Food & Farming / About
About Food & Farming
Food & Farming Staff
Diane Connors
Senior Policy Specialist and Healthy Food for All Coordinator
diane@mlui.org
231-941-6584 ext. 712
Bill Palladino
Senior Policy Specialist, Taste the Local Difference
bill@mlui.org
231-941-6584 ext. 709
Meghan McDermott
FoodCorps service member
meghan.mcdermott@foodcorps.org
Lianna Bowman
FoodCorps service member
lianna.bowman@foodcorps.org
Goal
By the year 2020, 20% of northwest Michigan’s food will be supplied by local growers and food entrepreneurs. This goal is shared by dozens of partners in the region, and has become the single unifying target driving all of the Institute’s actions in our food and farming program. When we achieve this goal, northwest Michigan will be the first in the country to do so, and the economic results will fundamentally change the conversation about the power of buying local.
Accomplishments
• The Taste the Local Difference guide included more than 350 listings last year, and more than 90% of participating farmers said their sales increased as a direct result of TLD marketing.
• Get Farming workshops offered training in business, marketing, and farming to more than 300 participants.
• FoodCorps members reached more than 2,000 students, taught 464 lessons plans, and planted 13,000 square feet of school gardens, which means more healthy, local food in our schools.
• Northwest Michigan schools participating in Farm to School educational programs increased from just one in 2004, to more than 40 in 2012.