2017 ASHS Annual Conference

A community-focused food system must be cultivated and nurtured by local leadership encompassing strong community ties that are inclusive of a diversity of voices and ideas. The VCE director formed a temporary steering committee for a CLRFS team to identify current VCE programs and program activities related to CLRFS, and develop a workable and inclusive organizational structure for supporting these efforts across the Commonwealth. To address these goals, the team developed an framework based on collective impact to identify, enhance and promote community, local, and regional food systems resources, information, and partnerships to VCE specialists, agents, and community partners supporting “systems-level farm to table” work. In March 2016, a statewide forum was conducted to facilitate dialogue and a shared understanding of the innovative approaches and collaborations that comprise food systems work in Virginia. The top topics of interest to participants to include in roundtable or open space discussions were community gardens, supporting producers/growers with start-up and sustainability, urban agriculture, and food security. A CLRFS Model was developed as a result of an interactive mapping exercise conducted at the CLRFS Forum. This model described how and where we work together along with value-based impacts. A plan of action was developed based on input from participants through program exercises as well as a post-forum evaluation. A CLRFS Forum report was completed and widely distributed. A websites and a blog were developed to promote marketing tools and resources for CLRFS efforts. To address participants request for more opportunities to share their work, we conducted nine local listening sessions to learn more about VCE food system programs. Current work includes analysis of data, development of a sharing format, program assessment tools, agent facilitation toolkit, and VCE CLRFS organizational structure.