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2017

 

December  2017          

Carol Coren to facilitate Interactive Roundtable session on “Brownfields Turn Green” that will feature prominent Urban Farm Operators and Academics advancing uses of new high yield food and fibre production technologies at National EPA Learning Conference set for Pittsburgh.  Session was one of nearly 500 proposed to be chosen for inclusion in program.

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November   2017       

Carol Coren, Principal to attend National Aquaponic Conference in Portland,OR

Kate Windrick, Cornerstone Ventures Associate to present on Aquaponic Business Performance at Conference

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June    2017

Cornerstone Ventures Principal Carol Coren to start work with Patriot Shellfish LLC  on a Delaware State Veterans Shellfish Farm Project.  Leases for approximately 30 acres of oyster and clam growing beds in the lower Delaware Bay have been awarded for development of a social enterprise that will train and engage veterans to grow, harvest, distribute, market and recycle waste shells

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May   2017

Cornerstone Ventures Principal Carol Coren attends International Cooperative Association Research Conference at Scotland’s University of Sterling to present paper on Role of Shared Service Cooperatives in United States’ Credit Union Operations with colleagues Professors Chrisina Clamp and Eclou Amendah of Southern New Hampshire University.  The paper is a recently authored chapter for a book being readied for business schools in the USA and overseas by the three authors who have been research and writing on shared service cooperatives for four years.

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April  2017

Cornerstone Ventures starts work on Food Bank’s Uses of High Yield Aquaponic Technologies for NE PA Food Pantry.   Aim is to explore ways to replicate successes being reported by Canadian Food Banks that are growing specialty crops for disbursal with year-round, indoor aquaponics tools.  

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February 2017

Carol Coren, Cornerstone Ventures principal presents on Financing Local Food Travel Initiatives for World Food Travel Association Conference.  Ms. Coren is Vice Chair of this international organization dedicated to advancing interaction between the hospitality and food industries worldwide.

 

January 2017

Cornerstone Ventures begins discussions regarding uses of bamboo for coal mine land reclamation with West Virginia Veterans groups interested in advancing new technologies for job creation and environmental restoration.

 

 

2016

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June 2016

Cornerstone Ventures Principal Carol Coren attends International Cooperative Association Research Conference in Almeria Spain to present paper on  Shared Service Cooperatives with colleagues Professors Chrisina Clamp and Eclou Amendah of Southern New Hampshire University.  The paper is a recently authored chapter for a book being readied for business schools in the USA and overseas by the three authors who have been research and writing on shared service cooperatives for three  years.

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2015

Cornerstone Ventures Principal Carol Coren attends International Cooperative Association Research Conference at University of Paris Agricultural College to present paper on  Shared Service Cooperative Business Models with colleagues Professors Chrisina Clamp and Eclou Amendah of Southern New Hampshire University.  The paper is a recently authored chapter for a book being readied for business schools in the USA and overseas by the three authors who have been research and writing on shared service cooperatives for two  years.

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February 2014 - Cornerstone Ventures delivers a feasibility study for the City of Lancaster's West King Historic District that urges development of this 150 plus year old corner of the city's downtown into a food, craft and artisan district anchored by a limited service hotel for budget minded visitors to the nearby Convention Center and Amish farmlands.

 

 

January 2014 - Cornerstone Ventures' clients Fields Food and Farm to Family Food Hub move into new, state of the art facilities set in a St. Louis, MO neighborhood that had been without a grocery for twenty plus years. Together they are providing jobs for more than 105 area residents and market channels for 6000 different locally grown or produced food items.

 

 

November 2012 – Cornerstone Ventures presents on Social Enterprise Roles In Community Development to Philadelphia Community Development Corporations at a Philadelphia Association of Community Development Associations Training Workshop.

 

 

November 2012 – Cornerstone Ventures brokers strategic alliance between Farm to Family Foods, East St. Louis Health Care District, Metro St. Louis and Resident Councils of East St. Louis Public Housing Authority to operate a small but well stocked mobile market store in four St. Clair County, IL food deserts.

 

 

October 2012 – Cornerstone Ventures is selected to organize a Town Hall on Controlled Environment Agriculture prospects for Rural and Urban Brownfields for the May 2013 EPA Brownfields Conference.

 

 

October 2012 - Cornerstone Ventures and Localization Colorado enter into partnership to develop a Virtual Food Hub for local food producers and purchasers. The project involves developers of Localization Colorado and the St. Louis Food Hub in applications of an enterprise management system that will help small farm growers reach large and often hard to reach institutional and school district markets.

 

 

October 2012 – Hamilton Health Center opens new Community Health Center in Harrisburg’s Allison Hill Neighborhood and talks continue about ways to integrate Cornerstone Ventures’ healthy food merchandising into its nutrition counseling programs.

 

 

October 2012 - Cornerstone Ventures enters into strategic alliance with St. Onge Institute to explore a Hershey PA Food Hub development project. The proposed social enterprise will involve the Milton Hershey School, Medical College of PA, and other community stakeholders concerned about links between healthy lifestyles and access to fresh, local foods

 

 

September 2012 – Philadelphia Greensgrow Project, Inc. engages Cornerstone Ventures to explore opportunities for West Philadelphia Food Hub

 

 

August 2012 – Cornerstone Ventures starts on organization development work with Denver, CO based Veterans to Farmers, Inc. nonprofit organization and with Colorado Produce Company, LLC, a social enterprise dedicated to marketing Controlled Environment Agriculture Products.

 

 

July 2012 - Feasibility Study for a Denver Food Hub is presented to Denver Seeds and the Mayor’s Office for review and action. Project development on a Food Hub at the former Denver Enterprise Center’s food business incubator begins.

 

 

June 2012 – Cornerstone Ventures Principal Carol Coren presents on Wisconsin’s Compulsory Wine Distribution Cooperatives - New Roles for Cooperatives in the USA at the American Association of Wine Economists 2012 Annual Conference held in Princeton, NJ. A paper co-authored with Professor Christina Clamp, a noted authority on cooperatives and Associate Professor of Business at Southern New Hampshire University, is scheduled to appear in 2013 in the Journal of Wine Economics (see presentation PDF).

 

 

April 2012 – Cornerstone Ventures participates in a USDA organized Food Hub Practitioners Chicago Summit. He is one of a small number of Food Hub operators invited to discuss innovative models for local food aggregation and distribution.

 

 

April 2012 – Carol Coren, Cornerstone Ventures Principal, organizes and facilitates an Atlanta, GA Program on Food Focused Green Microenterprises: A Conversation among Practitioners at the 2012 Academy for Green Microenterprise Development sponsored by Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE), Inc. and Georgia Green Loans.

 

 

March 2012 - Carol Coren, Cornerstone Ventures Principal presents a Workshop on Food Hubs and Produce Procurement at the Family Farmed NPO sponsored 2012 Good Food Conference and Trade Show in Chicago.

 

 

February 2012 - Cornerstone Ventures participated in the Annual Meeting of the National Produce Market Managers in Philadelphia and toured the newly constructed Philadelphia Food Distribution Center.

 

 

February 2012 – Cornerstone Ventures starts work with City of Denver’s Denver Seeds Advisory Group on a Local Food Hub Feasibility Study. The project was supported by the Rocky Mountain Farmers’ Union Foundation, Community Resources, Inc. and the Mayor’s Office for Sustainability.

 

 

March 2012 - Carol Coren, Cornerstone Ventures Principal presented a Workshop on Food Hubs and Produce Procurement at the Family Farmed sponsored 2012 Good Food Conference and Trade Show in Chicago.

 

 

February 2012 – Cornerstone Ventures meets with MANNA PA Strategic Planning Committee to offer presentation on SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OPPORTUNITIES.

 

 

January 2012 – Carol Coren spoke to attendees at the 2012 Illinois Specialty Crops, Agritourism and Organic Conference on Cornerstone Ventures’ role in advancing a Farm to Family operated St. Louis Food Hub and Mobile Market.

 

 

January 2012 Carol Coren, Cornerstone Ventures Principal participates in Wallace Center’s National Good Food Network Webinar Series as a presenter on how to move from feasibility studies and business planning to on the ground social enterprise development. More than 250 attendees rated the presentation entitled It’s Viable….Now What?: From Feasibility Study to Business Plan as one of the most highly evaluated in the Center’s Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development’s online program series.

 

 

December 2011 – Cornerstone Ventures and Farm to Family Mobile Market begin merchandising healthy, affordable, locally produced foods, fruits and vegetables in partnership with Intergenerational Daycare Centers and the East St. Louis Health District care center.

 

 

October 2011 – Impact Funders raises $600,000 for additional social investments.

 

 

September 2011 – Cornerstone Ventures Client Greensgrow Farms receives $100,000 grant to advance work on a Food Hub for the City of Camden.

 

 

August 2011 – Cornerstone Ventures and Impact Funders create Farm To Family Mobile Market, LLC for purpose of distributing fresh healthy foods into St. Louis food deserts.

 

 

July 2011 – Cornerstone Ventures presents information about Cornerstone Ventures work with Food Hub development to the Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center’s National Good Food Network.

 

 

April 2011 – Cornerstone Ventures principal Carol Coren organizes a session and presents on Urban Agriculture Development Opportunities for Brown fields at National EPA Brown fields Conference in Philadelphia.

 

 

March 2011 – Cornerstone Ventures and Hamilton Health Center in Harrisburg, PA formalize efforts to introduce healthy food merchandising ventures into the city’s economically challenged Allison Park neighborhood.

 

 

February 2011 - Cornerstone Ventures provides support for the Kansas City Green Impact Zone on assessments of opportunities for food related social enterprise development.

 

 

January 2011 – Cornerstone Ventures provides Philadelphia’s Greensgrow Farm, a national model for urban agriculture, with support to assess expansion into the City.

 

 

October 2010- Cornerstone Ventures presents to SOCAP (Social Capital Market) conference on Urban Agriculture Centers.

 

 

July 2010 – Impact Funders raises $400,000 for social investments.

 

 

June 2010 – Cornerstone Ventures presents recommendations to Greensgrow for establishment of a Food Hub in the City of Camden, NJ.

 

 

May 2010 – Cornerstone Ventures establishes Impact Funders, LLC as a debt/equity fund.

 

 

October 2009 – Carol Coren, Cornerstone Ventures Principal, participates in Des Moines, IA Community Food Security Coalition Conference.