New England Feeding New England Newsletter
Cultivating a Reliable Food Supply
A project of the New England State Food System Planners Partnership
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New England State Food System Planners Partnership Updates |
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Rhode Island Food Policy Council |
The Rhode Island Food Policy Council is working closely with state agencies to convene nonprofits, community-based organizations, and businesses to address pressing food access needs and identify top priority food system investments. In particular, our network is the coordinator of the Rhode Island Hunger Elimination Task Force, which is working to develop a plan to address food system disruptions that may occur as a result of the Delta variant or other environmental or climate-related factors. |
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We are currently operating a USDA Local Food Promotion Program planning grant, which is designed to connect local food producers and harvesters with the emergency feeding network. One outcome of this planning grant is the pilot "Local Seafood to Community" project, which is operated by Commercial Fisheries Center of RI in partnership with Eating with the Ecosystem, and 7 community-based organizations that primarily serve Native, immigrant, and refugee populations and has delivered over 100,000 pounds of fish to households in need since August 2020.
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See more about our legislative priorities and our projects at:
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Massachusetts Food System Collaborative |
The MA Food System Collaborative is prioritizing supply chain resilience with a number of legislative and state budget priorities this year. We have worked with legislators to introduce bills that would establish a state meat inspection program, increasing infrastructure capacity for livestock growers to better meet demand. We are urging lawmakers to increase funding for the state’s Food Security Infrastructure Grant program, which provides capital funds for food system enterprises from farmers and fishers to distributors and food pantries. We are also leading an effort to develop a statewide farmland action plan, setting goals and recommendations for policy to support farmland protection and access over the next several decades, and we are organizing BIPOC farmers in support of legislation that would consider policy interventions to create a more equitable agriculture industry in the state. |
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Connecticut Food System Alliance |
CFSA is planning our annual summit, Growing Together: A Four Part Virtual Series About Building and Maintaining a Network, Planning Collectively, and Addressing Our Most Immediate Food & Farm Concerns. These sessions will span multiple weeks and cover topics such as building a sustainable network, crafting a statewide food action plan, and understanding and addressing the Connecticut food system’s role in the climate crisis. Winton Pitcoff from Massachusetts Food System Collaborative and Tanya Swain from the Maine Food Strategy will present at the second session about their respective states' food plans, offering some guidance as we grow our Connecticut food plan in alignment with NEFNE goals. Session descriptions are linked on our website: https://ctfoodsystemalliance.com/cfsa-2021-summit/
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We hope that this event can appeal to fellow food system planners throughout New England, especially Growing Our State Food Plan and Rethinking Networking.
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Tasty Little State is a podcast of the Vermont RELEAF Collective, a growing collective and network of, by and for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) living on unceded Indigenous Abenaki lands known as Vermont. The podcast focuses on uplifting the voices and stories of BIPOC foodies, food entrepreneurs and activists, and to disrupt the narrative of Vermont's cultural homogeneity.
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Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund
Vermont Farm to Plate
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Moving more local food: The Vermont Food Hub Collaborative (VFHC) L3C was founded by a group of four VT-based nonprofit farm and food organizations with the goal of operating a transactional network for effective and efficient food aggregation, logistics, and distribution. The VFHC has developed the Vermont Way Foods™ brand to create new market opportunities for Vermont producers in support of a robust and vibrant farm and food economy.
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On October 15, the New Hampshire Food Alliance will host our annual Network Development Retreat where partners will learn about existing collaborative efforts and identify new opportunities to work together to support local farms, fisheries, and food businesses, secure healthy food access for all, build climate resilience, and ensure racial equity in our communities and workplaces.
This fall we hired a new NH Food Hub Network Project Director who is working to expand market opportunities and increase coordination among food hubs in NH and New England.
Our monthly Network Café series will host conversations and catalyze action around various topics including a Farm to School reimbursement bill that would pay schools back for (a certain amount of) their local food purchases, on-farm renewable energy solutions to reduce costs and support climate resilience, and cooperative and value-added business models for the dairy industry.
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Maine Food Strategy supports state-level collaborative projects that advance goals identified in the Maine Food Strategy Framework: A Tool for Advancing Maine’s Food System. In addition to the New England Feeding New England project, in 2021 the initiative is supporting two collaboratives: Maine Food Convergence is a partnership with Maine Farm to Institution, Maine Climate Action NOW!, Maine Gleaning Network, and Maine Network of Community Food Councils.
Together with these partners, Maine Food Strategy is working to expand discussions from the February and March Convergence conference on diversity and inclusivity in Maine’s food system, and among groups leading work on food system issues. T
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The initiative is also partnering with Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, Maine Food Producers and Grocers Association and Fork Food Lab to organize the second Selling More Maine Foods Webinar Series in early 2022 to feature data and information from businesses on new trends in wholesale and retail value-add foods in a COVID-19 world.
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Food Solutions New England |
The six-state Food Solutions New England network is concurrently updating the New England Food Vision with a focus on “30x30.” The update will encompass the findings of the NEFNE project while also lifting up network values of democracy, equity & sustainability in our regional vision for the decades ahead.
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For more information, contact info@nefoodsystemplanners.org
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