Food Systems Program: Feeding our Communities Together

Rural Resources Community Action’s new Food Systems program is partnering with local farmers, growers, and ranchers to provide fresh produce and other farm products to our local communities.  This program’s goal is to help develop capacity across the region for Tri-County agriculture to feed more local residents, with a focus on low-income and at-risk populations.  Sourcing locally produced food is a win-win scenario with purchase dollars going to local farms keeping that money right here in our economy.  At the same time, our clients get to enjoy fresh wholesome food just like what’s available to farmers market shoppers.

As this program grows, we will collaborate with partners around the region, seeking to remove roadblocks and develop critical infrastructure to enable increased amounts of food to be produced in the Tri-County region and be made available to people who live here.  Our new refrigerated van and trailer are part of a mobile fresh market we’re developing, to make fresh vegetables available in underserved and more remote areas of Stevens, Ferry, and Pend Oreille counties.  We’re also working on plans for a commercially licensed processing kitchen, centrally located near Colville.  Such a facility will make it possible for the production of ready-to-eat foods made from local ingredients, increasing demand for local farms and availability for local eaters.

There’s a resurgence in recent years across the country, of focus on sourcing fresh healthy food as locally as possible.  Rural Resources Community Action is committed to helping our low-income, at-risk populations, and others enjoy the benefits of local agriculture through the Food Systems program.

 

Rural Resources Food System Development Manager, Nils Johnson, distributed 240 dozen eggs in Nespelem, WA to the fire relief. Nils was also able to partner with and deliver the donations from the Colville Food Bank that donated 6 boxes of food and Grocery Outlet donated 90 bags of food.