Local Food Plus moves Certified Local Sustainable food through what’s called the food “supply chain.” To  preserve and enhance local sustainable qualities and values, LFP staff reconfigure that supply chain as a partnership network.

Because sustainability is about learning to drive on a two-way street, there needs to be partnerships between producers and customers, and among producers, processors, retailers, restaurateurs, caterers and institutions.

Those relationships flourish in a network bound by common values, not just monetary gain.

Heard enough, and you’re ready to become a LFP partner?

Already a committed partner?

What Does it Mean to be a LFP Partner

A local sustainable food system is a relationship-based food system. That’s what makes it so different from the cutthroat commodity-based food system.

LFP doesn’t just add monetary value to the quality of LFP-certified commodities. LFP’s primary goal is to add meaningful values that relate to local sustainable relationships. That way, people who buy LFP products and services get local sustainable values for their money, which is what they expect from the LFP label – better food that brings better relations with the environment and local communities.

When partners sign on as LFP partners, they sign on to a relationship with a network of people who are all committed to the same values they are.

By pledging commitment to LFP, partners are committing to supporting a local sustainable food system that has the future of food and farming in mind.

Partnership Has its Benefits

People join partnerships because they need services they can’t get on their own, or because they find it too expensive or complicated to buy those services in the competitive marketplace, which doesn’t always respond to special values and needs.

LFP is Canada’s only full-service networking and partnership organization for the fast-rising local sustainable food sector. We are a high-energy roll-up-our-sleeves group that’s eager to help you make real food system change.

Here are standard LFP services:

  • LFP partners get identified as a partner on the LFP website, a busy site in its own right, which also has traffic driven to it via Facebook postings and Twitter feeds. When customers are looking for local sustainable providers, chances are this is the first place they’ll look.
  • LFP partners get mentioned when journalists call LFP for leads on a story about new and interesting local and environmental projects on Earth Day, during harvest season, and at other times when media do specials on local sustainable events. LFP has excellent relations with the media, and LFP staff are often the first to be called by journalists on tight deadlines.
  • LFP partners get mentioned when LFP leaders give presentations on major themes related to local sustainable food.
  • LFP partners bask in the light of LFP’s dynamic branding of local sustainable food. It’s well-recognized that LFP put local sustainable on the map. When a partner posts the small but attractive LFP logo near an entrance, passers-by will know the logo stands for the real thing.
  • LFP partners get trouble-shooting services. Local sustainable is new, and is linked to increased public awareness of controversial issues – from animal welfare concerns to worries about hormones and genetic engineering. LFP partners are one call away from having someone who can give informed answers.
  • LFP partners can access training sessions and packages for staff that equip them to pass on interesting and heart-warming stories behind local sustainable food. Customers are delighted by such stories because they don’t get that transparency or enthusiasm from the conventional food industry.
  • LFP partners get opportunities to start positive conversations with new customers. Many LFP restaurants directly identify the specific LFP producer on their menu, because customers like to link a name and face to the Certified Local Sustainable food they’re eating.
  • LFP partners get access to LFP’s attractively-designed Point of Sale educational materials that can be displayed during in-store promotions.

In a nutshell, here’s an explanation of why LFP delivers so many services to partners: LFP manages a food values partnership network where everyone in the network does well when everyone does good.

Become a partner today!