Wisconsin Food Systems, Inc. (WFS) brings together food organizations to develop “hub and spoke” facilities to improve local and regional wholesale markets. Projects will improve market access for Wisconsin perishable products and improve food access for both rural and urban Wisconsinites. WFS is laying the foundation for value chain integration and collaborative supply chain management, with broad industry participation and shared business services. Our primary objective is a more resilient, sustainable, just and equitable regional food system by empowering small and medium businesses to innovate.
In 2019-20 the City of Madison commissioned a planning study conducted by ACDS, LLC. It quantified critical physical and information gaps in Wisconsin’s food system and recommended enhancements to cold chain infrastructure by:
- Enabling farmers to efficiently access alternate markets and distribution options, primarily through use of shared space, processing, and repacking assets.
- Easing procurement, logistics, and compliance for institutional and retail buyers, as well as expanding product export opportunities.
- Support processing and repacking for local wholesale markets
We aim to offer value to all parties in the food system, with a physical facility in Southern Wisconsin planned at launch to be ~50,000 sqft complemented by a product, service, and supply chain automation software platform. Alternatively, a north central Wisconsin facility would launch at ~10,000 sqft.
The wholesale market is where:
- Farmers and small retailers can dock trade at large common docks and utilize temporary warehousing and repacking facilities.
- Trucker-jobber can access last/first mile efficiencies
- Tenants can take advantage of a range of private warehousing options
- Export wholesalers can build sales of Wisconsin products
- Buyers can easily discover geographically proximate suppliers through simple product search and set up multi-party contracts
- A farm advisor or farmer can forecast return on investment to determine what to plant, based on market price forecasts and forward contracts.
Wisconsin Food Systems, Inc. 