Food Policy Council News

Summer 2023 (July)

A message from our Director:

I don’t expect more than a few of us have read the Food Policy Council’s (FPC) 2022 strategic plan word-for-word, but you might recall that part of the planning process entailed clarifying “how we work.”

To do that, we considered the needs of the moment, the desires of our members, and the positioning of our FPC as a Green Umbrella program. The four primary activities we landed on are by no means an exhaustive list of all we do as a collective impact group, but they reflect our focus and the niche that our FPC is uniquely placed to fill. We build networks, amplify stories, build capacity, and change policies.

At our June Full Council Meeting, each Committee's leadership shared their Committee's priority issues for 2023 Farm Bill advocacy.

Today, more than halfway into 2023 and almost a year since we finished the strategic plan, I am happy to report that we’re doing it!

We are doing that work, to bring our vision of a resilient regional food system to fruition, together.

A great example of all four ways we work, but especially capacity-building, is the set of Train-the-Trainer events we recently facilitated. You can read more about those events in the Featured Story in the full newsletter and learn about opportunities to benefit from the increased capacity we have as a result.

The Farm Bill Train-the-Trainer in-person workshop brought together advocates from the region to build their skills further.

More posts on our blog discuss how we’ve built networks, including with organizations that extend beyond our region, like the USDA’s cohort of regional FPCs. We’ve worked to create policy and systems change by supporting the Green Cincinnati Plan-making process, as well as by creating reports and presenting to City Council and county agencies. And we recently wrapped our USDA Farm to School Implementation grant, which provided a set of success stories and lessons learned that we will share in a forthcoming report, as we chart the next steps for Farm to School work in our region (more on this in the next newsletter!).

Have you been part of how we work yet this year? There’s still time! Make sure to get involved with one of our Committees so you can be part of our final advocacy push on the Farm Bill, our conversations about food policy topics like state budgets and local resilience strategies, and more!

Cheers, Maddie Chera, PhD Director, Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council

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