New Entry Sustainable Farming Project engaged in a staff-wide strategic planning process in Winter 2021. The process was faciliated by volunteer, Jan Klein, PhD - Senior Lecturer in Organizational Change at the MIT Sloan School of Management. New Entry conducted a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to the organization, reviewed our mission, vision, and values statements and refined each. We spent time brainstorming where we wanted to be in five years and what we wanted to achieve. We created strategic goals, sub-goals, and metrics for how to measure how we would arrive at our destination. Below are the highlights of our Strategic Goals for 2021-2024 and download the entire plan to review our year-by-year objectives and priorities. Staff meet quarterly to review progress toward our strategic goals and complete an “accomplishments” review to track progress. Annually, we review our goals, subgoals, and accomplishments to determine what we achieved, what changes need to be made, and to assess, evaluate, and determine commitments to the goals for the next year. We welcome any feedback and suggestions from our farmers, customers, students, collaborators, and partners on how we are doing!
New Entry Strategic Goals (2021-2024)
#1 - Develop more stable, sustainable funding to maintain our leadership role in creating knowledge in food systems
• Assure longevity of the organization and build on existing infrastructure
• Reconstitute a New Entry Advisory Board to develop a broader base of support and add skills capacity
• Enhance marketing and communication efforts to generate community engagement and awareness of New Entry's mission
• Food Hub becomes an attractive alternative to buyers to create sustainable revenue streams
• Farmer Training and incubator farm revenue generation supports production capacity and capital improvements
• Create new program integrations to increase organizational efficiency
#2 – Become a center of learning that generates new knowledge through innovative and impactful research and faculty/student/community engagement
• Generate new research initiatives between New Entry / Moraine Farm and Tufts faculty
• FIELD Network maintains knowledge exchange and leadership role in beginning farmer training space by sharing best practices and providing professional development
• Support policy making to benefit beginning farmers, food access, and food systems transformation.
#3 – Develop new leaders to transform the food system
• Influence young people and career changers to consider farming and food systems careers through collaborations and partnerships
• Achieve student-driven outcomes by providing applied food systems experience at Moraine Farm via production, supply chain mechanics, research, or other career skills development roles
• Demonstrate through successful alumni that farming is a viable career opportunity
• Build transformative leadership skills among New Entry farmers
#4 – Build capacity to serve more farmers and get more local food into the community
• Help to create new farms and sustain more long-term economically viable farm businesses to keep farmland in production and feed local communities
• Enhance service provider and community partnership to support long-term farmer success
• Food Hub purchases support economic viability of farmers and alumni
• Successfully serve the students in our courses and workshops by providing quality content, feedback, and continual course innovation
#5 – Expand efforts to promote racially diverse and inclusive food systems
• Promote justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in the ag sector in partnership with BIPOC leaders and marginalized communities
• Live our values as an anti-racist organization to make the world a more equitable and inclusive environment
• Support racially diverse producers to distribute culturally connected food that serves BIPOC communities
• Continue efforts to demonstrate Moraine Farm as an inclusive and welcoming environment