The Allegan Food Alliance is launching Come to the Table: Your Voice. Your Food. Your Future, a county-wide series of listening sessions, focus groups, interviews, and surveys designed to hear directly from farmers, food workers, grocers, restaurant owners, seniors, caregivers, youth, health care partners, faith and civic groups, and everyday eaters. It is all about creating a resilient food system. Mary Colborn is executive director of the Allegan Food Alliance.
“While the headlines focus on losses, we in Allegan are focused on building,” said Mary Colborn, Executive Director of Allegan Food Alliance. “By listening deeply to each other at the ‘Come to the Table’ listening sessions, we can share our stories and grow what we need to create a strong, resilient food system rooted in community wisdom, lived experience, and real, doable solutions. This is our chance to bring people together and lift up voices that often go unheard as we build something lasting with and for the people of Allegan County.”
The goal of the initiative, Colborn says, is to look at the entire food system, not just one part of it. From supporting farmers, including the small to mid-size farmers who often get left out of government food subsidies, to supporting rural grocers who often have a difficult time competing with the large franchise stores, to supporting local restaurants. The hope is also to support food workers who gather and serve our meals, but too often are forgotten.
“The end result will be to create a task force to create a food resiliency roadmap,” Colborn says. “How can we raise it so that everybody has a right livelihood, a livelihood that works for them? So that they’re not sacrificing.”
Upcoming listening sessions will take place on October 21 in Pullman’s Channing Hall, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; in Saugatuck on November 7 at the Saugatuck Women’s Club from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.; and in Wayland on November 11 at the Leighton Township Library from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The sessions are free of charge and open to the general public.
Visit Allegan Food Alliance to learn more.
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