This week we received a save-the-date for Whole Foods Market Northeast’s first ever “Local Supplier Summit,” which is going to take place on September 26.

We are excited to attend and were told more information would be provided, but as of now we know this will be a full day event, broken up into several parts:

• In the morning we will be holding an informational session, with presentations from members of our Global and Regional teams.  The information will be centered around the future of the local program at Whole Foods Market, and how to best navigate our current structure.  We are also hoping to feature a few of our most successful local suppliers, and give them a few minutes to share their stories.  A lot of time in this morning session will be devoted to a question and answer session as well.  I’m sure you all have lots of them!

• Lunch will be provided.  We are hoping to cater the lunch through a few of our local brands, so please let us know if this interests you at all.  We have a pretty sizable budget for this event, and we want to put out a really nice spread for lunch.

• In a separate room in the afternoon, we will be doing a tabletop show for our Team Members featuring YOU.  Every brand will be given a table to showcase their brand, talk to our Team Members, and hand out samples.  We expect upwards of 1,000 Team Members to come through from across our 45 stores.  This is a great opportunity to meet the Team Members who are on the front lines selling your products, and to meet Buyers who have the ability to bring your brand into their stores.