HomeGrown Local Food Summit

Dates and Location for Local Food Summit Announced!

2010-12-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

The 3rd Annual HomeGrown Local Food Summit will be held on Tuesday, March 1, 2001 in the Morris Lawrence Building at Washtenaw Community College. More info and registration details are at LocalFoodSummit.org.

August 15th Summit Reunion Picnic - Plus Crop Mob and Soup Stock

2010-07-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

Calling all eaters in Washtenaw County

Are you ready for a summer potluck picnic? The HomeGrown Local Food Summit organizers are planning a reunion of everyone interested in improving our food system. And we're providing the beverages and a couple of fun activities.

Date: August 15, 2010

Time: 4:00-6:00pm

Location: Wurster Park, at 3rd Street and Madison

We just mailed out the letters that participants in the March 2010 Local Food Summit wrote to themselves about what action they planned to take to improve our food system. So it seemed like a great time to get together and put some of those words into actions of our own. We're inviting you to bring an appetizer, main dish, soup or dessert for the potluck. And to plan on testing out our first crop mob!

Wurster Park is the site of Ann Arbor's first Edible Demonstration Garden. It is planted with pawpaws, plums, pears, peaches, serviceberries, currants, and even an American chestnut. It desperately needs some help to get it tidied up. Bring your gardening gloves, edge trimmers and weed pullers to try out some crop-mobbing to see what a group of committed people can do to change the world (starting with our beloved park). After the crop mob, we want to make a plan for the future of this site and others we'd like to see across the city.

Mostly we want this to be a day of fun and re-connecting with each other over a meal. So bring a frisbee, lawn chair, and a couple of bushels of garlic to clean. Let's see what we can make happen as a community.

Videos From Summit

2010-03-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

There were lots of good videos from the Local Food Summit which we can share with you thanks to YouTube. There will be longer videos edited for viewing in the future but please find shorter ones here: primarily of the breakout session where campaign ideas for the Eat 10% Washtenaw campaign were explored.

Campaign Ideas - Groups A through F

Campaign Ideas - Groups G

Campaign Ideas - Groups H and I

Campaign Ideas - Groups J through O

Campaign Ideas - Group P

Campaign Ideas - Groups Q through T

videos from Shannon Brines

Additional Campaign Ideas Videos

videos by Corinna Borden

Miscellaneous Summit Videos

Topics generated during morning brainstorm

2010-03-04T13:06:00.001-08:00

Local Food Summit 2010
2 March 2010
Session 2: Action Planning!

Topics generated during brainstorm

Soil health/testing
Safe water
Communication
Neighborhood groups
Values
Presentation
Permaculture
Land
Slow food double agents
Farm incubators
Cost transparency
More farmers
Parents and kids
Intergenerational knowledge sharing
Food policy
Control of discourse
Gleaning
Institutions
More productive farms
Encouragement
Lawns into food
Resource systems
Food security
Capital
Insurance
Infrastructure
Season extension
Urban farms/gardens
Processing
Distribution
Education
Durability
Investments
Local sources
Composting
Affordable food
Childhood obesity
Nutrition
Food deserts
Cooking skills
Storytelling
Defining local
Information sharing
Expand the audience
Collect data
Reduce use of chemical
Local resiliency
Jobs
Healthy communities and neighborhoods
Collaboration and synergy
Economic inclusivity
Know your farmer
FUN
Practical tools and measurement
Connecting people and the earth
No child left inside
Expand the message
Positive
Food safety
Food security
Reduce carbon footprint
Quality of food
Keeping $ in town
Cost savings
Economics
Self-sufficiency
Inclusivity

New Farms & Farmers

2010-03-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

New Farms & Farmers

Present Summit Session 2: Kenny King, Paul Raney, Cathy Ward, Sam Parise, Michael Vestergaard, Rich Wieske, Bev Ruesinke, Chris Wright, Tomm Becker, Anne Elder, Paul Bantle, Amy Heath, Jess Harmon, Matt Demmon, Dan Calderone, Kirk Jones, Matthew McDermott, Anna Williams, Daniel Poon, Kirsten Maurey, Hainal Minger, TW Pellerito

Overall goal: Put Culture back in Agriculture

Supply goals:
• Increase supply to reach 10%
• New/small farm produce in retailers
• 10 acres of production to feed the hungry in A2
• 10 new farms/farmers per year
• The county should have many times more small farms producing things other than corn and soy. Vegetables, fruit, honey, meat, dairy, eggs.
• Increase accessibility of local food: more small farms

Education goals: Farmers
• Define local (absolute definition? Relative definition?)
• All young people that want to work on a farm find one
• Teaching environment on site to empower learning farmers
• Community garden education and promotion
• Have a way for new/interested farmers to learn/get started (farm incubator
• Educate farmers in systems and efficiency, business
• Turn interns/farm hands into FARMERS

Education goals: Consumers
• Help teach people what to do with the produce (how the heck to cook it)
• Teach importance of healthy agriculture (not just local)
• Make direct link between quality of food and individual health
• Show eaters farms and amount of labor required related to food cost

Distribution goals
• Local food distributor – smaller scale
• All community supported farms sell all their shares (including new starts)
• Incentives for grocery stores to stock truly local brands

Policy goals
• Get government to pay $100 per acre for local farmers NOT CORN
• Look at prospectus of A2 city planning Commission
• Taxation re-evaluation
• Less regulation and barriers for small farmers, especially meat, dairy, and value-added foods.

Resource goals
• Land for new small farms – obtain property lease/purchase
• Grants for organic certification, hoophouses
• Access to capital
• Access to business and financial information related to starting a farm
• Money for urban farming/small scale farming at local shelters like SAFEHOUSE either for sale to help with funding
• Group insurance for farmers.
• Organize farmers
• Get connected to like-minded individuals

Capital “Piggy” Bank

2010-03-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

Capital “Piggy” Bank

Present Summit Session 2: Shannon Brines, Bernadette Malinoski, John Harnois, Ginny Trocchio, Debi Weiker, Jean Henry, Jeff McCabe, Remi Holden

Goals: Loans, Social Ventures Bank

Action Steps:

• IMMEDIATE: Vision – what’s the model? Scratch? Bank? Institution?
o Within 2 months, finish research – analysis of impact of investments (jobs, economic activity)
o Within 6 months, CREATE!

• INTERMEDIATE: 6mo-1year
o website for direct investment
o first loans with website
o network

• LONG TERM
o Scale up: bank with loans, national model within 3 years
o 10 years: 10% personal savings in Washtenaw County

Questions/concerns:
• legal
• secure/insecure
• role of banks
• entrepreneurial development

10% - I DO IT (public outreach)

2010-03-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

10% - I DO IT (public outreach)

Goal: Provide examples to educate people (walking walk)

Action steps:

• make buttons
• armed with sources
• create/assemble information
• make personal commitment to eat/buy 10% local
• card carrying members (501c3) administration
• print local ID stickers part of 10% campaign – for growers, processors, etc
• define local – proximity?

School Food Action Collaboration

2010-03-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

School Food Action Collaboration

Goal: Getting real food into kids’ mouths.

Action Steps:

• For kids: a community/place-based curriculum
o Field trips to farms
o Backyard garden club in school
o Parent pressure
o Education
o Composting

• For adults: place-based curriculum
o Replicate existing models
o Educate/inform
o Grants
o Nutritional info
o Summer schools/camp
o Samples from local farms
o District-wide commitment
o Get involved/support activities
o Teachers model good eating
o Parents make local a priority (accountability)
o Map out plan for PTO to spend $ to support local food
o Harvest party
o Empower students
o Write letters supporting child nutrition reauthorization
o Community mapping
o Collaborate with existing programs

• For group members (“everyone here”)
o Join an existing group – list of existing meetings will be posted via a calendar on the ning site

Land

2010-03-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

Land

Goal: increase our edible food production by protecting existing farmland AND transforming land into edible production (rural, suburban, and urban)

Action Steps:

• Collect data
o WHO: universities, state, Washtenaw Co.

• Farmer matchmaking

• Points on PDR applications for local food production
o WHO: local governments, land conservancies

• Involve 4-H and Farm Bureau
o WHO: MSU-Ext

• Food Policy Council
o WHO: Washtenaw Coutny Public Health

• Local food presence at community fairs

• Replicate edible Schoolyards
o WHO: school districts

• Incentivize growing food on your own property (house lawn, building grounds, parks)
o WHO: local govts: tax breaks, municipally run education/gardening/composting program

• Access USDA technology and funding
o WHO: partners within Washtenaw county for grants
Actors needed::

• 4H

• Michigan young farmer coalition

• Detroit growers club

• Summit young farmers

• MSU Ext, USDA, Farm Bureau

• Local governments, land conservancies

• Experienced local farmers

• Municipal partners – parks and rec, planning

Information Systems

2010-03-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

Information Systems

Action Steps

• IMMEDIATE
o Establish social media presence for local food
 Who: tech savvy volunteers
o Create Wiki or online doc that lists existing efforts and resources
o FourSquare for local food
o Market radio show
o Video series on growing food in your apartment/backyard/window garden/box garden

• INTERMEDIATE
o Assess needs for custom web presence
o Tech tool to support microloans for farms, independent ag businesses (kickstarter.com)

• LONG-TERM
o Establish open-source central hub of local food info via custom web presence
 Who/resources: designers, programmers, host, info updaters, farmer buy-in

Local Processing

2010-03-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

Local Processing

Goal: Increase food processing capability in Washtenaw County
Two projects: MEAT and SHELF STABLE (canning/drying)

Action Steps:

• 0-6 months:
o Research demand, other states; identify locations and volume
o who: MDA, FSEP, Eat Local Eat Natural, Mike Score, Rodger Bowser, Food Gatherers

• 6 months – 3 years: business plan
o 1 year: financial backing, grants
o 1 year: form business structure
o 3 years: lobby for policy reform

• 3-10 years – break ground.
o Marketing/branding
o Share knowledge and resources

Health: Environment

2010-03-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

Health: Environment

Goal: Create a sustainable and resilient environment where our food is pesticide free, nutritious, fresh, organic, local, grown in clean soil, clean water, clean air to support us, our children, and future generations.

Action steps:

• Talk to friends about local/organic food choices and consequences of bad farming practices
• Ask farmers about their practices
• Demand local/organic at stores/restaurants
• Advocate institutions to have local/organic
• Create ad wearables
• Awareness building: book clubs (community read), film festival/contest (Homegrown festival)
• Spotlight where success is happening
• Seed farm programs with grand money/tax breaks/incentives
• Ask for local, sustainable meat
• Connect to earth day
• Create websites to get educated about food policy/resources/impact of current situation
• Nonprofits create workshops for farmers on organic practices
• Donate to non-profits dedicated to the cause
• Change policy/farm bill about farming practices
• Promote CSAs
• Develop labeling/point of purchase system
• Research about impact
• Showcase of organic farms
• Local is healthier for people/earth

From the Field to the Kitchen

2010-03-04T12:54:00.000-08:00

From the Field to the Kitchen

Goal: 10% local food consumption through nutrition

Action steps

• 0-6months:
o word of mouth
o create a resource hub
o investigate grant support
o micro-loan programs
o collaboration with existing groups
o advisory board recruitment

• 6mo- 3 years
o create marketing materials,
o start working on public policy change
o design an education program
o launch community based activities that connect the people to the field
o create educational materials
o programs to teach people
o make nutrition hip!
o Teach people nutrition through healthy lifestyles

• 3-10 years
o celebrate local food,
o evaluate program goals
o measure success
o expand the program to other communities
o increase the goal
o work with government organizations
o advocacy

Sourcing

2010-03-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

Sourcing

Goals: increase communication between institutions and farmers; fair prices; increase percentage of community products

Action Steps:

• 0-6 months:
o regular network  farmers
o countywide food education program
 sticker – 10% locally sourced, hospital – heart healthy
o SYSCO meet with local distributors – set goals

• 6 months – 3 years
o Aggregate visit information?
o County accountability system
o Meetings – distributors and farmers
o Local distributors bid (when do institutions bid? Create opportunity to participate?)
o Policy review and recommendations

• 3-10 years
o meaningful 10%, ethical 10%

Fun!

2010-03-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

Fun!

Present Summit Session 2: Lulu Gee, Ruth Blackburn, Kate Long, Linda Diane Feldt

Goals: Communicate the 10% message in fun ways, and have fun doing it. Keep the message and activities inviting, welcoming, accessible, enticing, delectable, and sensuous.

Action Steps:

• Games:
o Farmer/producer trading cards
o Passport – like Local Table
o Monthly bingo cards

• PR
o Google fun event calendar
o Youtube
o Press releases
o Social networking sites
o Blogs

• Events
o Seasonal food festivals
o Workshops
o Field trips
o Tours
o Tastings
o Parades
o Community meals
o Film screenings

• Contests
o Cook-offs
o Erotic (exotic?) vegetable photo contest
o Logo/jingle contest
o Filmmaking

• Troubadours/ Ambassadors
o Street theaters
o Traveling small group
o Veggie mobiles – makes stopes at libraries, schools, churches, apartments, medical offices; offers on-site cooking classes, workshops, fun games and activities
o Artists
o Musicians

Skill-Building

2010-03-04T12:51:00.001-08:00

Skill-building

Present Session 2: Alex Cacciari, Jennifer Haines, Kendra Pyle, Claire Maitre, Mary Ann Aisley, Lawanna Hailey, Kristian Mack, Ellen Livingston, Kris Kaul, Dawn Thompson, Cynthia Hodges, Donna Estabrook, Tommy York

Goals: Network the skills teachers; make the trainings more available and visible; empower people to act

Action steps:

• 6 months
o make a resource website/ meetups
o provide county-wide farmer market skill demos
o organize more fun skill-building gatherings (like SELMA’s)
o inspire clubs/home gatherings to share skills

• 3 years
o local products store-front/resource center
o develop curriculums
o non-profit for teacher training
o identify barriers/work with policy makers to change these
o opportunities for kids/adults to shadow/apprentice in certain skills

• 10 years
o working/live-in demonstration centers with satellites or mobile units, partnerships with schools.

10% More Inclusive

2010-03-04T12:50:00.001-08:00

10% More Inclusive

Goal: Increase access to fresh, local foods among food stamp participants

Action steps:

• Short term
o List local food and places that accept food stamps
o Identify leaders to help the movement
o Develop values statement that focuses on inclusivity
o Increase visibility to those who already support food stamp users

• Intermediate
o Incentives for businesses to accept food stamps
o Peer mentorship program

• Long-term
o More local food in snack locations/corner stores
o Buy-in from Department of Human Services

Farmers Market Initiative

2010-03-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

Farmers Market Initiative

Goals: Increase awareness, traffic, attendance. Educate “why local”. Sustainability- economy. Increase demographic diversity.

Action Steps:

• Immediate:
o Media
o Chef presentations (Eve, normal folks)
o Food prep and guides
o Fruit and veggie showcase
o Harvest kitchen

• Intermediate:
o Pot luck events
o Mobile market
o School/church events
o Field trip events to markets
o Farm to table tours

• Long-term
o Delivery service
o Corner markets
o Certified kitchen at markets
o Daily markets
o Restaurant and market

Creating Better Local Food Policies

2010-03-04T12:45:00.000-08:00

Creating Better Local Food Policies

Present Session 2: Merilynne Rush, Liz Dahl MacGregor, Barb MacKenzie, Stephanie Elkin, Jennifer Kangas, Nate Ayers

Goals: Facilitating and encouraging local food production through policy. Educating and empowering citizens to change prohibitive policies.

Action Steps:
• Immediate:
o Create task force or working group
o Research existing models
o Identify achievable policies to start with
Example: encouraging fruit trees
o Identify stakeholders
o Explore funding sources

• Intermediate:
o Marketing to inform the community
o Get money

• Long Term
o Create a “local food policy, resource, and networking center” in a physical location and/or online

• Throughout
o Lobby for food policy issues
o Disseminate information

Distribution

2010-03-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

Distribution
Goals: Active local food distribution network, including at least 3 distributors in 10 years.
Action Steps

• Grace Potts will help create/build buying clubs to purcase from local food distributors AND organize funding for start-up distribution businesses (prosper.com)

• Information Sharing for market, timing, procing, resources
o FSEP (fsepmichigan.org)
o Lazy Hound
o Group through SPARK
o Chefs
o Small commodities market

• Distributor – Aggregator Network
o Community Gardens
o Aggregator collects from farms
o Distributor buys from aggregator, brings to market

• Local food trade show
o Commercial: restaurants, markets
o Coordinate demand and supply. Deal-making

• Central Processing Systems (local)
o Meat
o USDA Certifications
o Chicken/poultry

Summit 2010 Success

2010-03-03T13:45:00.000-08:00

Watch this space for updates.

Well over 200 people attended the HomeGrown Local Food Summit on Tuesday, March 2nd. The program for the day included wonderful food, a compelling campaign launch, thoughtful group activities, and hopeful plans for a healthy, secure, and fair local food system. Thanks to all the donors, volunteers, and facilitators, who made the day run smoothly.

The summit volunteer planning team is now working on compiling information that was gathered, so stay tuned to this space for updates. If you have photos, videos, or notes from the summit that you would like to share, please email them to info@localfoodsummit.org.

Summit Handouts:
Summit Program
Summit Informational Handbill
Ten Percent Campaign Petition

Videos from summit.

photos by Dave Brenner, UM School of Natural Resources & Environment

HomeGrown Local Food Summit 2010 Agenda

2010-02-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010
Samuel Dana Building | School of Natural Resources | University of Michigan

=== MORNING AGENDA
8:00am - Registration opens, continental breakfast and coffee, poster session in Commons

8:30am - Introductions and Welcome
Summit goals
Morning sessions 1 and 2 (Break-out discussion groups with assignments)

Whole group - Share back in Room 1040

=== LUNCH
12:15pm Lunch by A Knife's Work

=== AFTERNOON AGENDA

1:15pm - Afternoon sessions 1 and 2 (Concurrent action planning sessions in tracks including):
o   Entrepreneurship
o   Politics, Planning and Zoning
o   Modern Homesteading
o Growing the Movement
o Creative Commons Art Space
o   Open conference sessions for self-organized groups
===
3:30pm Closing plenary discussion and activity

===

4:30pm - After party at Silvio’s Organic Pizza

Food and drink provided throughout the day with generous support from The People's Food Co-op, Mill Pond Bread, River Street Bakery, Roos Roast Coffee, and Unity Vibration Kombucha

Announcing Washtenaw County's HomeGrown Local Food Summit 2010

2010-01-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

Our confirmed date and time for the HomeGrown (in Washtenaw County) Local Food Summit this year is Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010, from 8am - 4pm. This one day conference will take place in the Dana Building on the U-M Campus. The fee for the day will be $30 (or $18 for conference registration, and $12 for optional lunch). Scholarships are available. Click here to register.

The delicious lunch, again from A Knife's Work, will include locally sourced soup, salad, bread, cheese and dessert. There will be a vegetarian option. Please note: We are working to make this a zero waste event. Please bring your own table service and coffee cup. Door prizes for best portable lunch setup. :)

The agenda for the day will include:
- Coffee and breakfast snacks
- Local Food Victories
- Networking, poster session, and lunch
- Developing a county-wide local food campaign
- Skill-building workshops on topics like: Using Social Media, Food Politics, Zoning 101 and more
- Committing to our local food community

To join the conversations and working groups we started last year, go to the Local Food Summit Ning site. There is a new group for Food Summit 2010!

We need volunteers and we are a super fun group to work with! If you would like to help, please email info@localfoodsummit.org

Local Food Summit 2009 Report

2009-02-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, January 29th, 2009, a small group of community members working with the HomeGrown Festival and Slow Food Huron Valley organized a day-long conference-style meeting called the Washtenaw Local Food Summit. The motivating idea of the Summit was simply to bring together area stakeholders interested and involved in improving and re-localizing our food system, and to make connections that would strengthen and build the network of people who demand healthy, secure, safe and fair food for our community. The goals of this Summit were to “map our current food system, find gaps, identify priorities, and coordinate efforts leading to a healthy, just and secure local food economy.”

What Happened
To address these goals, we spent the day involved in brainstorming and hearing about examples and models from several Michigan communities. We were fortunate to have speakers give their perspective and inspiration, including:
• Patty Cantrell: Traverse City’s Taste the Local Difference - http://localdifference.org/
• Chris Bedford: Muskegon County Farm-to-School Project - http://www.healthyschoolmeals.org/
We also learned more about the increasing scope and extent of food insecurity in our own community from Fran Alexander, see:
• Food Gatherers: http://www.foodgatherers.org/
• The Washtenaw County Human Food Habitat: http://ewashtenaw.org/government/departments/public_health/hip/pdfs/FoodHabitatinWashtenawCounty2008.pdf

An important part of the day was the spent time eating together, and talking in small groups about what action we are prepared to take toward our priorities. Coverage about the event by Mary Morgan from the Ann Arbor Chronicle is here: http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/01/31/local-food-for-thought/

We Succeed or Fail Together
Although we learned some things that we could have done better in organizing the Summit (bigger space, more time for working groups, etc.), even on our shoestring budget, we felt that the enthusiasm, energy, and involvement in the room made the day a huge success. This movement, this idea that we can have food that is good for people, good for producers, and good for the planet, is only possible through our relationships with each other as a community. As Chris Bedford said in his talk - we succeed or fail together. If our goal is having food that is healthy, just and secure, we must “trust each other, know each other, work with each other and love each other in our communities.”

What’s Next – Choose Priorities
The Summit served the purpose of demonstrating that there is a lot of love in this community, and that we have important priorities in common. It has also served the purpose of bringing us into each others’ orbits, both in person and online. What happens next will be based on what each of us, as individuals, feels moved to work on, and with whom, as individuals, we feel moved to work.

Each of us, as an individual, is the only one who can make change happen. As someone recently told me “Please go back to your community and tell other people, work for change in policy, get involved in local government, get your community involved. You can be sure that if you don’t, no one else will.”

Ways to Get Involved
A number of possibilities for ways to get involved certainly already exist in the community (for example, with Food Gatherers, Project Grow, the Washtenaw Land Trust, Growing Hope, Slow Food Huron Valley, The HomeGrown Festival), but some new things have sprung up as a result of the Summit as well.

• Washtenaw Local Food Website – Calendar and Workgroups
New ways to plug in to efforts coming out of the Summit can be found through the Washtenaw Local Food Website that the Digital Initiatives Summit Working Group just set up. The Washtenaw Local Food Website has links to a Local Food Calendar, to a Ning site (called Local Food Summit) for social networking (where the Summit Working Groups, Discussions, and other ways to share can start out), and eventually to other resources as well. See: http://washtenawlocalfood.net

• The Local Food Calendar is already populated with many local food events and anyone can add a food-related event, viewable by everyone. See: http://washtenawlocalfood.net/calendar.html

• Local Food Working Groups and Discussion Forums have just begun. Anyone can start a new working group or discussion. See, edit your profile, and start joining in at: http://localfoodannarbor.ning.com/
o The Working Groups at this site so far include:
♣ New Farmer Resources
♣ Edible Schoolyard
♣ Local Food Month
♣ Digital Initiatives
♣ Reading Room
♣ Multimedia Show and Tell

In closing - there are still connections to be made, conversations to be had, and working relationship to be forged. If the Summit was one step on the journey toward healthy, secure and fair food for our community, we would like to encourage you to take another step by:
- Joining in or creating a conversation in a Local Food Working group here: http://localfoodannarbor.ning.com/
- Adding en event to the Local Food Calendar here: http://washtenawlocalfood.net/calendar.html
- Reading the transcript of Summit Notes at the Summit 2009 Working Group here: http://localfoodannarbor.ning.com/group/summit2009/forum/topics/summit-2009-documents

Thank you again for your participation and interest in the Washtenaw Local Food Summit and for your willingness to work together and care for our community.

Summit Success

2009-01-31T19:58:00.000-08:00

Nearly 120 people attended the Local Food Summit at Matthaei Botanical Gardens on Thursday, January 29th. The program for the day included wonderful food, compelling speakers, thoughtful group activities, and hopeful plans for a healthy, secure, and fair local food system.

Summit organizers are now working on compiling information that was gathered, including the major areas identified as priorities by working groups. We are also in the process of investigating tools that will best match our ongoing needs for sharing information and making connections. In the meantime we will communicate via email. If you are not already on our contact list and would like to receive follow-up information, please make a request at info@localfoodsummit.org

Thank you to everyone who attended - the good ideas, energy and enthusiasm demonstrated at the Summit were truly inspiring! See more about the day in coverage from the Ann Arbor Chronicle on "Local Food for Thought."

Announcing Local Food Summit January 29, 2009 for the Washtenaw County Area

2008-12-16T05:10:00.000-08:00

Countdown to the Summit

Greetings and thank you for your interest in the Washtenaw County Area Local Food Summit. Registration for the Summit filled quickly and there is currently a waiting list. (Note: if you are registered but not able to attend, please let us know by emailing info@localfoodsummit.org asap so we can notify someone on the waitlist.)

The program we (volunteers, Board of the HomeGrown Festival) have organized has been made possible by an outpouring of generous donations of time, space, food, and materials from our community.

Pre-Summit Activities

Pre-Summit Happy Hour (open to everyone) at Vinology on Main Street in Ann Arbor from 5:00-7:00pm on Wednesday, January 28th. Chef Brandon Johns has reserved space and extended the regular happy hour for us. Please indicate your interest with the poll on the right side of this page.
Screening of the made-in-Michigan movie "Asparagus: Stalking the American Way of Life" is a fund-raiser for Think Local First. The director will be giving a brief talk afterwards. Taking place at the Michigan Theater on Liberty Street in Ann Arbor at 7:15pm on Wednesday, January 28th. Cost is $10, advance tickets at Shaman Drum and online. Also open to everyone.

Summit

Summit opens at Matthaei Botanical Gardens at 8:30am (sharp) on Thursday, January 29th. Because of capacity limitations, walk-in registration will not be possible. Matthaei has generously donated the space for this event and their parking is somewhat limited. They have asked that we request people to carpool if at all possible.
Bagels and coffee (generously donated by Zingerman's) will be served with local cider and apples (courtesy of Slow Food Huron Valley).
Lisa Brush, Executive Director of the Stewardship Network is donating her time as our facilitator.
The official program begins at 9:00am. In addition to group activities, three wonderful speakers are giving their time to participate with us and to address the following topics:
Patty Cantrell, Program Director, Michigan Land Use Institute: "Regional Food Systems as Community Economic Development"
Fran Alexander, Alexander Resource Consulting: "Food Gatherers' Survey on Washtenaw County's Food Security and Food Gatherers Future Directions"
Chris Bedford, Center for Economic Security: "Building a Community-based Regional Food System and Farm-to-School Program in Muskegon County"
Organic, fair-trade flowers provided by Pot and Box container gardening services.
Lunch (with vegetarian option) of soup, salad, and bread is being prepared by A Knife's Work. We are asking anyone who is able to bring homemade cookies for dessert.
We will wrap up at 3:00pm.

Post Summit

All information gathered during the Summit will be made public. The intention is to enable as many people as possible to participate in post-summit activities undertaken by working groups.

If you would like to work on post-Summit communication modalities, please email info@localfoodsummit.org. If you would like to receive follow-up information and summaries from the Summit working groups, please email info@localfoodsummit.org

We apologize to anyone who is not able to attend the Summit meeting because of our space limitations. Our extremely small budget made having a no-cost space a requirement for this meeting. We very much want to include every single person who is willing to take positive steps toward a healthy, secure, safe and fair local food system and will find ways to communicate next steps to anyone who is interested.

Note also: it's possible to leave comments at the bottom of this page if you'd like.

Dear Farmer, Chef, Non-profit Leader or Volunteer, Business owner, Health professional, Government staff or Elected official, or just plain Eater

This is an invitation to meet, learn about, and join together with the many groups and individuals in this community working on re-localizing our food system. Many positive changes are already happening with our sustainable farms, community gardens, schools, artisan producers, businesses, groceries, restaurants, and non-profits. These are indicators of the potential that a vigorous local food system has for our community's improved health and economy. But many of us are not aware of the work OR the needs and resources of the others. And not everyone who should be involved currently is involved.

In order to share information, forge relationships, and grow our impact with the power of networks, the board of the HomeGrown Local Food Festival is extending an invitation to you to attend a Local Food Summit on January 29th, 2009 at Matthaei Botanical Gardens (details below).

Goals

The goals of the Summit are to map our current food system, find gaps, identify priorities, and coordinate efforts leading to a healthy, just and secure local food economy.

Ideas

One effort being planned is a Local Food Month in September 2009, with a calendar of all our community events that will help us work together and engage a wider public. Other possible directions that have been identified as needs include: a farm incubator; a Food Policy Council; micro-lending for small food and farm businesses; Plant-A-Row and Victory Gardens; commercial kitchen space for food classes and processing; and many more. Which priorities, among these or others, are important to you? Which of these should our community work on?

We need your voice and your involvement in the network of people who demand food that is healthy, sustainable, safe and fair. Please come to help define what our commnity most needs and to work with others who believe in the power of food to improve the lives of all who live in our beautiful state. Together we can do what none of us can do alone.

Registration Is Required

The Summit is open to all, but space is limited. Please register early. If you know someone who should be involved, please also encourage them to register.

Details

Save the date for: Thursday, January 29th, 8:30am - 3:00pm

Location: Matthaei Botanical Gardens, 1800 N. Dixboro Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105 (map)

Registration fee: $12

Optional Lunch: $12

Summit Scholarship: Please contact info@localfoodsummit.org

Registration (required): Registration for 2009 is closed.

Questions, more information or to volunteer please email: info@localfoodsummit.org