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Twelve farmers, ranchers and community members from around the region attended the Food Hub Roundtable Discussion. The goal of the event was to get people on the same page about food hub functions and organizational structures and to begin working towards a model for southern Illinois. The presentation was centered around the following article. The event included an activity that helped us explore resources, stakeholders, and start thinking about the tasks that would be handled by a food hub. The activity revealed that there is a great deal of existing cold storage infrastructure, community support for local food, and many small sustainable farmers in the region interested in accessing larger markets. Some of the biggest challenges identified were in selecting a decision making/organizational structure for the group and finding and compensating a manager or coordinator for the food hub. Next steps. There was some interest in beginning to draft by-laws and solidify an organizational structure for a southern Illinois food hub expressed in evaluations of the March roundtable. Rather than getting bogged down trying to draft something from scratch, it might be beneficial to go point by point through the Legacy of the Land by-laws and use that as a jump off point to develop a set for our group. (Drafts of those documents can be made available by request.) If there is interest, we would like to hold another roundtable type event to discuss these by-laws and start working towards an organizational structure for a food hub in southern Illinois on April 17th at 3pm at Owl Creek Vineyard. Please email reanna@eatsouthernillinois.org if you are interested in being a part of this event. |
AuthorFood Works Staff, Board Members, and Farming Alliance Members Archives
January 2018
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