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Access to fresh food aim of Kellogg grants to MSU

 

 

By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN

Michigan Correspondent

 

EAST LANSING, Mich. Michigan State University (MSU) Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS) was recently awarded two grants by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation totaling about $6 million to help more Michigan residents gain access to "good food" during the next four years.

One of the grants focuses on activities that expand fresh food access, advance local food purchasing and support Michigan farmers. The other focuses more broadly on implementing the goals of the Michigan Good Food Charter.

About $2 million is earmarked for activities to bolster access to fresh food.

The project will build on existing work assisting schools and early childcare programs with Farm to School initiatives, which are aimed at connecting students with local foods and farmers and building understanding of where food is produced.

It will also expand the Hoophouses to Health program, which increases families’ access to produce and enhances local farmers’ production capacity.

"We are hoping to use the experience we have developed through Farm to School, and that our team with the Michigan Farmers Market Assoc. has developed through their work over the last three years, to help link vulnerable children in early childcare and education programs through K-12 schools more closely to their food systems through a plan to provide more continuous access to good food," said Colleen Matts, farm-to-institution specialist at CRFS and lead investigator on the Farm to School grant.

"At the same time, we’re hoping to build up extended season production with the hoophouse investments and help our farmers have more capacity for production and more market opportunities," she added.

Hoophouses for Health is a partnership of CRFS, the Michigan Farmers Market Assoc. and the MSU Department of Horticulture.

The program provides vouchers to low-income families with children to buy locally grown produce at area farmers’ markets. While expanding access for children and families, Hoophouses for Health also supports farmers who accept these vouchers by providing them financial and technical assistance to build hoophouses.

This extends the growing season and allows Michigan farmers to grow cold-tolerant crops through the winter.

"We are going to continue to invest in hoophouse growers and help them increase season-extension production," Matts said.

"We’re also allowing them, for the first time, to repay a portion of their investment by providing their produce or other foods to K-12 schools or early childhood education environments."

Another goal, Matts said, is to help schools and early childcare and education programs meet the goal of the Michigan Good Food Charter, which calls for institutions to source 20 percent of their foods from Michigan sources by the year 2020. Matts said a system is being developed to help institutions track their local food purchases.

Similarly, the Farm to School grant will contribute to Cultivate Michigan, a new statewide effort to increase and track local food purchases by institutions such as schools, hospitals and universities conducted in partnership with the Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor-based organization with a program engaging area hospitals in expanding their use of sustainably produced food.

The project is designed to connect people and organizations engaged in these efforts and contribute to metrics to improve understanding of the many activities taking place across the state to promote good food for all in Michigan.

About $4 million of the grants focuses more broadly on building capacity and catalyzing action among local networks, organizations and individuals to implement the goals of the Michigan Good Food Charter.

The charter was created in 2010. Since then, individuals and organizations have worked to implement the charter’s vision to promote equity, sustainability and thriving economies through good food in Michigan.

This grant is a continuation of the project that developed the charter.

It will foster and expand on existing food-related networks across the state by facilitating connections among farmers, processors, retail and institutional buyers, food assistance providers, policymakers and others engaged in advancing good food for Michigan residents.

With the 20 percent by 2020 goal, Rich Pirog, CRFS senior associate director and lead investigator on the Good Food Charter program, said more work will be done to make sure the goals are implemented.

"We hope to further engage and involve our partners that have signed on to the charter through additional projects and activities to accelerate progress on those goals," Pirog said.

The project will also build capacity among new and established food hubs – businesses or organizations that manage the aggregation, distribution and marketing of local or regional food products – to increase the supply of good food in low-income communities.

Technical assistance will also be provided to food hubs, and the hubs will contribute to progress on charter goals.

"Another of the items we are working on is a report card to track progress on the goals," Pirog said.

10/1/2014