individual team member, outline how you work together, and explain both the legal and governing control of your team’s proposed solution.
Any summary description of your team may be used in other materials to provide a general overview of your team to others.
TEAM LIST – 250 words
Provide a description of the individuals or organizations, businesses, or expertise represented by your team, starting with the team leader. Please remember to include and describe one or more local Food Grower(s) that conform to the local and sustainable food production standards described on this website. Any food grower that is named here must register through this website and provide pertinent information about his/her growing practices in order to qualify. Without one or more Food Grower team member(s) meeting those standards, your team will be disqualified.
HOW WAS YOUR TEAM FORMED? – 150 words
Briefly, tell the story of how your team was formed. Emphasize where any long-standing relationships create stability and strength among the members. You are also encouraged to showcase where new relationships have emerged and under what conditions any new members agreed to participate. We seek teams that offer innovative solutions to increase the supply of local and sustainable food in the Chicago region, and we define innovative as either new and breakthrough concepts or tried and tested methodologies that, when applied differently, will yield greater results. Explain how your team is positioned to offer either of those approaches to innovation based on the track record of its members.
MANAGEMENT – 250 words
Please provide a narrative description of the management structure of your team by describing the key implementation responsibilities of the team members and their relationship to other team members, relative to your proposed solution. You may describe a formal organizational chart, but if your team is only loosely constructed please offer a description of how the parties share responsibilities and/or hold one another accountable. You may include a brief biographical statement for managing team members. You may also list the name and credentials of any key advisors who are not included as a member of your team, but who may counsel the team where management appears to lack relevant credentials.
In this section, you will respond to questions that help describe your team’s proposed solution. Your team should emphasize how the new solution aligns with the four traits that will be used to score each application (see Trait Scoring Rubric). You are expected to describe how your solution solves a specific problem that currently inhibits the scale or efficiency of the local and sustainable food sector in the Chicago region or makes lasting and meaningful progress in response to a specific problem. Take time to underscore both the specific strengths of your plan and how they represent broader qualities of an overall strategy to ensure meaningful progress towards the goals of Food:Land:Opportunity.
YOUR APPROACH
Each team must address a problem that currently inhibits the scale or efficiency of the local and sustainable food sector in the Chicago region. Each team will then describe the context in which the solution will be implemented.
YOUR PROBLEM AND SOLUTION – 250 words
Building on the brief summary of your solution, please provide a broader and deeper explanation from within the context of a specific market problem. Focus on how the solution will address the market problem; explain any real or perceived barriers to solving the problem, and how your solution will overcome these barriers.
TARGET MARKET ANALYSIS – 250 words
Describe the projected size and type of your target market, including the specific products or services you intend to supply. Your market may be as discrete as a school or neighborhood or as large as a city or region. The only requirement is that your market has a direct benefit to the seven-county Chicago region (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will). Once you have defined your market, detail current levels of supply and demand and show how you will meet demand relative to your proposed solution. This brief explanation must show that you understand your target market and that, through a financially sustainable or scalable approach, you are directing your focus on increasing supply or improving efficiencies in this market.
YOUR FINANCING – 200 words
Build on the description of your target market analysis above and explain whether traditional financing exists for your solution and, if so, whether you have pursued traditional options. Describe any financial hurdles you have faced or anticipate facing, in terms of either launching or accelerating your solution, and in what ways, if any, the Food to Market Challenge impacts your plans.
ALIGNMENT with Food:Land:Opportunity
You are required to identify how your solution advances the desired outcomes of Food:Land:Opportunity. Please take time to read a summary description of the initiative on this website. From the following list, select the area(s) in which you feel that your solution contributes to Food:Land:Opportunity’s charitable goals. You may select more than one option.
Explain your Selection(s) – 200 words
Please explain your selection(s) above as well as any other charitable goals met by your proposed solution.
PROJECT PLANNING
In this section, you will be asked to provide details about your plan. Please read all of the requirements carefully to avoid repeating points. Your project plan should provide judges with a clear roadmap that illustrates how you intend to realize your goals, the indicators by which you measure your success, and the steps required to achieve projected results.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – 200 words
The executive summary is your opportunity to provide an overview of your plan. This overview should reference your problem and proposed solution and include your goals and processes, including the systems, technology, infrastructure, or support by which you will produce measurable indicators of success . This portion of your application may be posted for others to see. Therefore, we encourage you not to mention any aspects of your plan that your team may feel is either proprietary or that upon revealing it would place your team at a competitive disadvantage.
Note: if chosen as a finalist in the Food to Market Challenge, you will be responsible for producing a short video pitch that captures this executive summary information.
WORK PLAN
In this section, you are asked to list the individual tasks needed to implement and manage your proposed solution and the team members responsible for ensuring the completion of each of them. This information is important for the judges to understand the feasibility of your plan.
PLAN DURATION – open field
What is the timeframe for the proposed plan? Indicate your timeframe in the total number of months (not to exceed 36 months).
OTHER SUPPORT – 150 words
Now that you have mapped your plan for implementing your proposed solution, please describe the use of any volunteers or other in-kind resources by describing those contributions against relevant tasks identified in the team’s project plan. Your description of any necessary project support is intended to show where difficult tasks may be mitigated through means other than funding. In your response, you may refer to relationship(s) that have been previously identified.
PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT – 200 words
Please describe any threats to your team’s proposed solution and your plan to address them. While every solution is different, we expect you to raise key potential risks and how you intend to manage them.
PLANNED TRACKING & METRICS – 200 words
Describe how you plan to measure the overall performance of the proposed solution. List your projected goals and the indicators you will use for tracking results/performance. While each team’s metrics will differ, our judges will also assess your metrics according to how well they will track your scale and efficiency over time.
In this section, we are asking for a detailed budget and notes explaining all resource requirements in order for our judges to understand both the viability and fiscal sustainability of your solution.
TOTAL CAPITAL NEEDS
Please indicate the amount of capital secured to date, if any. You may enter the source of the secured funding in the line item description. Also, please indicate any outstanding capital required to implement the proposed plan. Identify this amount by entering “OUTSTANDING CAPITAL” in the last line item description. The amount of “OUTSTANDING CAPITAL” cannot be greater than $500,000. If the need for any “OUTSTANDING CAPITAL” exceeds $500,000, then you need to provide a clear explanation for how you plan to secure the balance of any necessary funds in the “Other Considerations” area below before your application can be considered feasible.
EXPENSES
What is the total cost to implement the solution within the specified timeframe (not to exceed 36 months) in your team’s work plan? This includes capital expenditures and operational expenditures. Please list each cost category in the following table and provide notes for the cost categories if they require further explanation. Please clarify whether each cost category is a capital expenditure or an operational expenditure.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS – 250 words
The implementation of your team’s solution may require other resources, and you are welcome to explain them here. You are also welcome to offer any contingency planning, based on specific issues raised in the risk section of your proposal. This is your opportunity to more completely describe any outstanding issues that you could not offer in other sections.
SCALABILITY – 200 words
Now that you have established your capital needs and projected costs to implement the proposed solution, please explain how your team’s solution will continue once the award funds have been spent. Describe the long term scalability of the solution by detailing how the proposed solution will grow and/or increase in effectiveness over time.
Between June 29th, 2016, and October, 10th, 2016, all Finalist teams will be named and will have 3 months to prepare a presentation to the Selection Committee, to take place during a final public event. Those same Finalists will also be required to submit a video pitch, which can be used to summarize each team’s proposed solution and which may be posted on the website.
FINALIST VIDEO PITCH – YouTube ID # for Submission
If you are chosen as a finalist you will be asked to submit a video presentation, which captures your team’s pitch for why your solution should be funded. You will need to upload a short digital film by October 1st.
Video submissions should follow these guidelines:
Video submissions that do not follow these guidelines may be removed from the application.
Here are general suggestions for delivering a high-quality video pitch:
Hone your content:
Practice numerous times and solicit feedback from team members, colleagues, family, and friends. Do not submit a video pitch if you see room for improvement.