Hey everyone — wanted to share an upcoming webinar that might be useful if you’re trying to get a better handle on your numbers:

What if your data could actually tell you what’s working—and what’s quietly costing you money?

Local Food Marketplace is hosting a session with Good Agriculture (Alex & Reba), who work closely with farms and food hubs on…

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We are organizing a speaker panel for our April meeting on the 16th and we’d love your help! One thing we heard in the survey we circulated to the group in November (which is still open; link below!) was a desire to have more farmer voices present and to learn more about their perspectives, concerns, and experience with farm-to-food…

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Hey folks, update to the Zoom link we’ll use for our monthly meeting this Wednesday. Use this one instead:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88987839152

Meeting ID: 889 8783 9152

Tell your friends!

PB

Hi Francesca,

I’m sorry to hear about the flooding!

I have not seen Taro production in-person, but the wetland systems sound similar to seepage irrigation systems in Florida.

In FDA’s “Guidance for Industry: Evaluating the Safety of Flood-affected Food Crops for Human…

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Hi everyone,

In light of the recent flooding here in Hawai?i, we’re looking for input related to kalo (aka taro) and flood exposure.

As a general rule, we advise growers to not harvest/ discard crops that have come into contact with floodwater. We know this is especially important for crops leafy greens and other low-growing produce. However,…

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Hi all!

Looking forward to seeing you online tomorrow for our March F2FA Community of Practice call TOMORROW [Thursday 3/19] at 2p EST.

We’ve got a great set of guest speakers coming to share the results of their work documenting and sharing success stories that highlight the potential for local purchasing programs and farm to food…

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Hi all; Happy Wednesday!

Sharing an update on this emerging policy group [not affiliated with FSLN].

If you’re curious about policy work -and wins!- happening across the country: Join us! This nascent and informal gathering met for the first time on Jan 23rd and there are about 50 people on the guest list this Friday. This state-level food…

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Hi Sue! Local Food Marketplace offers the ability to create custom product sheets for customers and create unique shopping experiences based on a customer’s profile- so a Texas customer could see only Texas products if you wanted them to. LFM has been supporting farmers and food hubs for 17 years, has an extensive track record of success, and…

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Hey everyone, what’s your latest recommendation for food hub management software? We have a client who needs to manage not just daily operations but also present customers with only the products they’re interested in. For example, a Texas school that will only buy Texas-grown food will not want to see Iowa products. Of course, the…

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I would like to attend this!

Good afternoon, F2FA friends!

I’m writing to invite you to join a virtual conversation this Friday, January 23rd @ 1:00 Eastern with other state-level food system advocates.

The goal of the conversation is to offer an opportunity for organizations doing state-level advocacy to build relationships, share successes, troubleshoot issues, and…

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Hello Food System Friends

For a couple years, many of you all have very kindly followed along and provided input as we demonstrated a food system map visualizing our LFPA work. We’re finally excited to announce we are entering a closed-prototype phase to explore customized food system use-cases of this tool with the long-term hope of…

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Hey all, here is the link to the recording for December’s meeting: https://youtu.be/NBdRheGpSlk

Also, below is the response that Stasia received from Laura Strawn at Virgina Tech, which was discussed during the meeting.

Wishing all of you the best as we turn back towards the light!

————–

1) EMP + APC thresholds

Short answer: there isn’t a…

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Alachua County, FL is undertaking a pilot Food Hub effort named the </font><font face=”inherit”>Fresh Food Pathways project. We are excited to share the finalized RFP documents with you (below)</font> Those who have access to the link should be able to access the folder on Google Drive and download the files. They include:

1. Alachua Fresh Food…

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<font face=”inherit”>Alachua County, FL is undertaking a pilot Food Hub effort named the </font><font face=”inherit”>Fresh Food Pathways project. We are excited to share the finalized RFP documents with you (below)</font> Those who have access to the link should be able to access the folder on Google Drive and download the files.…

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Morning y’all,

Two of my co-workers from UF, Michelle Danyluk and Keith Schneider, will be joining us next week to share their experience/perspectives on the science behind infiltration risks (including the 10 degrees recommendation), wash water sanitizer, AgWa assessments, and anything else we want to chat about. : )

If you have any questions…

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Thank you Samiha,

I’m just pinging everyone to please help us fill this out if you can. So far we have 9 responses, 840 farms we can be connected to in 43 districts across 8 states! I know if we gather some more responses we’ll be able to get so much amazing advocates.

As a reminder, this form is helpful to fill out even if you yourself aren’t…

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Hello all! Thank you for letting @andyollove and I present last week at the COP. We are hoping to begin building a base of LFPA farmers and administrators who may be able to support congressional advocacy for two new bills are proposed to continue local food work.

If you are an administrator of LFPA, or have relationships or knowledge about…

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Yes, here’s the recording! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEYyrQ8Q4d4&feature=youtu.be

Hi Andrew! Will this call be recorded? Thanks!

Good morning and happy farm to school month!

Today’s VCC CoP call will feature findings from National Fam to School Network’s research on the role of farm to school coordinators, with a focus on their roles that overlap with VCC. See the full description below. Hope to see you there!

Value Chain Coordination CoP – Tuesday, October 21 (3pm ET)…

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We’re looking for an iPad-based cash register solution that has basic inventory functions and can process SNAP, WIC, & DA BUX. We typically use TotilPay GO for processing, but their TotilPay Register solution doesn’t allow for Double Up Food Bucks integration.

Has anyone found a solution for this? Adaptation to this software, or a completely…

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Good afternoon! The Wallace Center, in partnership with the Food Systems Leadership Network and National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is seeking a partner to collect and write stories of farmers and businesses that benefited from their participation in farm to food assistance value chains. The selected vendor will write a series of 3…

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I am in search of examples of food banks offering services such as storage, transportation, software, etc. to food hubs for a fee. It would be great if there are breakdowns of the fee structure as well. I am trying to determine if there are viable models for a food bank-food hub partnership. Thank you!

-Laura

Hi Andrew

If you could send me an invite to register for the call as a guest (?) with the call description I can forward it to the group.

Thank you!

Diane

Hi Diane,

Yes I’d be happy for you to invite state leads and anyone in their networks! If you want the language in a different format let me know and I can send you something. – Andrew

thanks!!

Hi Andrew, We are working on a multi-state project concept for the upcoming round of Lake Michigan Food System Innovation Hub funding connecting food hubs in IL, WI, IN, and WI.Is it possible to share this call opportunity with the other state leads in our Innovation group? That would be roughly 5 or 6 folks.

Let me know!

Thanks, Diane

Hi- sure you are welcome to invite them! They could register using this link to get the calendar invite- https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvd-2rrjIuHdF_sMjxrJi3BufHSbQzO0P9. If you share your invite sometimes it only lets one person join. FSLN membership is not required but they can sign up here if…

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sounds great! Thanks. I have some folks that I work with here in Wisconsin and also some folks from out W/NW that would possibly be interested in this conversation. I’m not sure they are on the CoP list. Is it ok for me to invite them? I can’t remember how/if there is a policy on this. Or should I be encouraging them to register for the…

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Join us on Tuesday, September 16th, (3pm ET) for an informative panel discussion!

Topic: Eastern Food Hub Collaborative: Choosing Collaboration over Competition in a Capitalist Economy

Join us to hear about the practice and potential of food hub networking from the Eastern Food Hub Collaborative and other hub networks in New England,…

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One way or another Congress needs to pass another extension or a new full bill. NSAC is partnering with a handful of organizations to lead a letter to Congress that sends a clear message: any farm bill that moves this year needs to invest in a sustainable future and fix the damage done by OBBB. The letter helps us collectively say that we…

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I have run into a couple of surface water questions and wondering if anyone has some thoughts or experience on these.

1) Should there be any concern with using surface water to make compost?

2) For a carrot crop, a farmer is using surface water. They don’t want to implement even a 3-day waiting period because they feel the dryness will…

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