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The Food Policy Council is now part of the largest Regional Climate Collaborative in the country!
Last Wednesday, at our Annual Meeting and 25 year anniversary celebration, Green Umbrella announced our expansion to become one of the largest Regional Climate Collaboratives (RCC) in the United States! While our mission will continue to reflect the sustainability and resilience work we have done in the community over the past 25 years, this transition from the “regional sustainability alliance” into the Regional Climate Collaborative will help us increase the impact of this work across the region.
What is a Regional Climate Collaborative?
RCCs are networks that coordinate adaptation mitigation work across jurisdictional boundaries in municipal regions of the US and often include local and state government representatives as well as nonprofit, academic, and private partners. There are more than 30 RCCs currently in the US.
RCCs often form with the understanding that working together can leverage and connect existing networks with others in specific regions, implement more effective solutions without being inhibited by administrative borders, and provide consistent strategies for protecting shared ecosystems such as watersheds and food systems that jurisdictions both impact and rely on.
Benefits to the region include:
Ability to attract and maximize federal funding opportunities
Improved cross-sector collaboration and capacity building
Ongoing funding and technical assistance tracking
Improved access to climate preparedness resources
What does this mean for the Food Policy Council?
Green Umbrella’s existing programs are an important part of our collective impact approach. Not only does shifting to the RCC model help our staff better align internally from an operational standpoint, but it also allows for a more cohesive and streamlined response to climate change, as we collaborate with members and partners across our region. Our programs are also now able to scale their impact across more members with the new model.
Importantly, if you are a Green Umbrella member moving forward, you receive benefits from across our programming—compared to the previous model where multiple program memberships were required to receive benefits. Changing to the RCC model helps Green Umbrella support meaningful action with members that leads to real impact at the scale needed to address an issue as large and profound as climate change.
What does this mean for you?
If you are an FPC Council Member or Committee Member:
You do not need to reapply at this time.
Council Members are leadership roles for individuals that renew on an annual basis and do not require a Green Umbrella membership.
If you are a Food Policy Council Member and you are also part of an organization, you are invited to work with our membership team to identify the best membership level for that organization.
If you are part of an FPC Consulting Member organization:
We are here to support Consulting Member organizations in becoming Green Umbrella members.
Free membership levels are available for the public sector and nonprofit organizations, and financial assistance for higher levels of membership is available for small farmers and social entrepreneurial start-ups.
You will be eligible to apply for open leadership roles in the next few months. Stay tuned!
Learn more on our Become a Member page. Or contact the Green Umbrella membership team at membership@greenumbrella.org.
💡 Learn about opportunities to get involved with Green Umbrella and the Food Policy Council!