FRESH AND LOCAL

[Perry Clutts]

>>So is it possible for "Local and Fresh"? My answer is a resounding YES!!! >>Pat    Pat, Your enthusiasm is GREAT!!! This what we're  working on here... I also have a word file with the project description, goals and activities. Let me know if you'd like to read it. I'd appreciate anything you have to share Pat.   This was written for Simply Living magazine.   Perry The Greater Columbus Foodshed Project By Noreen Warnock (With assistance from Laura Ann Bergman and Shannon Kishel)   A 58-year- old farmer contemplates, "Who will be the next person to farm these fields? How will they deal with increasing land prices and other expenses to keep the farm in business?" Not thirty miles away, in Columbus, a single mother with two children, sits at the kitchen table and wonders, "How can I stretch my paycheck even further to buy food? How can I keep my 15-year-old daughter off the streets and gainfully employed?" Low-income rural and urban households, though living in "separate worlds," face similar challenges. Youth, often considered a community�s greatest wealth, are exported. Many members of low-income families in Columbus and of farm communities near Columbus are among the working poor, are generally underserved, and are suffering from insufficient opportunities to get ahead. The 58-year-old farmer and the single mother have another poignant link -- the food they eat. It is a common bond that can be built upon to create opportunities for individuals and to help build sustainable communities. In order to help forge these opportunities and common bonds, a coalition of Ohio Citizen Action, Innovative Farmers of Ohio, Stratford Ecological Center, Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, and Denison University, in partnership with Head Start, Perry Clutts of Pleasantview Farm, Franklin Park Conservatory, and Ohio State University, recently received a USDA Community Food Security grant. The $200,000 grant is to be used for the first phase of The Greater Columbus Foodshed* Project. In this phase, the Project will focus on working with farmers and Head Start families. Over the next 2-1/2 years, 27 community gardens will be established with Head Start families. The grant will enable the coalition and its partners to develop nutrition materials and cooking classes and outfit a local Food Wagon to provide educational programs and locally grown food for inner city neighborhoods. The Food Wagon will also transport urban youth to local farms. Designing and implementing a Beginning Farmer Program that teaches interested inner city youth about urban and rural farming opportunities is another part of the project. The coalition will be establishing a local Foodshed Council for the greater Columbus region. The work to be covered in this grant is one piece in a complex and beautiful "foodshed quilt." Other pieces will include such things as a Buy Local Foods Campaign that could be implemented at Ohio State University, local public schools, and other institutions; school garden projects; establishing an incubator kitchen for developing products from local foods; a local foods festival; and workshops on entrepreneurial opportunities related to a healthy and vibrant local foods system. Securing a local food system for Central Ohio is a complex task, but the USDA grant gives the Greater Columbus Foodshed the ability to start in a meaningful and significant way. The term "foodshed," borrowed from the concept of a watershed, was coined as early as 1929 to describe the flow of food from the area where it is grown into the place where it is consumed. Recently, the term has been revived as a way of looking at and thinking about local, sustainable food systems. (Wisconsin Foodshed Research Project).   HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED The Foodshed Council will provide a meeting place where representatives of the community can come together to survey the assets of our food system. The assets we will be looking at include everything related to food production, distribution, consumption, and waste management. The Council will then develop local programs and policies that build on these assets. A diverse membership will be required to make the Council a success. Representatives from urban and rural communities such as organic and conventional farmers, local elected officials, economic development experts, corporate leaders, community garden coordinators, nutritionists, parents, etc. will be sought to join the Foodshed Council. If you are interested in joining the Council or in working on any other project covered by the USDA grant, please call Noreen Warnock, Environmental Campaigns Director, Ohio Citizen Action, at 614-447-2868. Noreen Warnock is the Environmental Campaigns Director for Ohio Citizen Action. Laura Ann Bergman is the Director of Innovative Farmers of Ohio. Shannon Kishel was on the staff of Stratford Ecological Center when she contributed to the development of the USDA grant.