Whole Picture Print
Written by Elliott Johnston   
Friday, 19 February 2010 16:14

foodthm1
Photo by Kris Hite
Local foodies are challenging themselves to see a larger picture. This much could be gleaned from The Bean Cycle/ Matter Bookstore’s second annual “Food, Growing, Gardening” Townhall Meeting. On Tuesday evening, February 16, makeshift rows of black chairs were cozily occupied on the Bean Cycle/Matter hub’s main floor to hear key players in the Fort Collins local food economy – an eclectic mix of CSA farmers, non-profit directors, county government and grocery store reps, food educators, dieticians, and more — discuss their vision for 2010. That vision: placing more locally grown food into the kitchens of low-income families, assessing our food system on a wider scale, and finding ways to spread the message of eating, gardening, and buying local (i.e. preaching outside of the choir).

Gailmarie Kimmel of BeLocalNC spoke to the successes of the Fort Collins local food movement, in particular the ever-growing popularity the Winter Farmer’s Markets, held twice a month November through March at the Opera Galleria in Old Town, where “twenty-two thousand dollars exchange hands on any given Saturday.” Other speakers focused on their desire to transfer the momentum from the movement to those who need it most. Bailey Stenson from Happy Heart Farm explained that her 27-year-old CSA (“the first CSA in Colorado”) was trying to raise funds to donate a fourth of their shares to low-income families. Megan Phillips from The Growing Project echoed the non-profit’s mission to “close some of the gaps in the food system.”

Working to understand that food system, a mighty and regionally unprecedented task, was also discussed.

“The government knows a lot about all kinds of systems,” said Linda Hoffman, who is leading Larimer County’s Regional Food System Assessment, “but it doesn’t know squat about our food system.”

The Food System Assessment, Hoffman says, will collect data from a diverse array of sources (farmers, distributors, economists, etc.) to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of our system as it stands. The study is in its early stages, and the county hopes to have a report ready by the end of 2010.

In the meantime and as always, homespun groups and individuals are considering how their work fits into the larger picture. Some say that “actions speak louder than words” and that people power is more catalyzing than institutional reform, while others feel that local food enthusiasts are continually speaking to the pre-converted and more outreach and inclusion needs to be done in places like South Fort Collins and in public schools. Either way, the communal head scratching seems to be a positive sign that the local food movement is spreading out in new directions and taking on new challenges.

 

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Toward the end of the night, Todd Simmons asked the audience and presenters to identify challenges and goals of the local food community. Here’s what they came up with:

 

Challenges

  1. Distribution
  2. Marketing
  3. Education
  4. Land for young Farmers
  5. Water
  6. Getting Food to People who need it the most
  7. Infrastructure (greenhouses, kitchens, storage) to make the conections so we really do have a web-like food system.
  8. Pricing

 

Goals

  1. Eat more local
  2. Support smaller local farms
  3. Retaining the farmers we have (staying on the land, growing more of them)
  4. Keep farmers as visible and supported as we can
  5. Outreach (not speaking to the choir).

 

 

 

Contact any of the food groups below and find out how you can help:

 

Happy Heart Farm

Native Hill Farm

Grow Forth (contact info coming soon!)

The Growing Project

Homegrown Food

Project Sweatshop

CanDo

Whole Foods

Tri-County Food Assessment (more info coming soon!)

Food Co-op

 

UPDATE from Ronda Koski (3/16/10):

 At the “FOOD/GROWING/GARDENING Townhall Meeting” held at  The Bean Cycle on the 16th of February, there was discussion pertaining to sources of funding for local food projects.

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)’s Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program (CFPCGP) has, since 1996, promoted self-sufficiency and food security in low-income communities through community food projects (CFP) and Training and Technical Assistance projects (T&TA).  Additional information can be found at:  http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/communityfoodprojects.cfm.

Interested local organizations and local growers should start collaborating now so that a proposal or proposals worthy of funding can be composed by the time this funding opportunity returns later this year.

The National Farm to School Network is a collaborative project of the Center for Food & Justice (CFJ), a division of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College and the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC).   The Farm to School connects schools (K-12) and local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing agriculture, health and nutrition education opportunities, and supporting local and regional farmers.  Additional information can be found at:  http://www.farmtoschool.org/index.php.  Information pertaining to Funding Opportunities can be found at http://www.farmtoschool.org/fundingopps.php.

Again, collaboration among local organizations and local growers will maximize resources and better chances of composing award-worthy proposals.

 

 

Clips from The Bean Cycle/ Matter Bookstore’s second annual “Food, Growing, Gardening” Townhall Meeting (videos taken by Kris Hite):