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Between National Ag Day, an extra hour of daylight and the first official day of Spring, March has been a busy month. The sun is out a little longer, the birds are chirping louder, and here in South Portland, Maine, where I live, the local ice cream institution, Red's Dairy Freeze (open since 1952), has lines wrapped around the block once again.
With the excitement of warmer weather comes the flurry of Spring activity and, officially, grants season. The amount of funds available for food systems development this year is substantial - particularly in relation to strengthening our regional supply chains. One of the Partnership's key focus areas is to support our state organization and state department partners in navigating the active and upcoming programs. Our RFSI Regional Work Group, which has been meeting since December, offers our State Department of Agriculture partners and affiliates to share information, build relationships, and coordinate work plans as the RFSI program gets underway.
As applications start to roll in, the Partnership also has a lens on the important work of our aligned and partner organizations. We will participate in FSNE's annual 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge in April and support our New Hampshire partner, NH Food Alliance as they discuss their first Strategic Plan for the state's food system at the 2024 NH Food System Statewide Gathering in May. MA Food Policy Council is working on a strategic plan with Project Bread to end hunger by 2030, leaning on priorities and steps Maine and Vermont recently underwent through similar efforts in their states. Rhode Island seafood and fisheries businesses met with suppliers at the recent Seafood Expo North America in Boston, MA. Thanks to a partnership with RI Commerce and RI Department of Environmental Management, this allowed a vital sector of RI's small to medium sized businesses to be represented at the leading trade event for seafood buyers - across every market category - in the country.
By aligning our state efforts at the regional level, we can maximize the use of federal funds for equipment, facilities and infrastructure, collaborate on critical food systems development projects like ensuring food security and access for all, and take steps toward achieving the 30 by 2030 goal.
April showers may be around the corner, but I've got my rain boots ready.
Leah
Project Director, New England Feeding New England
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Local Food Counts Project
What percent of our food supply is being grown, sold and consumed in the region?
As you may know, a goal of the 10-year New England Feeding New England project was to conduct Local Food Counts to develop a baseline estimate for the amount of food being produced and consumed within the region. We closed our survey collection period on March 15th, and are now in the phase of debriefing, reporting and building visualized data dashboards to showcase our findings.
You can see in the graphic below that one of the ways in which the visualized data will help is is in understanding trends in purchasing. Since Vermont has conducted Local Food Counts studies four times, they are able to see trends over a 10-year period. What is shown in the shading of the graphic below is an increase in the percentage of total local food purchases in Vermont between 2010 and 2020 - you can see there was an increase in local food sales from 5% in 2010, to just over 16% in 2020.
It can also help us to understand what dollar amount - in this case, Vermonters, would spend if they were spending 30 percent of their food expenditures on products from Vermont. Vermont estimates achieving 30% sales of Vermont foods would mean Vermonters spend about 527.3 million dollars on Vermont foods.
We look forward to having this early stage understanding for the other 5 states and are in conversation about more specific steps the Partnership can take to build momentum for the next count in 2026 (which will reflect 2025 data).
The LFC team consisted of lead analysts and research assistants in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine, in collaboration with Farm to Institution New England.
|  | *Vermont's Local Food Count data was collected in 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2020 and VT Farm to Plate developed the peer reviewed methodology and the process roadmap we followed. | |
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Chris Peters, lead researcher for Volume 2: Estimating Production for 30% Regional Self-Reliance, related the NEFNE report to the newly released MA Farmland Action Plan at MDAR's March Lunch & Learn.
Chris is the Research Leader of the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Food Systems Research Unit in Burlington, VT. Some of his best-known work includes development of a framework for estimating land requirements of diets and human carrying capacity, and a spatial modeling approach for mapping potential foodsheds.
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Tanya Swain, Project Director at Maine Food Strategy, one of our state organization partners, recently spoke at to Maine Conservation Voters. She shared key findings from the NEFNE research and how we can use data to help us understand what is happening with food systems in Maine and the region at-large.
MCV has 6 chief priority areas: Equity & Racial Justice, Climate Change, Land, Water & Wildlife, Elections, Democracy and Partnerships. Since 1986, they have been protecting Maine's environment, democracy and climate future.
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Ellen Kahler, Executive Director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund which houses Vermont Farm to Plate, presented to UVM Extension's Conference Workshop to share researching findings from the NEFNE report and Vermont State Brief with lead university experts. | |
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New England Food System Planners Partnership and
Northeast-USDA Regional Food Business Center
As part of the first Northeast Regional Food Business Center Quarterly Webinar of 2024, and as a Community Advisory Council member, Leah represented the Partnership by sharing some of the NEFNE research. She also explained the important role the Partnership plays in bringing together state-level organizations, State Departments of Agriculture and FSNE's regional network - with representatives present from the other Centers, it felt important to share that one of the strategies we are employing in New England is through regional collaboration and coordination toward a shared goal - 30% by 2030.
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Thank you to all of the attendees for their insight, ideas and energy! | |
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We are proud to participate in Food Solutions New England's 10th annual 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge from April 1, 2024 to April 21, 2024.
Each year, thousands of individuals and hundreds of officially participating organizations join in a shared journey of learning and charting a course of action to dismantle racism in our food system and our world.
The FSNE 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge is simple! You commit to deepening your understanding of, and willingness to confront, racism for twenty-one consecutive days in April of each year and the FSNE Racial Equity Challenge will:
- Raise your awareness, change your understanding and shift the way you behave.
- Go beyond individual or interpersonal racism by helping to demystify structural and institutional racism and white supremacist patterns that are sometimes invisible to people.
- Inspire you to act - on your own or with others in your organization, business, or group - to dismantle these systems, to make changes in your work and the world that can build true equity and justice for all.
Check out the 2024 FSNE Racial Equity Challenge Launch Webinar to learn more about what expect from the REC in 2024.
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Join us for the 2024 NH Food System Statewide Gathering on
May 17 at The Barn on the Pemi in Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Register before April 1 and save $25 on your ticket!
We will spend our time together diving into a variety of food system issues through breakout sessions, networking activities, a locally sourced lunch, and end-of-gathering celebration. The NH Food System Statewide Gathering is an annual event hosted by the NH Food Alliance that brings together individuals, businesses, and organizations from across sectors who are dedicated to growing an improved local food system that works for all in the Granite State: people, businesses, communities, and the environment.
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Our Partnership is actively talking about how to align and work together across our states to most effectively distribute middle-of-the-supply-chain funding. | |
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USDA-AMS is working across states to design and build resilience in the middle-of-the-supply-chain and strengthen regional and local food systems through the creation of new revenue streams in the areas of aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, or distribution of local agricultural products. Each State Department of Agriculture is managing a different amount of funds, timelines and corresponding criteria but all will offer funds via two grant programs: Infrastructure and Equipment.
The following grant applications are open now:
- New Hampshire
- Infrastructure Grant - apply by March 29, 2024
- Equipment Grant - will post in late 2024
- Massachusetts
- Infrastructure Grant - apply by March 29, 2024
- Simplified Equipment Grants - apply by March 29, 2024
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Connecticut
- Infrastructure Grant - apply by April 10, 2024
- Equipment Grant - will post in February 2025
Maine's Infrastructure grant application will tentatively post in late March 2024; equipment-only will post in October 2024. Vermont will open Infrastructure grants this Spring and equipment-only grants mid-late summer 2024. Rhode Island's Infrastructure and special equipment use grant application period closed on January 21, 2024.
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Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP)
Another USDA-AMS program, RFSP supports partnerships that connect public and private resources to plan and develop local or regional food systems. Its focus is to strengthen the viability and resilience of regional food economies through collaboration and coordination. There are two types of projects: 24-month Planning and Design and 36-month Implementation and Expansion with different costing ranges.
RFSP applications are now open through May 14, 2024.
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Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP)
The USDA-AMS works with states to offer funds to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops, which are defined as "fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).
SCBGP applications are still open for 2 states:
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Even though institutional sales make up a small percentage of total sales, there are over 20,000 institutions in New England. Regionally, this comes to less than four percent of food and beverage sales regionally, but it's important to note that 25% of the population spends time in an institution daily. There are clearly proven mechanisms - seen through just the few examples I cited above - that work. How might we look to these examples and create new models, tracking systems, accessibility and affordability for farmers, producers, and buyers in our communities to supply our schools, hospitals, correctional facilities and other institutions with more local and regionally grown, raised, produced, harvested and caught food? | |
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The Partnership is excited to introduce you to a few of the dynamic, innovative regional, state and community-level organizations we support.
Through this alignment, we can continue to work towards the New England Feeding New England goal of '30% by 2030!'
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The Maine Food Policy Work Group was formed in early 2019 by representatives from Maine Farm to Institution, FoodCorps Maine, Maine Network of Community Food Councils, CEI and others. The goal is to monitor Food Policy work, with a key focus on Maine Legislation, along with municipal and federal initiatives, in order to inform Maine's food system stakeholders and encourage advocacy for Good Food Policy. They are currently working on organizing and growing into a more formal Policy Coalition.
The Work Group is supported by the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation and The Henry P. Kendall Foundation with funds coming through Maine Farm to Institution (MEFTI). Healthy Communities of the Capital Area is the home for MEFTI.
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Regional Food System Jobs | |
Thank you to the growing list of regional and state-level organizations who have invited us to speak about our Partnership and the report! | |
Understanding what it is happening across the nation in food systems work helps to inform and show us perspectives or opportunities we can think about here in New England - from news coverage and events to research endeavors - here are a few we're excited about | |
The New England Food System Planners Partnership (NEFSPP) is a collaboration amongst six state-level food system organizations, six-state agricultural agency representatives and Food Solutions New England (FSNE), a regional network that unites the food system community. Together, we are mobilizing our networks to impact local and regional food supply chains, in turn, strengthening and growing New England's food system. The Partnership works together to disseminate information on trends, challenges and opportunities in alignment with FSNE's New England Food Vision, and with hundreds of groups and organizations involved in food systems development across the region. | | | | |
