Groups bringing growers and consumers together

By Robert Williams

Editor

The West Central Minnesota Regional Food Council initiative, along with PartnerSHIP 4 Health, initiated and published a survey last September and are now in the process of forming a full Regional Food Policy Council that will use the plan to bolster the regional food system.

The council currently has a dozen members and is looking to add more volunteers, according to Emily Reno, Advisory Council Coordinator. Reno is also one of the very active members of Karen Pifher’s Creating Community Consulting firm and spoke about the food initiative from Melbourne, Australia last week.

A food systems plan is a long-range planning document that lays out a community’s vision for its growth. Planning brings structure and strategy to local food systems growth, and helps align policies, such as ordinances, zoning, and incentives to support the local food system.

The West Central Minnesota Food Policy Council (FPC) is a diverse and inclusive group of individuals and organizations interested in improving food policy in Clay, Becker, Otter Tail, and Wilkin Counties. The council meets on a monthly basis via Zoom for 90 minutes and each member also serves on one of three subcommittees.

“The idea is we are really prioritizing our efforts for 12 months of our work together to show we can accomplish something instead of spreading our energies thin amongst a bunch of other projects and ideas,” said Reno.  

The FPC works to identify policy and program opportunities to expand small-scale farming and improve access to more fresh and nutritious food for all West Central Minnesota residents. The FPC also works to empower residents to live more sustainably and is guided in its work by the West Central Minnesota Regional Food System Plan published in September 2023.

The three subcommittees consist of the Food Security Committee, Marketing Local Foods Committee and Urban Agriculture Committee. The three were formed on the personal interest and passions of the council members and also what they were hearing were high priority interests from around the region via the survey and other sounding boards.

“My goal as facilitator of this council is to help get the word out that the Food Council exists and that these subcommittees are actively soliciting engagement from the public and those who are passionate about food are more than welcome to join,” said Reno.

Each subcommittee has a chairperson noted on the site, along with the monthly meeting schedule.

Food Security is dealing with promoting affordable access to fresh, nutritious, local and ecologically sustainable food for all West Central Minnesota’s residents. Recognizing and enhancing the role of the food and agriculture system in conserving and regenerating West Central Minnesota’s natural resources and environment.

According to Reno, it is also coordinating with local food pantries and food shelves and increasing and supporting infrastructure at both.

The chairperson is Anna Johnson, annaj@caplp.org, and her subcommittee meets the third Thursday of the month at 3 p.m.

The Urban Agriculture Committee, chaired by Scott Roser, sroser86@gmail.com, has just recently scheduled their first meeting on the third Wednesday of the month at 3:30 p.m.

“Generally, the idea is, within our region we have a really big difference between more urban areas and rural communities,” said Reno. “In thinking about food production within the city limits whether that is growing fruits and vegetables or raising chickens, for example. We’re leaning on our friends with the Cass Clay Food Commission and some of the amazing blueprints they have created that are laws and policies they have created that are meant to serve as a source of inspiration for anybody operating within city government to think about how to allow more flexibility and how to incentivize people to growing more food within their own property.”

The Marketing Local Foods Committee is dealing with a big topic at the state level on consumers finding out where they can purchase local foods and also on the farmer’s side, where are the customers?

Both of Minnesota’s U.S. democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, announced federal funding to strengthen the middle portions of Minnesota’s food supply chain Wednesday, Feb. 7. 

The funds will help small farms and small food businesses access more customers and help consumers find more locally-grown goods – oftentimes at lower cost. The funding is made possible through the American Rescue Plan, legislation both Klobuchar and Smith supported. 

“To keep prices low at the grocery store, we need to invest in our food supply chain to make it resilient from disruptions and bottlenecks,” said Klobuchar. “These grants will strengthen the infrastructure needed to bring food from farm to table, support farmers as they expand into new markets, and deliver technical skills training for local food businesses.”

The four-year partnership between the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and United States Department of Agriculture will bolster the middle of Minnesota’s food supply chain, meaning more opportunities for producers to sell their goods, better infrastructure for food businesses to operate with, and more locally grown options for Minnesotans at the grocery store. 

The projects will help compile, process, store, transport, wholesale, and distribute regionally grown foods to bring them to market more efficiently. The funding will also support business development services to help Minnesota companies. 

“Farmers in Minnesota know firsthand the vulnerabilities of our food supply chain and the importance of making it more resilient in the long term,” said Smith. “This funding will help strengthen our food supply system and also expand opportunities for farmers in Minnesota and around the country by creating new and better markets for their products.” 

Reno echoed that the marketing subcommittee is committed to helping consumers and farmers on both the issues and bringing customers and food providers together.

One local effort that is currently underway is a new Farmer’s Market started in Parkers Prairie. Food Council member Meghan Jahnke is facilitating a community forum scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 21 from 5:30-6:30 p.m., at City Hall.

“The idea is getting people from the public, farmers, artists, performing artists, people who run food trucks, to come together and see what this can look like,” said Reno.

Walk-ins are welcome, but if certain of attending, kindly RSVP by Feb. 20 the number of people attending via private/direct message to Prairie Farmers Market on Facebook.

The Food Plan is a five-year initiative with Reno stressing how local food can drive local, economic development.

“It often comes down to how we can bring more of these resources into the community, whether that be financial or otherwise” she said. “I feel small towns have been forgotten about for a long time.”

Reno formerly lived in Vergas and knows how much that community would like a farmer’s market during the growing season and has also taken her research internationally, currently in Melbourne, home of the Queen Victoria Market, the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere.

“I often think about what is the infrastructure, physically, to invest in some of the communities that could support not just a farmer’s market, but other essential things that are missing within our communities,” she said. “It’s really exciting work. I’m lucky to be involved with this group.”

For a deeper dive into the projects and committees visit partnership4health.org/regional-food-council/