The Steering Committee

This project convenes strategic partners from across the Northern Colorado food system, each with unique expertise and experience, shared values, existing resources, and tested approaches. We will leverage our shared history to collaborate and prioritize policies and actions that will make significant impact on local food system planning and development.

Northern Colorado Foodshed Project

The Foodshed Project was founded to coordinate holistic local food system development in order to “grow local food” in Northern Colorado. The Foodshed Project’s vision is a dynamic, vibrant local food economy in Northern Colorado wherein >10% of local agricultural products are marketed locally.

The Foodshed Project serves as the umbrella organization of the partnership, responsible for the overall strategic planning direction of the project and the management and coordination of partners and key stakeholders. It will also be responsible for third-party assessment of the overall project, community outreach and education, and will facilitate implementation collaboration.

The Growing Project

TGP is a nonprofit organization promoting a socially and environmentally just local food system through direct agricultural experiences, education, economic opportunities, and advocacy. TGP pursues this mission guided by five core values: food justice, restorative relationships, community empowerment, regenerative systems, and “re-commoning” or redistributing resources. TGP’s vision is to connect community members to each other, their food, and their land to build a more interconnected and resilient local food system.

For this project, TGP will conduct assessments and community-based research to evaluate the efficacy of the Commons framework and programming and identify specific barriers to food and land access. TGP will conduct assessments and evaluations in partnership with other members of the PFP and leverage the partnership’s collective wealth of community research.

The Family Center/La Familia

TFC/LF is a non-profit, multicultural family resource center with deep roots in the northern Fort Collins community, working alongside diverse families to provide high-quality childcare and supportive services, with an emphasis on cultural attunement with the Latinx community.

In this project, TFC/LF will work with the partnership to interpret data, facilitate community and partner relationships to pilot community-identified solutions, and iterate ideas to learn and adjust programming and systems to better meet community needs. The quantitative and qualitative data gathered by TFC/LF will inform strategies and goals across all entities in the partnership with the collective goal of increasing food accessibility and equity in the Northern Colorado food system.

ReKaivery

ReKaivery, Inc. is a public benefit corporation bringing mobile farmers’ marketplaces to communities across Colorado. ReKaivery serves as an intermediary between producers and consumers and their food hubs are centralized sales outlets designed to address inequitable market opportunities for producers by providing the opportunity to sell direct-to-consumer through shelf space leased on consignment.

ReKaivery will perform quantitative and qualitative primary research within their first food hub to assess: (1) Demand for locally produced agricultural products; (2) Needs of local producers in direct-to-consumer market opportunities; (3) Current barriers to consumers in accessing locally produced agricultural products, especially members of underserved communities; (4) Current need for food system infrastructure.

CSU Food Systems

Colorado State University has been working to facilitate discussions with a variety of food system partners that have emerged and grown in the region for over two decades, as far-ranging as water and land conservation organizations to those running food markets and supporting young and beginning farmers to those concerned with food access, security, and justice. Through Dawn Thilmany — Co-Director of the CSU Regional Economic Development Institute and Professor of CSU Ag and Resource Economics — CSU Food Systems will be collaborating on the project through outreach initiatives, applied research projects, and any activity where integrating students as participants and co-creators adds value.