Building the regional food system

August 6, 2011 Traverse City Record-Eagle - reprinted with permission

 

 

Since its inception in 2009, the Northwest Michigan Food and Farming Network (FFN) has worked to increase the resilience and double the value of the region’s agrifood system by 2019. With several working groups, the FFN has made significant progress toward this goal over the last two years.

 

 

The Health and Youth Working Group has several ongoing projects in the region.

 

 

First, the Michigan Land Use Institute, Michigan State University Extension Service and SEEDS will host two Food Corp Volunteers over the coming months, one of whom will help develop schoolyard gardens and associated curriculum at Northport and Suttons Bay Schools.

 

 

The second will work on Farm-to-School procurement at six schools in four northwest Michigan counties.

 

Also in the Farm-toSchool realm, Leland Public School recently received a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to implement a pilot Farm-to-School Program starting this fall. Second, members of the FFN, through MLUI’s Taste the Local Difference Program, will host the Taste the Local Difference Farmers Market, a multifunctional education and demonstration tent, at the Northwest Michigan Fair next week. There will be local food cooking demonstration called “Cooking with Kids” from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 10 with local chefs. The Farmers Market tent will also offer gardening fun, storytelling, and much more throughout fair week.

 

The network’s Education and Training Group also has regional projects under way. The Northwest Michigan Council of Governments and Northwestern Michigan College were recently awarded a grant to form the state’s first “Sustainable Agriculture Sector Skills Alliance” here in northwest Michigan. After a successful meeting in May, the alliance is developing a series of agri-food system courses for Winter 2012, including Hoop Houses for Season Extension, Small Farm Financing, Institutional Food Preparation Enhancement, and Safety and Food Quality Training for the Food Processing Industry, among others.

 

 

FFN discussions also are continuing to develop a Sustainable Agriculture certificate program at NMC over the next year.

 

 

Three working groups were recently combined into a “Scaling-Up Local Food” group. Two important projects under way include the Grand Traverse Regional Market and implementing the Michigan Safe Food Risk Assessment pilot here in northwest Michigan. Currently in the conceptual design phase at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons in Traverse City, the goal of the regional market is to develop, promote, and expand direct-market and employment opportunities for farmers and agri-food entrepreneurs through acquisition of value-added processing and packaging infrastructure, refrigerator and freezer storage, and specialty-food kitchen incubator equipment.

 

 

The Traverse Bay Economic Development Corp. received a Rotary Charities Planning Grant for the initial planning and, with MSU Extension leadership, is seeking funding for Phase II of this value-added project. The risk assessment program, to be run by the Grand Traverse Conservation District and the Land Use Institute, will offer one-on-one, on-farm food safety training for small-scale farmers beginning this fall.

 

 

As you can tell from this small sample of ongoing Food and Farming Network projects, we are well on our way to building the community food system in the Grand Traverse region.

 

 

Dr. Robert Sirrine is a community food systems educator in Michigan State University Extension’s Greening Institute and chair of the Northwest Michigan Food & Farming Network. The group is one of six collaborative networks developed to implement the Grand Vision — the ambitious, citizen-led regional planning effort. For more information, visit www. thegrandvision.org and find the FFN under “The Grand Vision in Action” header.