Supporting Local Food Systems: Actions You Can Take

Small actions taken together can make a big difference in a local food system. Actions can start at a grocery store, at your table, in your church and even in state and federal policies.

1. Take “local” food to your community pot luck and make sure everyone knows it’s local.

2. Participate in study circles or faith-based study groups that explore the ethics of eating local food. For a good resource, check out “Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table available at http://www.pcusa.org/hunger/features/justeating.htm.

3. Start a book club or film club the explores the food system and your role in it.

4. Donate locally produced and processed meat, milk, eggs and fresh produce to local food pantries so all members of your community can have wholesome food.

5. Lead your parish, garden club or other community group in organizing a garden to produce food for fellowship meals and donate the surplus to a local pantry.

6. Encourage the members of your spiritual community to subsidize Community Supported Agriculture farm shares for families with limited resources.

7. Ask your supermarket manager to stock locally produced fruits and vegetables in season.

8. Ask your waitress for specials featuring locally and sustainably produced food.

9. Teach others about preserving local food by working with your County Extension Office to organize canning and preserving classes.

10. Tell all your family and friends why you eat food that is health for you, your community and your world.

11. Help create links between your child’s school lunch program and local farmers. (Think it can’t be done? Check out this website (http://www.farmtoschool.org/). In Oklahoma, stakeholders organized around the issue and eventually passed legislation that established a farm to school program statewide. Read about the Oklahoma process at http://www.kerrcenter.com/farm_to_school/.)

12. Educate yourself about state and federal policies that impact the development of local food systems. You can find great resources on this topic at the World Hunger Year’s Food Security Learning Center online at http://worldhungeryear.org/fslc/. National organizations leading in sustainable food and farming systems advocacy include the Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture http://sustainableagriculture.net/) and the Community Food Security Coalition http://www.foodsecurity.org/.

13. Take five minutes once a month and call your federal representatives to let them know your views about supporting local food systems. (State Reps provided). Just ask to be connected to the Senator or Representative you are calling and then ask to speak to the aide who handles food and agriculture. Leave a message if you don’t get a real person.

14. Join an organization that represents your views on community food systems. You can help to formulate policies and responses to action alerts on important legislation.

15. Remember that no policy is too small or insignificant to tackle, nor is farm and food policy too big and overwhelming to think about! Change starts with you.

Prepared by Mary Hendrickson, Ph.D. for the Tri-State Locally Grown Conference, Nov. 29, 2007.