Community Development through a Regional Food System Plan

2004 Annual Report for CS03-015

Project Type: Sustainable Community Innovation
Funds awarded in 2003: $10,000.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2005
Region: Southern
State: Virginia
Principal Investigator:
Barbara Schwenk
Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission

Community Development through a Regional Food System Plan

Summary

The project is to create a regional food system plan for the Eastern Shore of Virginia and have it adopted by the two counties as a first step towards greater food self-sufficiency, diversifying the agricultural sector, providing better access to nutritious fresh food for low-income citizens, creating self-employment opportunities for low-educational-attainment citizens, and increasing prosperity within our region by retaining and re-circulating food dollars within the community.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Goal #1: Solicit public participation to develop the food system plan by holding a four public meetings (two in each county) with a target attendance of 2% of total population or 1000 by the third month of the project.
Goal #2: Form a working committee of volunteer citizens and professionals by month four of the project. The committee will research and prepare the Virginia Eastern Shore Food System Plan based on its research and community input.
Goal #3: Complete the Virginia Eastern Shore Food System Plan and have it formally adopted by local governments by 11th month of the project.
Goal #4: Form a non-profit organization to implement The Plan by the 12th month.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Goal #1 – public meetings have not yet organized.
Goal #2 – a committee of volunteer professionals met in July 2003 to talk about the process and how to proceed in presenting the idea of a regional food system to the public. The team decided it would be best to first draft a plan and present it to the public and ask for their ideas. Work began with the committee of ag professionals to develop a draft plan. But over time, the committee shifted its focus to creation of a network of farmers markets for the Eastern Shore. The committee has been working diligently to organize farmers into a cooperative and write a business plan for the network. This will be beneficial, and a network of farmers markets would certainly be one component in the regional plan. However, this focus has slowed the development and endorsement of a comprehensive regional food system plan. Staff has been assisting with the development of the farmers markets and did not want to discourage the team by trying to move their focus to the larger plan. A six-month extension was requested from SARE in order to complete the project by September 30, 2005.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

None yet—project to be completed by September 30, 2005.