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Wyoming Food Coalition Hosts the Food Finance Institute
Join us at our 6th ANnual Conference for this in-person crash course in business!
Central Wyoming College, Room 116 (Wind River Room, Itecc)
Riverton, Wyoming
November 14, 2025; 9 am - 4 pm
These classes are right for you if …
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You want to have a financially healthy and consistent food business
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You face financial challenges such as making payroll, maintaining cashflow, or securing financing
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You have questions about how to run the financial side of your food business
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You’ve never reached profitability, or your profitability is eroding and you know things need to change
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You’re unsure about your financial future as a food business entrepreneur
To partake in these courses, Registrants must complete the two steps below before October 31:
Read more about the Food Finance Institute, and this in-person learning opportunity below:
Main Presenter: Anna Thomas
Anna operated her own artisan cheese company for 11 years, so she has experience starting and building small food businesses from the ground up. This entrepreneurship helped her gain knowledge in business plan creation, branding, marketing, accounting, pricing structures, distribution, and logistics. She also obtained valuable insights on securing bank lending and attracting equity investors, in addition to managing the day-to-day finances and bookkeeping. She is passionate about the dairy industry and has worked closely with farms and food operations.
Prior to founding Landmark Creamery, Anna worked as a project manager for 10 years, coordinating timelines, budgets, and deliverables for both electronic medical record programs and financial institutions. She also spent time as a Financial Specialist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources helping businesses remediate previously contaminated land for commercial use. During all these endeavors, she has professionally written for publications in the food and agricultural space, including a decade at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writing a weekly cooking column and features on food businesses and farmers.
Anna is an ardent supporter of local food systems and farming. She seeks to create meaningful relationships and connections that allow new and unique businesses to thrive and to help entrepreneurs create the tools and systems they need to help manage their businesses. She is based in Verona, Wisconsin, with her two teenage boys, an enormous orange cat, and a tiny, speckled pup. Anna enjoys browsing farmers markets, being outdoors, and traveling.
The Food Finance Institute (FFI) prepares “food and farm business entrepreneurs to be skilled financial and business managers and to successfully access capital for long-term viability.”
Join food and farm business financials expert, Anna Thomas, for one in-person and two virtual training sessions. These sessions are hosted by the Wyoming Food Coalition and brought to you by the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center and University of Wyoming Extension.
The Wyoming Food Coalition will host Food Finance Institute training sessions at this year’s annual conference held at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, WY. The ticket for the FFI course costs $65 for members, and $75 for non-members of the Wyoming Food Coalition. During all-day workshops, Anna Thomas will help food and farm businesses gain tools and knowledge for establishing financial sustainability and profitability. Key topics of instruction will include optimizing your business model, identifying your target customers, properly pricing your products, and understanding/utilizing your financial statements.
A workshop for start-up, small scale, and mid-scale food and farm businesses will take place on November 14th from 9am- 4pm with lunch included. All registrants will have the option to attend a one-on-one strategy session between 8 am - 12 pm on the 15th or a virtual session after the conference. All businesses will meet virtually with instructor Anna Thomas ahead of and after the in-person sessions. The virtual session will take place on November 4th, 4:30 - 6 pm MST
To partake in these classes, participants must complete this application form by October 31, 2025
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