Planning for the 2014 Summit Begins In Earnest!

Greetings All:

Can you make a Local Food Summit 2014 Organizational Meeting?"  Please fill out the following doodle poll (with your email address so that we can be sure to follow-up):

http://doodle.com/nyhetnqmue49ry5z

In the coming weeks we will have at least 2 organizational meetings to begin the planning for the Local Food Summit 2014.  The meetings will discuss and brainstorm organizational structure of the planning team and sub-committees, possible summit co-chairs, possible themes and vision for the 2014 Summit, and logistics like dates/locations for the Summit.  All interested in helping plan the Summit are welcome and encouraged to attend.  Even if you think you would prefer to work on a sub-committee instead of on the overall planning committee it is quite helpful if you attend an organizational meeting.  Please share the above doodle poll with anyone who might be interested. Thanks!

If you absolutely cannot make an organizational meeting but are interested or have feedback please feel free to email one of us.  Below are brief notes from a Local Food Summit "future visioning" session that was held this past summer which provide some food for thought.

We hope you can be part of the community team that builds the Local Food Summit for 2014!

Sincerely,
Shannon Brines, Jason Frenzel, and Kim Bayer


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website: http://localfoodsummit.org


Brief notes: Local Food Summit "future visioning" session, June 2013.

1. Over the next 2-3 years the summit will focus on some of these goals:

- Fairing
- Innovation
- Mainstreaming
- More do-ers
- Policy

2. Our draft mission is something like:

- To increase fairness and innovation in the food system through increased participation
- Building a fair and innovative food system through increased engagement


Full Visioning Session Notes:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/173QMgs1f8FFt4Xorhq-95XrEi1bmbwi0zNScdfQht8A/edit

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Local Food for a Local Food Summit

Thanks to Chef Dan Vernia and Nicki Milgrom for all your help sourcing the local food!

Meet Our Morning Panelists

Following Malik Yakini's Keynote, we are excited to present a panel discussion featuring: 

Al Flores
Alberto Flores serves as the Community Relations Division Director for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. He has designed and developed several special project initiatives including the Multi-cultural Liaisons Initiative which is meant to enhance the department’s service delivery and communication to communities and specific cultural groups, (African American, American Indian, Arab American, Asian American, and Latino American,) and the disability population. Alberto has worked more than 30 years in the social services and civil rights arena to better the quality of life for those in need. He is the son of Migrant & Seasonal Farmworker parents and he also worked as a farmworker until his senior year in high school. He is a graduate of Saginaw Valley State University and has completed graduate work at the University of Michigan – Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies in the area of public administration.

Oran Hesterman
Oran B. Hesterman, PhD, is president and CEO of Fair Food Network, a national nonprofit organization working at the intersection of food systems, sustainability and social equity to guarantee access to healthy, fresh, and sustainably grown food, especially in underserved communities. His book, Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All, published in June 2011, has been recognized by leaders in the field and the national media as a “must read.” During his 30-year career, Hesterman has become a national leader in sustainable agriculture and food systems and has made a significant contribution to the funding of healthy food and farming nationwide. A native of Berkeley, California, he started his career as an organic farmer and then established one of the first sprout businesses in America in 1973. He sold the business to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota, where he earned his doctorate in agronomy, plant genetics and businesses administration. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  

Saru Jayaraman
Saru Jayaraman is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley. After 9/11, together with displaced World Trade Center workers, she co-founded ROC in New York, which has organized restaurant workers to win workplace justice campaigns, conduct research and policy work, partner with responsible restaurants, and launch cooperatively-owned restaurants. ROC now has 10,000 members in 19 cities nationwide. The story of Saru and her co-founder's work founding ROC has been chronicled in the book The Accidental American. Saru is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was profiled in the New York Times "Public Lives" section in 2005, and was named one of Crain's "40 Under 40" in 2008, 1010 WINS's "Newsmaker of the Year," and one of New York Magazine's "Influentials" of New York City. Saru co-edited The New Urban Immigrant Workforce, (ME Sharpe, 2005) and authored Behind the Kitchen Door, forthcoming from Cornell University Press.

Screening of "The Greenhorns" opens Local Food Summit

What: Whole Foods Market kicks off the Local Food Summit with a screening of the acclaimed movie, The Greenhorns to benefit Slow Food Huron Valley. Part of Whole Foods Market’s Do Something Reel Film Festival, The Greenhorns focuses on the new generation of farmers at the heart of the nation’s local food movement.  
 Following the movie, participants can meet with representatives from the Michigan Young Farmers Coalition and enjoy light refreshments from Whole Foods Market.

Admission is $5. One hundred percent of the proceeds benefit Slow Food Huron Valley. Tickets are available at the Michigan Theater box office from 7 p.m. on event night.

This year’s Local Food Summit: (Re)Imagining a Fair Food System is slated for the following day - Friday, February 22.


When: Thursday, February 21, 2013, 7:30– 9:30 p.m.

Where: The Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Contact: MaryAnn Nisley, 734-975-4500, maryann.nisley@wholefoods.com

Keynote for Local Food Summit 2013: Malik Yakini!

The Local Food Summit 2013 planning committee is pleased to announce that Malik Yakini will be giving a morning keynote at this year's summit.  Malik Yakini, among many things, is a recipient of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network.

Bio of Malik Yakini

Malik Kenyatta Yakini is an activist and educator who is committed to freedom and justice for African people in particular and humanity in general. Yakini is a founder and the Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which operates a seven acre farm in Detroit. DBCFSN also spearheaded efforts to establish the Detroit Food Policy Council, which Yakini chaired from December 2009 – May 2012. He served as a member of the Michigan Food Policy Council from 2008 - 2010. He serves on the steering committee of Undoing Racism in the Detroit Food System.

From 1990 – 2011 he served as Executive Director of Nsoroma Institute Public School Academy, one of Detroit’s leading African-centered schools. In 2006 he was honored as “Administrator of the Year” by the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology from 2004 - 2011. He is C.E.O. of Black Star Educational Management.

He is dedicated to working to identify and alleviate the impact of racism and white privilege on the food system. He has an intense interest in contributing to the development of an international food sovereignty movement that embraces Blacks farmers in the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. He views the “good food revolution” as part of the larger movement for freedom, justice and equality.

Yakini has presented at numerous local community meetings and national conferences on food justice and implementing community food security practices. He is featured in the book "Blacks Living Green," and the movie “Urban Roots.” He is currently an Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy “Food and Community Fellow”. He is a vegan and an avid organic grower.

Call for Proposals

The Local Food Summit 2013 is looking for engaging and inspiring panels, workshops, and skill shares, February 22nd at Washtenaw Community College. Innovative approaches to connecting with an audience are especially encouraged. If you have a dynamic idea for sharing skills or knowledge that would benefit others in our food community, please apply! And please apply by January 10th! Visit the Call for Proposals page.

Pre Summit Event, December 12th

Join your fellow local food enthusiast this week for Pre Local Food Summit Event, a showing of the film Food Stamped, a humorous but informative documentary film that follows a couple as they attempt to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet on a food stamp budget. There will also be performances by Rap For Food and Chris Good Music before the show! Food will be provided thanks to our sponsor, Whole Foods Market. It's only $5 and all proceeds go to support Food Gatherers and Slow Food Huron Valley! Tickets are available at the door. Seating is limited.
The event will be held December 12th starting at 7pm at Food Gatherers, 1 Carrot Way  Ann Arbor Charter Township, MI 48105.