Central VT Food Systems Council Update

[Drew DeVitis]

Here is an update about the Central VT Food Systems Council, courtesy of Jackie Cassino: 

Greetings all,

Now that it is finally feeling like Spring, it is time to get involved with the Central Vermont Food Systems Council!  The Steering Committee has met and sifted through the notes from April's Food System Forum at Goddard College.  Many of you participated in one of the six focus groups (home food systems, land use & conservation, food hubs & distribution, economic development, education, and food access) and identified priority working strategies for the region.  We've considered those notes, the potential overlap of priorities, your indentified interests, and our current resources and have developed a new CVFSC structure.  Moving forward we will continue to have a Steering Committee charged with overall administrative tasks (staffing the working group meetings, planning the quarterly events, etc.) and long-term visioning and goal-setting.  In addition, we will have three working groups:

·         Home Food Systems;

·         Food Access, Education, and Public Health; and

·         Economic Development, Food Hubs, and Land Use Planning & Conservation.

Attached you will find a draft set of priority goals and action steps broken down by working group.  These goals and strategies are not set in stone-we expect the working groups to change them as they evolve.  

At April's Forum, many of you expressed interest in working on a particular working group.  We will be following up with you to determine your availability, with the goal to begin working group meetings in June. If you did not attend the Forum, and are interested in joining one of the working groups or the steering committee-please let me know!

  

Best,

Jackie Cassino

Jackie Cassino |Regional Planner

Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission

29 Main Street, Suite 4|Montpelier, VT 05602

802.229.0389|cas...@cvregion.com