Identifying the Gap:
Challenges in Scaling Food Businesses
At CRAFT, we believe that part of creating a better food system is providing opportunities for small food producers to scale their business. It is one thing to take the leap from playing around in your kitchen to producing your product in a commercial kitchen. And it’s an entirely different step to find the right opportunities to grow your product regionally and nationally.
Over the last few years, we have been considering what it means to take a food product to market. In this work, we discovered a gap from product creation to distribution.
How can a business who has a new and emerging or an established product get shelf space at different retailers?
How can a food business be ready to scale if a hotel chain is interested in their product?
How can a new producer meet the demand of being in five local coffee shops with just themselves as their sole employee?
All of these questions depend on the product, the business, the owner, and their goals. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution – but at the heart of our work is this guiding question:
How can a food business successfully scale to meet growing demand or discover new pathways to generate it?
At CRAFT, we know that growing and scaling a business is no small feat. Whether a business wants to scale is often a gray area, and the path forward isn’t always clear. There will always be questions – some we can help answer, and others we’re still learning alongside the businesses we support.
In the pursuit of finding a solution to all the incredibly difficult to answer questions above, we decided to create a new program – Mountain to Market: Producer Producer Pathways to Success (M2M). The goal is to prepare businesses to attend the Fancy Food Show (FFS) hosted by the Specialty Food Association (SFA). Not only preparing them to attend, but also preparing them to engage with national retailers, press, and the many other attendees that they’ll be interacting with.
Understanding the Landscape:
Navigating the Fancy Food Show Floors
The SFA FFS has been around since the 1950’s and has been able to stay relevant over the years. Thousands of people and businesses come together to impress buyers, media, press, investors and different service providers (think public relations and brand identity designers).
A large part of the show booths are aisles and aisles of large government-sponsored national trade associations from anywhere like Greece, Italy and Japan plus many more. All these booths are pleasant enough, but most of them don’t pay to be there and simply aren’t wildly interested in offering samples to everyone who walks by. Can you blame them? You can find these folks often working on their laptops, conversing one-on-one, or even popping a bottle of champagne for themselves or a small group of native language speaking friends.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s interesting to see what’s happening in other parts of the world and to taste products from across the globe. But these sections, especially alongside the massive U.S. corporate booths, aren’t always the most engaging. It’s all part of the show, of course. Still, it can feel like if your badge doesn’t say “buyer,” some folks don’t even bother to look your way.
Fair. It is a national trade show, after all.
The most energizing, engaging, and exciting part of the show is always the small to mid-size brands—wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for foot traffic, feedback, and the hope that the right person will try their product. Some of the best moments come from the state pavilions, where smaller brands that have found regional success are eager to take the next step into national markets. That section was one of my favorites: ice cream from Vermont, salsa from Pennsylvania, boiled peanuts from Georgia. Honestly, can it get any better?
It actually can get better – right in Incubator Village. This is where you’ll find some of the smallest and most emerging brands just starting out. For many, it’s their first or second trade show. Some have been to Expo West or walked the Winter Fancy Food Show, but most have never experienced anything quite like the Summer Fancy Food Show, including me.
Can you ever really be fully prepared for something like this? I don’t think so. But if there’s one thing I know about small and mid-size business owners, it’s that they show up ready. For connection, for opportunity, and for anyone willing to taste their product and hear their story. That’s what makes this part of the show so special. There’s a friendliness in the air and a welcome mat at every booth. No one’s staring at your badge to decide whether you’re worth talking to. People are just excited to share. This is their moment, and they’ve worked hard to be here.
Experiencing the Fancy Food Show:
Real-World Exposure for Emerging Food Businesses
M2M was modeled after a program similar offered by the North West Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center known as Connecting, Strengthening and Scaling Food Supply Chains in the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Region supported by Colorado State University and Oregon State University. Each of our programs offer a series of preparation courses leading up to the Fancy Food Show, designed to empower businesses to think critically and strategically about next steps for their products and growth.
Thankfully our first cohort was a huge success.
We kicked things off with a prep class in February and extended an open invitation to interested businesses to join us on a “discovery trip” to the Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas. Three businesses took us up on the offer, each receiving a $400 stipend to support their attendance.
Over the following six months, we met monthly with our cohort of six businesses to prepare them for what it means to show at the Fancy Food Show. Topics included:
- A business roundtable featuring three successful entrepreneurs from the Northwest/Rocky Mountain RFBC who had exhibited at past Fancy Food Shows
- Packaging and sampling best practices, including real-life examples
- Do’s and Don’ts for pitching your business and setting up a trade show booth
- Pitch practice sessions with real-time feedback
- Final logistics, coordination details, and time for questions and concerns
The sessions were collaborative and dynamic, filled with shared learning between cohort members, CRAFT staff, and guest speakers. Participation in the program was completely free. CRAFT covered the booth cost and provided each business with a $400 stipend to support travel and logistics. We also brought a small but mighty support team to New York City – myself, Nicolette, and three dedicated graduate students – to assist with booth setup, breaks, and on-the-ground coordination.
The camaraderie of learning together was something truly special. Over the months, our cohort built not just skills, but relationships. Offering each other encouragement, ideas, and solidarity through every challenge. That sense of shared growth made the experience even more meaningful.
Arriving at the Javits Center on Saturday was hectic, but necessary. That extra day gave our cohort time to get settled, set up their booths, and finally meet one another in person. Once the show kicked off, it was nonstop energy from that point forward. Over 21,000 exhibitors filled the Javits Center from Saturday through Tuesday, sharing their products, making connections, and building industry relationships that could shape the future of their businesses.
Watching all of this unfold was incredible. Our entire cohort brought something unique, not just their products, but their stories and personalities as well. Seeing so many small businesses engage in meaningful conversations with major retailers like Whole Foods and Walmart was truly remarkable. I mention those names to highlight just how much opportunity these shows can create for the right product. Out of thousands of vendors, we were fortunate to bring our own cohort of six amazing businesses:
Jay of Popping Mustard Seeds: Signature Chai Masala tea blend—authentic, aromatic, and perfect for elevating everyday tea moments.
Brooke (Rachel, Cami and Melanie) of Please and Thank You: America’s best chocolate chip cookies —small-batch, scratch-made, and now available for wholesale.
Gauri of ZipFrut: South Asian superfruits—mango, jamun, and sapota—slow-dried into clean, antioxidant-rich snacks with no added sugar or preservatives.
Hannah of Aycho Melange: Handcrafted French macarons—classic to bold flavors—baked fresh for wholesale, events, and more.
Helena of KaiVida Superfoods: Quick, nutritious superfood meal bowls and snacks—USDA-compliant, shelf-stable, and customizable for healing and food security.
Ben of Butcher Ben’s Beef Tallow: Rich, high-smoke-point beef tallow made from premium local beef fat—perfect for cooking and flavor.
Unexpected Setbacks:
Funding Freeze and Its Impact
While excitement and energy filled the days before, during, and after the show, I couldn’t shake a constant underlying anxiety as the program manager. Mountain to Market was originally designed to operate under the Appalachia Regional Food Business Center—a first-of-its-kind USDA-funded initiative launched during the Biden administration. Although CRAFT facilitated the program, its purpose was to serve anyone within the Center’s service area seeking to grow their specialty food or beverage product.
Unfortunately, once the new administration took office, this critical funding, vital to us and many other regional and national partners, was frozen. Funding came to a complete halt as of January 20th of this year. It’s a daunting reality, and we had hoped for clarity by now. However, that has not been the case.
To this day, we still have no indication if or when the funding will be restored.
At the last minute, CRAFT had to decide not to attend the FFS as the Appalachia Regional Food Business Center. Instead, we participated solely as CRAFT at Chatham University, funding the Mountain to Market program activities through a different grant we already had in place.
At the FFS, we received a lot of interest and questions about the program we built from fellow practitioners and businesses eager to join the next cohort. People asked if we would be returning and when applications would open. We met these questions with both hope and uncertainty, responding, “Hopefully, we’ll have answers soon.”
Adapting and Moving Forward:
Continuing the Mission
The goal of sharing these details is not to cast a shadow on the amazing time our cohort experienced. Instead, it’s to highlight just how energizing the event was and how much valuable experience small food businesses gained by attending. Growing a small food business in this country is far from easy, straightforward, or accessible. While retailers like Whole Foods and Walmart aren’t the ultimate solution to building a better food system, they are undeniably part of the system we operate in. That’s why it’s crucial to equip small businesses with the knowledge of what it truly takes to grow their product nationally and to help them decide if that’s even the path they want to pursue.
Reflections on Place and Possibility:
What Appalachia, New York City, and Small Food Businesses Reveal About the American Dream
As I walked around New York City, there’s a starkness that feels familiar—one that echoes Appalachia. Both places carry many versions of themselves, some more accurate than others, and it would take countless paintings to capture their full stories. Yet each shares an extraordinary mix of beauty and deep extraction. Each holds unique values, realities, and experiences. Just as the Manhattan skyline inspires awe, the Appalachian mountains remind us how deeply human we are. Deserving of the chance to build the lives we’ve always imagined for ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Opportunities like the Regional Food Business Centers give organizations like CRAFT and local businesses the freedom to explore what opportunity looks like in the 21st century. By subsidizing some of the risk, they empower individuals to say, “Let me give this a try.” And what’s more American than that? The debate over what it means to be American is endless—and frankly, exhausting—because there is no single definition.
From my perspective, America shows its best face in the rolling hills of Appalachia or the bustling streets of New York City. But it can also reveal harsh realities: economic collapse, unstable living conditions for many, and towering wealth for the few. America is full of beauty, but it can also hit you hard when you confront the history and ongoing realities of extraction endured by the people who live in these places. Like running a small business, it’s not always pretty or simple. It’s complex and challenging.
Federal programs like the Regional Food Business Centers exist to serve the people of this nation—those willing to take risks and pursue their own version of the American dream. For some, that means running a program to educate food entrepreneurs on best practices for trade shows. For others, it’s packing a suitcase and spending four days sharing their product with fellow industry leaders, hoping the right buyer will walk by their booth. This is the real American dream in action.
Looking Ahead:
The Future of Small Food Business Growth
I wish we had a clear vision regarding what lies ahead. Even in times of uncertainty and frustration, there is always perspective – beauty in the hills and awe in the skyline. While a critical line of funding for us has been on hold for several months, a grassroots organization knows how to pivot and take opportunities just like an emerging small business owner. Grit, creativity, and passion drive everything we do, and we’re confident these qualities will carry our businesses forward through whatever their next phase of growth may be.
If you’re a small food producer ready to take the next step, or a partner interested in supporting regional food entrepreneurs, we invite you to join us. Together, we can build a stronger, more equitable food system. One that honors the grit, creativity, and passion of the people who make it possible.
Stay connected, get involved, and help us create opportunities that turn dreams into reality.
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