A Year in the Life of Farm Food Drink
As we start to wrap up the year and start planning for 2025, the team at Farm Food Drink wanted to take a moment to look back at some of the projects we’ve worked on this year. 2024 has been busy and productive, at times challenging, and sometimes even frustrating. But we have engaged with new clients and supported ongoing ones. We’ve taken on new and challenging timelines and deliverables. We’ve taken a significant leap to offer support across Canada, we’ve welcomed new team members (also spread across the country and beyond). We are collaborating and partnering with amazing organizations that share our values in developing a healthy food economy based on small and sustainable food businesses. And as always, we’ve worked hard to support the farm and food industry across Canada.
Big Projects & Big Impacts
In 2024, we have been so proud of our ongoing work with the Small Scale Food Processor Association (SSFPA) and their Venture-Capital Ready Program. Not only have we continued delivering and developing a solid program for women entrepreneurs, but we’ve also turned our attention towards the future of the program and how we might continue and adapt its success. Stay tuned with us and SSFPA for exciting announcements in the new year.
A Year of Workshops
This year has been a big one for our workshops team. We’ve really pushed ourselves to partner with associations like:
- PARO (ON): Delivering 4 cohorts of the FoodPreneur Program, and 2 cohorts of its follow-up Grow Your Food Brand Program.
- The Territorial Agrifood Association (NWT): Where we delivered 4 marketing focused sessions for their “Online NWT Food Business Marketing Summit.”
- Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (NF): We facilitated a 3-part workshop series focused on marketing tactics.
- Female Entrepreneurs in Agri-Food Development – FEAD (SK): We delivered 6 sessions focused on business planning.
Through these workshops we’ve met some amazing people. We are constantly blown away by the knowledge, passion, hard work, and dedication displayed by these food entrepreneurs. It has renewed and revitalized our own passion to continue to offer services to this deserving group of entrepreneurs.
New Projects & Relationships
We always look forward to new projects and relationships, and 2024 was no different.
- Territorial Agrifood Association: We worked hard to develop their Tastes of the North brand for their retail location. And we are ecstatic to hear of the success they’ve experienced (even going so far as to have the signage materials inspire neighbouring businesses to update their signage!).
- Pet Go Raw: We did a full rebrand and website design and are so proud of their ongoing success and our ability to make their brand and values come to life visually.
- Lower Similkameen Indian Band: A new client for whom we are working with to develop a Food Hub Business Plan.
- Thames River Melons: A new communications and marketing strategy project we’re looking forward to in 2025, but we were blown away by ownership and hope to continue this relationship.
- Bluenose Probiotics: Coming to us from one of our workshops, we’ll be working with ownership on their marketing plan, setting them up for success.
- Infinity Greens & Produce: This is an exciting project that has hit some challenges in 2024, but we’re working with ownership to tackle them in 2025!
We’ve worked with many more, both current and new additions, but these are some of this year’s highlights.
Ongoing Client Love
And of course, we can never forget our existing clients, who have been such a joy to work with. Developing new labels and strong sales sheets for Honey Bee Zen Apiaries is a great joy of ours. Jeff Lee and Amanda Goodman Lee are fantastic to work with, and we are constantly overjoyed to bring their vision to life. We are blessed to have their trust to do so. And did you hear that Jeff won the Leadership Award for the BC Food & Beverage Rise Awards? We did! We are so proud!!
We’ve continued to work with and support the Boundary Community Ventures Association as they move forward to support their community. We’ve worked on planning and graphic design work with them in relation to the Boundary Food Hub and we are looking forward to 2025 and everything it brings.
We’ve also worked with More than Mustard on sales sheet refinements and their pricing strategy, which has been a slight deviation from most of our work this year, but a change of pace helps to refresh the team.
And we cannot forget BeeKind Honey Bees! We’ve loved developing Ron Glave’s farmers’ market materials, from tent, to tablecloth, and banners. We love the challenge of bringing Ron’s ideas to life. And we’ve enjoyed balancing the brand needs between BeeKind Honey Bees and Beeswax Works. We’re hoping for so many great things in the New Year.
Farm Food Drink team members have also continued to foster our relationships with PARO and SSFPA. And as always, we continue to reach out to ongoing and past clients to check in on how they are doing.
Favourite Moments
After such an eventful year, it’s hard to pick favourite moments, but it’s also nice to look back over the year and see what stands out. Here are some of our team’s highlights.
Sheena | Operations & Projects: One of my absolute favourite moments this year was a meeting with Janet Dean, the Executive Director of the Territorial Agrifood Association, where we went on this fantastic brainstorming tangent for one of our design projects. Their Pip the Seed Mascot got a new friend that day, and Tammi, our Creative Director, brought that idea to life in the best way!
Greg | Managing Director: I was blown away by the loving support, collaboration, and action from the amazing women of the FoodPreneur program. Hearing that our interactive, new form model was really working, and working well, warmed my heart. Our Strategy to support food business leaders across the country was being realised, which was a great moment for us.
Bonnie | Training & Program Manager: Whenever we delivered a 10-week business planning workshop, it was exciting to see the female founders roll up their sleeves, do the work, and make important business decision along the way. They are all inspiring in their commitment to their food business dreams, and I look forward to watching their journey!
Dawn | Business Development Specialist: One of my favourite moments was while facilitating the FoodPreneur workshops, watching business owners nod and smile as they began to understand that they are not alone in their business journey, and that it really is possible to understand financials, to be profitable, and to have fun along the way.
Of course, the other favourite moments were when I joined this team of business specialists, who all enjoy working together and who are dedicated to supporting farm, food and drink businesses.
Karla | Marketing Strategist: Internally, adding Chas to the team as our Social Media Specialist was a big highlight. And I loved doing the workshop series in the Northwest Territories for the Territorial Agrifood Association.
Chas | Social Media Specialist: I’d say my favourite project was creating the holiday gift guide. It was great to learn about/connect with a few small businesses across Canada. Or another highlight was the Grow Your Food Brand workshop. It was a great experience, and I loved hearing everyone talk about how they were going to crush their digital marketing goals in 2025.
Conclusion
It’s hard to wrap-up a full year of highs and lows. But 2024 has been a good year. We’ve gained new team members, said temporary goodbyes to others (they’re coming back!), have been inspired and challenged in our projects and have watched our clients flourish and conquer new milestones. We’re ending on a high.
For 2025, while we certainly look forward to more of the same, we’re looking even closer to those areas East of BC. We want to do even more work for the farmers and food processors in in the rest of Canada.
Are you looking to plan your 2025? Do you need some strategic or creative guidance? Are you hoping to offer your members a workshop? Or do you need a brand development or support? Our team can work with you to determine which solution is best for your business or create a hybrid option perfect for your needs. Contact us at hello@farmfooddrink.ca
Farm Food Drink is a team of food research, planning, marketing and training specialists who focus solely on Canadian farm, food, and drink businesses. We provide an integrated, 360 approach and are committed to working alongside our clients as they grow their businesses.
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