Making Goods Available for Less to Local Small Businesses, CCAP Partners

The Central Corridor Anchor Partnership (CCAP), through the leadership of partners HealthPartners and M Health Fairview, is enabling costs savings for small businesses and CCAP partners on a wide array of goods and products.

CCAP members and local small businesses are invited to utilize Premier Pricing to save on everything from office supplies to personal protective equipment to IT products.

Savings throughout your business' graphic, courtesy of Premier

Premier is a nationally recognized performance improvement organization that is committed to delivering long-term cost savings to its members. The group purchasing organization enables members to, among other services, reduce expenditures by purchasing goods and products at discounted rates. HealthPartners and M Health Fairview are making this discounted pricing opportunity available to all CCAP partners and Central Corridor small businesses. 

About CCAP

CCAP is a group of colleges, universities, hospitals, and health care organizations located near the Green Line in Minneapolis–St. Paul.  Once established, anchor institutions tend not to move, and therefore may play an important role in our local economies.  Our health care partners include M Health Fairview, Hennepin Health, and Regions/HealthPartners, and college partners include Augsburg University, Minneapolis College, University of St. Thomas/Dougherty Family College, and St. Catherine University. Each partner organization has invested greatly in its physical infrastructure to serve its patients, students, and employees. In that sense, our partners are anchored to the health, vitality, and growth of the neighborhoods around us. 

The opening of the Green Line LRT provided CCAP partners an organizing occasion to collaborate to, among other goals, spend more of our procurement dollars with Central Corridor businesses to make our organizations stronger and bring more prosperity to the Twin Cities region. Central Corridor zip codes are: 55101, 55102, 55103, 55104, 55105, 55106, 55107, 55114, 55117, 55130, 55401, 55402, 55403, 55404, 55411, 55414, 55415, 55454, and 55455.

CCAP Procurement Initiatives

In addition to the Premier group pricing opportunity, CCAP continues to work toward its goals of creating and attracting jobs to the Central Corridor by increasing the amount of local purchasing made by anchor institutions, and by creating cost savings over time for anchors through collective procurement, through the following strategies:

• driving individual anchor institution purchasing to Central Corridor vendors and tracking results;

• contracting with Central Corridor suppliers to provide goods/services to anchors through below-list pricing or joint contracts; and

• growing or attracting suppliers to the corridor to meet anchor spend that is currently being exported out of Minnesota.

Making Discounted Pricing Widely Available through Access to Premier

Vini Manchanda, Vice President of Supply Chain Services at HealthPartners, has first-hand experience with the challenges of identifying significant purchasing opportunities with businesses within the Central Corridor. 

"The primary local procurement challenge for CCAP partners, particularly healthcare partners, is that they are limited to buying goods and services that are very healthcare-centric, and may not be available within the Central Corridor," says Manchanda. "The second challenge is that some suppliers in the corridor do not possess the supply-side scale that many CCAP partners need." 

Vini Manchanda, Vice President of Supply Chain Services at Health Partners

Manchanda offered a new solution for CCAP to support local businesses: rather than buying directly from Corridor businesses, CCAP could help small businesses save money by making an array of goods available to them at a discounted rate through Premier.

"We are happy to make this discounted pricing opportunity available to local small businesses and to move the needle on the prosperity of the businesses in Central Corridor," says Manchanda. 

“At the macro level, this opportunity is about helping small businesses with their bottom lines by cutting their costs,” adds Ellen Watters, CCAP Partnership staff. 

The Premier group pricing opportunity is available to Central Corridor small businesses free of charge. CCAP is promoting this opportunity through chambers of commerce, business associations, and small business intermediaries that work with small businesses in the Central Corridor. 

Premier will track small business engagement with the pricing opportunity, which is available to Central Corridor small businesses indefinitely at this time. Premier will provide CCAP with the results.

There are no purchasing minimums, and small businesses and partners are encouraged to try Premier purchasing to determine if it works for their needs. 

Early indications are positive from small business groups that have been made aware of the opportunity, with strong initial interest in trying Premier pricing. 

For more information about Premier group purchasing, contact Brock Close, 440-724-064, brock_close@premierinc.com, and let him know your organization is a member of CCAP.

HealthEast's Local Food Procurement

Earlier this year, HealthEast took advantage of a new contract with its food supplier Sodexo to connect the national food services corporation with The Good Acre, a local food hub adjacent to the Central Corridor.

This innovative connection is setting off a chain recreation among CCAP health care partners interested in securing regional prosperity through increasing spend with local businesses, and may promise longer term local spend opportunities for other CCAP partners. Health care partners have an opportunity to shift 5% of their spend to local vendors and producers through this model of working with large food supply companies on strategic procurement.

Partnering Around Local Food Purchasing

The Central Corridor Anchor Partnership has long identified local food as a priority focus for increasing local spend. All partners operate some level of food service for students, staff, or patients, and recognize that there is an abundance of locally produced food in our region. Increasing the amount of local food purchased takes collaboration over time, due to the structure through which our partners make food purchases. Most partner institutions utilize outside food service managers like Sodexo, Aramark and A’viands. Any increase in local purchasing must first go through these companies’ large national supply chains. 

With HealthEast’s leadership, Sodexo began exploring how to purchase Minnesota-grown produce through The Good Acre, a non-profit food hub formed to reimagine how food and community is created and shared in the Twin Cities.  “The value in investing in local food purchasing is that our patients, employees, and community all benefit,” noted John Swanholm, Vice President of Community Advancement at HealthEast and Executive Director of the HealthEast Foundation. “Our patients and employees want local, healthy food options, and our community benefits from our spending these dollars locally.”

The pioneering work by HealthEast and Sodexo in opening this supply chain has spurred similar investment by CCAP’s other health care partners. Regions/HealthPartners and Fairview are working to purchase more local produce through Sodexo, an opportunity enabled through Sodexo’s partnership with The Good Acre. The local food hub sub-contracts with immigrant, low-income, and independent farmers, including the Hmong American Farmers Association. There are typically 40 farmers supplying in a given season. The Good Acre, working as a broker of sorts, will supply Sodexo with two peak-season vegetables per month during the upcoming spring, summer, and fall 2017 growing seasons.  Early plans call for Sodexo to buy more than 8,000 pounds of local produce through The Good Acre—a total value of approximately $20,000. The Good Acre has also begun discussions with U.S. Foods, which contracts with some health care partner institutions.

“Ideally, HealthEast’s experience with Sodexo and The Good Acre will provide a framework for other partners as they continue to expand their focus on local purchasing,” said Swanholm.

A Hub for Food Connections

The Good Acre, which opened in fall 2015, is a key partner in this work. Modeled as a central space for local food dialogue and distribution, with a mission of enhancing how food is grown and shared in the Twin Cities, the organization supports several needs in the food community while advancing education about and access to locally-grown produce in the Twin Cities. “We help farmers get to the level of wholesale production while paying them a fair price, without overwhelming buyers with the higher price of local goods,” said Rhys Williams, Executive Director of The Good Acre. “Institutions are an ideal target for our farmers’ produce.”

The facilities and warehouse infrastructure of The Good Acre include food transport options, cooler and freezer storage, and sorting, packing, and wholesale distribution resources. The organization also operates a multi-farm community supported agriculture (CSA) program with over 450 members and a hands-on teaching kitchen and classroom. “Our mission is to improve the market for small farmers,” said Williams. “That’s our goal. We do everything through that lens.”

The local food purchasing program has the potential to grow in future years as more farmers meet the stringent food safety requirements of health care, and eventually, education institutions.

A Dynamic Commercial Kitchen 

The Good Acre’s commercial kitchen space was originally intended to serve as a teaching area for farmers who wanted to preserve their product. “Farmers are busy farming,” said Nick Mabe, Manager of Warehouse Logistics and Sales at The Good Acre. “Farmers don't have time to preserve product during the season when they're growing and selling it.”

The Good Acre has about ten food makers in the space right now who are looking to source more product. “We focus on local, produce-heavy food makers such as kimchi makers, salsa makers, and chutney makers,” said Mabe. Emily Paul, Program Director of The Good Acre, quickly converted the space into a teaching kitchen to the public as well as a space for food makers.

The Good Acre does not itself prepare or process food, but many institutional accounts buy a significant amount of prepared or processed food. The non-profit is working on a pilot program to determine if it can develop the capacity to begin food processing activities. “A lot of the processors in the area go fresh, but they're not using a large amount of local produce due to variability, quantity, consistency,” noted Mabe. “We're trying to bridge that gap for them.”

The commercial kitchen runs two to five cooking classes each week, partnering with chefs from around the Metro area. “We just had Chris Uhrich from Mucci’s come in and teach a class about making gnocchi, fettuccini, and other Italian signatures,” commented Mabe. In the coming weeks, The Good Acre has Sara Johannes from Top Chef, Heidi Skoog from Serious Jam, and Restaurant Alma coming in to teach cooking classes to the public.

The classes are provided at a more affordable price point and many are geared toward seasonal produce and products that The Good Acre supplies from partner farms. Classes range from basic knife skills to a three-day, adult cooking class boot camp. They also offer cooking classes for teens and children ages five to eight. For companies interested in corporate events, The Good Acre can provide meeting space and a unique team activity. “If a company wants to get off-site for a few hours, they can have a meeting in our conference space and then do a team building exercise,” said Mabe. “We can have them come in, teach a recipe, and have them work on it together.”

The Good Acre recently partnered with Lakewinds Food Co-op for a maker-to-market program. “Lakewinds had some different products they were looking to source and source locally but found some holes in the market,” explained Mabe. “There are food makers out there that need some assistance scaling up to sell to co-ops and other institutions.” Out of 25 applicants, Lakewinds selected four. Lakewinds is helping these food makers with marketing, price points, and sourcing, while The Good Acre is providing distribution and distribution advice.

By partnering around local food purchasing, providing a hub for food connections, and developing a dynamic commercial kitchen space, The Good Acre is bringing farmers, food makers, and communities together using a sustainable approach.

Glass Installed in Augsburg College Project Emphasizing Inclusionary Contracting

During summer 2016, Augsburg College exceeded the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership’s inclusionary contracting goal to award a minimum of 10% of total project cost to local, women or minority owned firms in a major construction project. 

McGough Construction, the general contractor working on Augsburg College’s Hagfors Center for Science, Business and Religion, relied on almost 13% local, women, or minority owned firms to complete the project—an economic value of $6,762,287.

The largest of these contracts was over $3 million to Twin City Glass Contractors, a woman-owned business located in the Central Corridor.

Now, that glass is being installed as the Hagfors Center moves a step closer to completion.

Sue Wohlk, CFO of Twin City Glass was pleased with CCAP’s commitment.  “We greatly appreciated the opportunity to be part of this,” she stated.  “And we hope to be included in future CCAP projects.”  The company provides glass, glazing, aluminum curtainwall and storefronts throughout the region.

Steering Anchor Spending toward Corridor Vendors

The Central Corridor Anchor Partnership (CCAP) seeks to secure regional prosperity in part through spending more with Central Corridor businesses.  CCAP has developed several initiatives to create wealth in communities adjacent to the Central Corridor by focusing and aggregating the demand from the Anchor institutions to local suppliers that employ and invest in the community. 

Augsburg College is the first CCAP member to utilize the Partnership’s inclusionary contracting policy adopted in December 2014.  The policy calls for CCAP members to consider adding contract language on large capital projects of $250,000 or greater that commits to utilizing local, women or minority owned firms for a minimum of 10% of total project cost.  

Best Practices for Local Prosperity

Many of CCAP’s public members have committed to similar goals through state contracting requirements.  Public institutions and other larger private business corporations in the Twin Cities region have successfully developed best practices and managed economic inclusion policies and programs utilizing Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) and other targeted vendors for many years.  General contractors in the region are familiar with economic inclusion policies that target Local Business Enterprises (LBEs) and MBEs and are capable of fulfilling the requirements of such policies without creating significant additional costs.

McGough’s other contracts to MBE firms were for trucking, structural steel and concrete.  Looking ahead, McGough expects local and MBE firms to participate in mechanical and fire protection and electric contracts. 

Central to Augsburg’s Mission

The Hagfors Center is designed to foster interactions among areas of study, support active learning and connect the College to the community.  The new building embodies Augsburg’s commitment to student learning, urban place-making and thoughtful stewardship, according to Augsburg College President, Paul Pribbenow.  “Raising over $50 million for a building committed to Science, Business and Religion was a unique feat in itself,” reflected Pribbenow.  “It is also deeply meaningful for us that the economics of constructing this great building reflects Augsburg’s values of inclusion and diversity.”