Request for Proposals

The Request for Proposals is now closed. Thank you to all of our proposal submissions.

Key Dates

• Presentation Proposal Submission Deadline: Sunday, February 11, 2024 at 11:59 PM Central
• Selected Presenter Notification: Mid-March 2024
• Conference: June 24-25, 2024

Potential Topic Areas

Topics to be covered at the summit include, but are not limited to:

• Equity in rural food systems: This could include experiences supporting rural food access in historically marginalized or underserved communities, innovative examples of programs that encourage rural grocery led by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs.
• Innovation in rural food access: This could include emerging grocery models, rural food distribution solutions, creative partnerships, strategies to address rural grocery challenges.
• Local food system connections: This could include strategies for sourcing local products in local grocery stores, partnerships with local producers or other food systems stakeholders to build capacity for the local food system, etc.
• Policy: This could include tools for rural grocers to engage with policymakers, discussion of relevant state or federal grocery or rural food access policies, lessons learned from interactions with policymakers.
• Resources (financial and informational): This could include research findings, details on funding programs, newly developed informational resources.
• Rural grocery stores as community builders This could include examples of community-led rural food access efforts, community leadership (formal or informal) of rural grocery project.
• Rural grocery best practices: This could include ways to increase sales and attract new customers, overcoming challenges (e.g. supply chain, operations, competition, consolidation, distribution, labor, etc.), addressing changes in shopping behaviors and consumer preferences, strengthening community relationships, building customer loyalty, Increasing business value, succession planning, etc.

 

Click here to download the complete Request for Proposals (RFP) for more details on presentation formats, submission requirements, and more. Please read the entire RFP before submitting a proposal.

To learn more about the Rural Grocery Initiative, please visit www.ruralgrocery.org. For additional questions about the initiative or the summit, please contact us at rgi@ksu.edu.