2016 Local Food Connection One Month Away

[Teresa Matteson]

From: Local Food Connection [mailto:localfood=cascadepa...@mail70.atl51.rsgsv.net] On Behalf Of Local Food Connection
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2016 10:48 AM
To: Teresa Matteson
Subject: 2016 Local Food Connection One Month Away

 

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Linking Farmers, Ranchers, Fishermen and Food Buyers  The Local Food Connection is coming! Monday, February 1, 2016 from 8:30am–4:30pm at Lane Community College in Eugene.     Register Today!   Our line up of workshops for the 2016 Local Food Connection: Institutional Food Buying: Ingredients for Success Because of their high-volume purchasing power, institutions like schools and health care facilities have the potential to make a major impact on demand for locally grown food. Come and hear about what makes these partnerships work, from both farmers and the institutional food buyers they’ve connected with.    Help Wanted: Employee Recruitment,Training & Retention How do you find and keep good people? This question is a crucial one for all sectors of the food industry, from farmer to restaurant to food distributor. Employers are paying attention to generational attitudes towards the work environment, employee training and mentorship, and other strategies to increase retention of valuable employees.   Local, Seasonal, Mutually Beneficial: the Farm-Restaurant Connection “Farm to Table” gets real when restaurants own and operate their own farm.  This workshop focuses on the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from this unique business model.    Expanding Organic Market Opportunities This advanced workshop will focus on connecting farmers who are interested in scaling up their operations with high volume organic market opportunities. The workshop will start with a short presentation that reviews requirements for selling crops to wholesale markets and provide information about resources that are geared at supporting farmers with meeting market requirements. Following the presentation, farmers will meet with representatives from produce distribution companies and retail groceries.    Food Buying 101 Learn the dos and don’ts of selling local food.  Should you use a food broker? What should your product look like? Are there things that immediately turn off buyers? Come with your questions for a Q&A with a grocery store, food broker, farmer, restaurant.    Afternoon Workshops Instead of traditional workshops, we are reserving the afternoon portion of this year’s conference for ‘Open Space’ style conversations. In this unique model, event participants surface their most pressing interests during the day, and coalesce into discussion/working groups during the afternoon. Have an idea for a discussion topic that is not reflected in the morning workshops? Bring it with you! The goal of Open Space is to use the experience and wisdom of the people in the room to solve problems, share resources and move the conversation forward. For more information and to register visit www.localfoodconnection.org Want  Celebrating ten years We are thrilled to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Local Food Connection.  In many ways, this annual conference has changed a lot in the past ten years, and in other ways it is remarkably the same.  While the conference has gotten bigger (60-200 attendees) and adapted to the changing food landscape, the purpose remains the same—linking food producers with food buyers in an effort to strengthen our local food system, local economy, and community. Started in 2007, the Local Food Connection came about as the result of an unlikely partnership.  Karl Morgenstern, Drinking Water Source Protection Coordinator for the Eugene Water & Electric Board, was interested in developing new markets for foods grown using sustainable practices, so that farmers protecting soil and water quality could succeed.  Farmers, food buyers, and food advocates in the south Willamette Valley wanted a networking conference similar to the popular Farmer Chef Connection in Portland.  Lane Community College’s Culinary Arts program wanted to give its students the opportunity to learn and cook with local food.  This momentum helped launch the first Local Food Connection event: an invigorating day of workshops, networking, and a delicious local luncheon prepared by the culinary arts students. The energy from that first event has continued on ever since.	Vendor Tables Still Available Looking for a great way to promote your product or business?  We have a limited number of vendor tables available--tables cost $100 or $50.  For more information please contact Katy at ka...@cascadepacific.org.   Thank You to our sponsors! The Local Food Connection would not be possible without the support of our event sponsors.  We'd like to thank the following businesses for contributing to this year's event: Gold Sponsors McDonald Wholesale Mountain Rose Herbs Hummingbird Wholesale Quail Park Memory Care Silver Sponsors ElderHealth & Living Oregon's Lochmead Farms SnoTemp Cold Storage Springfield Creamery Take Root Magazine NEDCO (Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation) We'd especially like to recognize our Founding Sponsors, who have supported the Local FoodConnection since its inception in 2007. Founding Sponsors are Lane Community College, EWEB, and Oregon Tilth. Presented by: Our mission is to work with citizens of rural communities to enhance their quality of life through social, economic, and environmental improvements. Contact us Questions? contact us at loca...@cascadepacific.org or call 541-359-8987. Other Local Food Events this Winter Organic Seed Growers Conference February 4-5th Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference February 4-6th Lane Community College OSU Small Farm's Conference Saturday, February 20th CH2M Hill Alumni Center, Corvallis, OR
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