Thanks to all the wonderful speakers and participants who shared what they knew with each other, and for providing these resources to help food councils and networks thrive.
Table of Contents:
- Stories Told & Lessons Learned: Food Councils Affecting Local Change
- Connecting State to Local
- Interactive Discussion: Engaging Local Government in Food Efforts
- Building a Network of Networks: Attempting to Shift Local, State, & Institutional Food Policy in Colorado
- Successful Engagement: Developing Cultural Competency
- How Effective Are We Really? Demonstrating Council Impact
- Food System Networks: It’s All About Relationships!
- Foundations for Collective Impact: Driving Real Food Systems Change
- Winnowing to Win: Tools to Develop and Implement a Policy Agenda
- Authentic Youth Engagement in Food Access Work
- Closing Session – How Do Councils Sustain Their Efforts?
Stories Told & Lessons Learned: Food Councils Affecting Local Change
Presenters Jared Cates, Wendy Peters Moschetti, and Larissa Calancie shared examples and case studies from North Carolina, Colorado, and across the country that highlight the achievements of a variety of food councils. Learn how different councils approach the program vs. policy issue, include diverse voices across their work, identify needs within their communities (using data and other means), all topics relevant to new and mature councils.
- Presentation – Coming Soon!
Connecting State to Local: Vibrant Farms
Our state’s number one industry is agriculture and North Carolina is a national leader in agriculture diversity. From soil testing to safety concerns to marketing, farm preservation and more, what are the farm issues in your community? Learn how to navigate farm concerns and discover state level resources to help you work locally to ultimately preserve farmland and support the farmers who grow our food. Get an overview of services and programs with panelists from NC Department of Agriculture, Ron Fish (Agribusiness), Annie Baggett (Agritourism), Heather Barnes (Farm to School), Sherry Barefoot (Market News), Paul Jones (Media), Victor VanNortwick (GAP/GHP, Cooperative Grading Service), and Evan Davis (Farmland Preservation).
- Session Audio Recording – MP3 (112 MB)
Connecting State to Local: Thriving Local Economies
NC Department of Commerce Rural Economic Development Division panelists Libby Smith (Asst. ARC Program Manager & Sr. Community Development Advisor), Dr. Patricia Mitchell (Asst. Secretary), Hazel Edmond (Program Manager Building Reuse Program), Liz Parham (Director, NC Main Street Center and the Office of Urban Development) will discuss the importance of local food economies for community and economic development, and what is happening in communities across NC. Discover state programs and assistance to help your work locally.
Connecting State to Local: Foodshed & Land Use Planning
Panelists Edgar Miller (Govt Relations Director, Conservation Trust for NC), Katherine Baer (Director of Conservation, Triangle Land Conservancy), Kevin Redding (Exec Director, Piedmont Land Conservancy), Rich Shaw (Land Conservation Manager, Orange County), Toby Bost (Chair, Forsyth Soil and Water Conservation District), Kirk Ericson (Principal Planner, Winston-Salem and Forsyth County), and Annette Hiatt (Senior Staff Attorney, Land Loss Prevention Project) describe the food systems landscape regarding farmland protection in North Carolina. Discover who does what at the state level and identify resources and support options to help you work locally.
- Session Audio Recording – MP3 (32 MB)
Connecting State to Local: Healthy People Organizers
Moderated by Karen Stanley (NC Division of Public Health), panelists Alice Ammerman (Director, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Prof, Gillings School of Global Public Health and School of Medicine), Diane Beth (Nutrition Program Consultant, NC Division of Public Health), Dara Bloom (Asst. Professor and Local Foods Extension Specialist, NCSU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), Earline Middleton (VP Agency Services and Programs, Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC) and Sarah Jacobsen (NC Alliance for Health) describe the food systems landscape regarding healthy North Carolinians. Discover who does what at the state level and identify resources and support options to help you work locally.
Interactive Discussion: Engaging Local Government in Food Efforts
Moderator Rick Morse hosts local government panelists John Day (Retired County Manager, Cabarrus), Mary Furtado (Asst. County Manager, Catawba), Joe Moore (City Manager, Brevard), and Dudley Watts (County Manager, Forsyth) as they reflect on local food from their perspectives as chief executives of local government institutions. Bring specific questions or frustrations to share in what promises to be an interactive and lively discussion. Leave with candid insights from local government managers around what to do (and what not to do) to effectively engage your own local government leaders as allies in your food system work.
Building a Network of Networks: Attempting to Shift Local, State, & Institutional Food Policy in Colorado
Food systems planner Wendy Peters Moschetti presents information from Colorado, where its state Food Systems Advisory Council and partners are building a Colorado Food Policy Network comprised of ~18 community food coalitions. Learn how their emerging network of councils hopes to come together in a collective voice to advance healthy food access policy, steps they have taken that helped them advance as well as missteps they could have avoided, and what the network needs now to grow.
- Session Audio Recording – MP3 (87 MB)
- Presentation – Coming Soon!
- Community Commons – Maps & Data
Successful Engagement: Developing Cultural Competency
Many food councils, both nationally and in NC, seek to broaden and deepen engagement in their communities. Yet groups often struggle to engage beyond traditional stakeholders – “the usual suspects.” Studies show that an inclusive climate is a critical feature of successful councils and networks. Leadership scholar Dr. Forrest Toms shows how food councils can create a more inclusive climate by developing the cultural competency of its members and the group, while at the same time developing and building capacity to engage non-traditional stakeholders and their communities.
- Session Audio Recording – MP3 (9 MB)
- Successful Engagement: Developing Cultural Competency – Forrest D. Toms, PhD – PDF (2MB)
- Lead the Way – Principles and Practices in Community and Civic Engagement
How Effective Are We Really? Demonstrating Council Impact
What makes a council or collaborative successful? How can groups demonstrate impact? Food council researcher Larissa Calancie explains what recent studies tell us about critical success factors for institutionalizing change and explore ways to show council success.
Food System Networks: It’s All About Relationships!
Changing the food system is a huge undertaking. No one organization or individual can go it alone. Success requires us to intentionally connect, build relationships and learn from one another. Chesapeake Foodshed Network coordinator Christy Gabbard explains how a network approach can advance food system work in your community.
- Session Audio Recording – MP3 (21 MB)
- Food System Networks: It’s All about Relationships! – Christy Gabbard – PPT (10.7 MB)
- Books
- Software
- Google Hangouts – Free Video Calls
- Trello – Free Online Shared Project Dashboard
- Wiggio – Free, online toolkit that makes it easy to work in groups.
Foundations for Collective Impact: Driving Real Food Systems Change
Presenters Abbey Piner and Katie Descieux share an exciting new trend in the field of organizational collaboration. Hear from folks who are working with Collective Impact in their communities. Plus, get a sneak preview of the new Collective Impact Toolkit for Food Councils, which helps councils harness their community’s energy to make lasting change in the food system.
Winnowing to Win: Tools to Develop and Implement a Policy Agenda
Eating is, in part, a political act. Your community’s food choices provide a chance to eat your values. Advocating for a local food system provides a way to support a vibrant local economy, a chance to improve public health, and a path to improve conditions for farm workers, farm animals and the environment. How will your community select among these worthy outcomes and target its work? Rochelle Sparko provides tools used for decades by community organizers that can help your council select among myriad competing issues.
Authentic Youth Engagement in Food Access Work
Presenters Diana Manee and Kimberly Reese share the YES! Youth Empowerment Model, explaining its underlying theory, and providing examples for implementation. Learn tangible skills that will increase your ability to support and enhance effective youth-adult partnerships for local and statewide advocacy while highlighting successful intergenerational partnerships and outcomes in food access work.
- Session Audio Recording – MP3 (100 MB)
- About Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) – Diana Manee & Kimberly Reese
Closing Session – How Do Councils Sustain Their Efforts?
Creative Insight Council participants report their answer to the question that they’ve processed throughout the event: “How can food councils procure the resources they need to be effective and sustainable?”
Community Videos about Food:
- 10% Campaign – Collards in the Cafeteria – Gaston County
- MountainWise – Transylvania County Farmers Market – Local Gov’t Perspective
- CFSA / Kenan Institute – Eating Local in Beaufort County
- Upper PeeDee Farm and Food Council – Farm Videos