Food System Team works to grow local food resilience

— from Caitlin Leck, Food System Team Coordinator —

Like other communities across the country, San Juan County is grappling with disruptions to the food supply chain, a growing level of food insecurity and challenges in our local production capacity to meet the increased demand.  It is an opportune time to look deeply at our strengths and weaknesses in order to meet the immediate need, while planning for a more resilient future. 

In San Juan County, the newly formed Food System Team is taking up the task.  Our team is comprised of representatives from the San Juan County Agricultural Resources Committee, Ag Guild, Orcas Food Co-op, SJC Community Health Department, and WSU Extension.  When we began to meet in November of 2019, we identified goals of synergizing existing local food efforts, convening stakeholders, and making critical connections to strengthen our county’s food system. 

These goals have come into even starker relief in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and our team is now simultaneously problem-solving for an effective pandemic response and embarking on a Food System Assessment that will culminate in a Food System Plan.  This project will have both immediate and long-lasting benefits to our islands as we coordinate efforts to best respond to the challenges ahead. 

The pandemic has compelled us to move from assessment to action.  One immediate priority is to facilitate the distribution of grants to scale up production on farms throughout the county.  In another example of our emergent response, we recently convened a series of meetings to address a critical food access need – connecting local food banks with local farmers.  As a result of these meetings, many important connections are being forged to address the increased needs of food banks and to support farmers as they adapt to the economic downturn and marketing shift; our Food System Team will now step back as these stakeholders continue their invaluable work. 

Going forward, this model of identifying a need or missing connection, setting up conversations to strengthen the food system, and monitoring  what happens as a result will be utilized as needed during the assessment.  By teaming up and focusing our work in the context of creating a strategic Food System Plan for our county, the efforts of all stakeholders involved will be more coordinated and effective as we move forward together.

Please contact Caitlin Leck at foodsystem.sjc@gmail.com with any questions.

Major project benchmarks

Immediate: Covid-19 Emergent Response

• County-wide Inventory of what we have / what we need / degree of urgency
• Phased Response Plan to meet rapidly changing food security needs
• Coordination with partnering agencies to minimize parallel efforts and maximize benefits to local producers and consumers

Short-term:

• Food system strategic planning process to set goals and develop implementation plan
• Report on progress to County Council (with ARC Coordinator as county liaison) 
• Participate in community outreach processes related to food and agriculture
• Coordinate and work with SJI Conservation District to support the VSP Agriculture Viability report

Long-term:

• Coordinate development of two deliverables: 
  1. Food System Assessment
  2. Food System Plan
• Strategic analysis of what code changes are needed to align county policies with Vision Statement and Comp Plan revisions suggested by local ag stakeholders and agencies
• Report on program progress to partners and community members
• Conduct research, develop strategies, and lead grant writing efforts to enhance program funding from public and private resources
• Coordinate development of county’s food systems communications plan, including the development and maintenance of website, newsletters, presentations and other materials

Food System Team Members

• Steph Coffey: San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild Director, ARC Board Member, San Juan Islands Food Hub Board Member, San Juan Islands Family Resource Center Financial Manager
• Caitlin Leck: Food System Team Coordinator, ARC Outreach Chair, Ag Summit Team, Conservation Agriculture Resource Team (CART) facilitator, Orcas Community Participatory Agriculture (OCPA) Anchor Farmer, Orcas Food Co-op board member
• Learner Limbach: Orcas Food Co-op General Manager, ARC Member (Chair 2014-2019), Voluntary Stewardship Program (VSP) Work Group Member
• Kate Mikulak: WSU Extension Agriculture Program Coordinator, Ag Summit Team, Conservation Agriculture Resource Team (CART)
• Kristen Rezabek, MS, RD, CD, CDE: Health and Nutrition Program Coordinator, SJC Community Health Department
• Faith Van De Putte: Midnight’s Farm owner+operator, ARC Coordinator and Food System Team county liaison, Ag Summit team, numerous county-wide projects