Regional-scale food manufacturing- a critical link in building an equitable, resilient food economy.

The U.S. food system wastes billions each year due to its cumbersome, centralized, monolithic infrastructure unable to adapt to shifting market demands or climate shocks. The result is enormous waste, inefficiency and fragility across the supply chain. Regional scale processing offers a powerful alternative: nimble processing of local ingredients to reconnect growers, makers, and buyers in a values-aligned business ecosystem. In this session, CommonWealth Kitchen will share how we’re leveraging our mid-scale manufacturing social enterprise to reimagine the supply chain for Massachusetts’K-12 schools and other institutional food service, and demonstrating a scalable, replicable, financially sustainable model for systemic transformation