DOUGLAS COUNTY FOOD POLICY
COUNCIL SUPPORTS LOCAL FOOD ECONOMY
| 2014 Q2 | story by EILEEN HORN, Douglas County & City of Lawrence Sustainability Coordinator |
Buying local products at locally owned businesses keeps money circulating closer to where you spend it. A recent USDA study showed that for every $1 spent on locally grown food, $1.63 is generated in other local business sectors. In Lawrence and our region, there are thousands of small businesses throughout our local food chain – from the small or mid-sized farmer who sells at the farmers’ market to the restaurant chef who buys local food for seasonal menu specials. Supporting these food and farm entrepreneurs is one of the key tasks of the Douglas County Food Policy Council.
The Douglas County Food Policy Council is a joint city-county advisory council that advises commissioners on the policies and programs we can undertake locally to build a robust local food system. The Council was formed in 2010, and has 23 stakeholder-members who represent various aspects of the food system. Members represent small farms, large farms, health agencies, agriculture organizations, environmental groups, school districts, restaurants, grocery stores, and nonprofits.
In the four years since its creation, the Food Policy Council has been busy working on policies and programs that support our local food economy, and help make healthy local food more accessible for our citizens. The Douglas County Food Policy Council has emerged as a regional leader in this work, and was recently recognized by the USDA as a “Community of Innovation” for other communities to follow our example.
A few of the council projects include:
1. A “food hub” feasibility study to analyze the market potential for food system infrastructure such as aggregation, storage, and distribution. A food hub would link our farmers with new markets, and make it easier for grocers, chefs, and cafeterias to access locally grown food for their customers.
2. Revised Commercial Incubator Kitchen policies to reduce the cost and extend the hours of the KSU Douglas County Extension Incubator Kitchen on the fairgrounds. This incubator kitchen is a certified commercial kitchen where food entrepreneurs can test their recipes and design new products.
3. A SNAP matching program to provide dollar-for-dollar matching of SNAP (food stamps) benefits at our regional farmers markets. This program not only helps low-income consumers access the healthy local food at the market, but helps the farmers and market vendors reach new customers.
4. The Common Ground community garden and urban agriculture program supports young farmer entrepreneurs at our Common Ground Incubator Farm at 24/40 and 59 hwy, just north of Lawrence. This 5-acre site provides land leased to four farmer-entrepreneurs who are building their businesses.
To learn more about the Douglas County Food Policy Council or to attend one of our upcoming meetings, please visit: www.douglas-county.com/sites/fpc
11 Comments
What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of valuable familiarity regarding
unpredicted emotions.
Wonderful web site. Lots of helpful information here.
I am sending it to some pals ans also sharing in delicious.
And certainly, thanks for your sweat!
What’s up every one, here every person is sharing such experience,
therefore it’s good to read this web site, and I used to go to see this web
site everyday.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point.
You clearly know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your
weblog when you could be giving us something enlightening to
read?
We are a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community.
Your website offered us with valuable info to
work on. You have done an impressive job and our entire community will be grateful to you.
Have you ever thought about creating an e-book or guest authoring
on other sites? I have a blog based upon on the same information you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my viewers would enjoy your work.
If you are even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an email.
Hello, Neat post. There is an issue together with your
website in internet explorer, may check this? IE still is the marketplace leader and a big part of folks will miss your excellent writing due to this problem.
Yes! Finally someone writes about рандпен 72 доллар.
Article writing is also a fun, if you be familiar with then you can write
or else it is complicated to write.
Hey there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new project in a
community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a outstanding
job!
Pretty! This was an incredibly wonderful article.
Thank you for supplying this information.