The Food Innovation Center is a project that has been talked about and a plan in progress for many years.  The hope is to eventually acquire a building that would make the Food Innovation Center possible. The Food Innovation Center is a place that will focus on several things. One is the economic development of the Rainier Beach Community.  The center would help entrepreneurs who want to start food related businesses. It would serve as a food hub. A place where anyone can go despite their income to enjoy and learn about healthy food. RBAC is currently in the process of fleshing out this idea with Dawn Meader McCausland of Fruition Planning and management. Dawn is facilitating workshops over the course of this month so that we can truly hash out this idea and make it a reality. Here is something that we covered in the first workshop. 

 

  1. Define Success
  • Review RBAC Mission and Values
  • Identify/review key competencies
  • Develop/review strategy screen
  • Define initial desired outcomes and beneficiaries
  1. Ideate Solutions
  • Explore activity/program ideas
  • Identify key customers, target participants, and other beneficiaries
  • Discuss key needs and value propositions for customers/participants
  • Discuss the impact potential of activity/program ideas
  • Identify hurdles and concerns
  • Explore synergies between activity/program ideas

 

Some of the more creative ideas that have popped up form out the first workshop is a food library, having stores highlight fresh produce instead of processed food,  and basically just being the go-to location in Rainier Beach for learning all you need to learn about healthy food.