ABOVE: What rural food partnerships look like. This is the diagram that resulted when partners in a regional meeting were asked to draw a line from their name to anybody they were working with to further the local food economy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Food Systems Partnerships Program is helping to fund Groundwork’s 20+ year effort to build a resilient regional food system. Within our project “Resilient Relationships, Resilient Supply,” partners from 16 counties on the coast of Lake Michigan, from Emmet County to Ottawa County, are connecting each other to resources and people to expand the local food economy. The USDA program “supports partnerships that connect public and private resources to plan and develop local or regional food systems. The program focuses on strengthening the viability and resilience of regional food economies.” What does that mean? Let us demonstrate. And you guessed it, forming relationships and convening the right partners is at the heart.

Understanding the importance of each link in the system
Of course we all want to see students eating nourishing food in schools. Of course we all want farmers to get paid a fair value for growing high-quality, nutrient-dense food. Farmers are experts in growing carrots, potatoes, onions, apples, and so many more crops in Michigan. School food service staff are expert in feeding many students, sometimes thousands, multiple times a day.

So consider a situation in which a local farmer grows the best broccoli around and wants to sell it to a school in town. The school wants to buy it! School kitchen staff will obviously have to wash the produce, chop it, and steam it. In Michigan, the school can continue to purchase and process the broccoli because of funding that helps them do so—10 Cents a Meal, among other programs. But how does the broccoli get from the farm to the school? The farmer is not a truck driver. She or he is back out in the field growing things. The school food service staff are not truck drivers. They are in the kitchen cooking and serving. 

I share that farmer-school scenario to show that so much of the challenge in expanding local food economies is distribution related. Transportation is a central piece of the whole system, but we tend to skip over it when picturing how the system works. Should we expect school food service directors to fill their cars with coolers to pick up fresh produce once a week, taking time away from their administrative and kitchen duties? I don’t think so, but so many of them do just that because of their dedication. Should we expect the farmer to get out of the field and be the truck driver, not only spending time to transport goods, but also spending time to coordinate the most efficient routes and schedules. In a rural area, schools can easily be 30 to 50 minutes away from one another. The upshot: Without food distribution there is no food economy.

The need to pay for food transportation and also for the extra labor required to cook with fresh whole foods inspired advocacy from the Groundwork team and partners, urging legislators to add transportation and labor to the list of reimbursable expenses under 10 Cents a Meal (up to 25% of the school’s grant award). We are proud to say that advocacy was effective—thank you Michigan Legislators and Governor! Though the change is only a few words of the 3,000-plus words in the School Aid Budget, the change is so important to farmers and schools and child health. Having funds to pay for distribution and food prep are important bridges to getting the food to the child. Otherwise we’re on opposite sides of the river.

10 Cents funding is available to schools statewide, which of course means it’s also helping expand the local food economy in west Michigan. But there’s lots more going on within the Regional Food Systems Partnership program. Stakeholders in the food supply chain are meeting regularly to problem-solve, remove roadblocks, and share ideas for growing and strengthening the local food economy.

Additional highlights
The following initiatives have begun and continue to address the critical pieces needed to make the local food system expand, thrive, and work well:

• Multiple organizations in the 16-county area are partnering to test new distribution approaches. They are prioritizing the needs of local growers and food organizations that will participate in and benefit from a resilient and fair food system.
• Nearly a dozen farm and food system partners have received support in requesting funding for a truck or van. The vehicles will be essential for transporting locally grown food to the stores, schools, and food pantries where produce makes it into the hands of consumers. That final piece of shipping is called “the last mile” in distribution lingo, and it’s an expensive and complicated piece that is important to get right.
• Some partners are already implementing last mile delivery options in West Michigan. Examples include the Veggie Van in Muskegon Heights and a small truck business based in Mason County. Some of this “last mile” transportation is funded through another program, the Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) program—a program Groundwork and the network have been advocating for. LFPA funds are set to be released again, and we are poised to be at the heart of the conversations to make good use of them to build local food economies.
• Also through the LFPA programming, partners are pairing up with Great Lakes Farm to Freezer to distribute locally produced vegetables and proteins to LFPA partners along with Farm to Freezer products. Frozen items help farms sell product all winter and enable schools to serve local food year round.

We are excited to see where these trials lead and what focusing on forging new linkages, strengthening partnerships, and eliminating key blockages can mean for the local food system in Michigan. Stay tuned as we begin to see the benefits flow to the state’s children, food producers, school staff, and so many others along this budding local food supply network that is so full of promise.

Funding for the Regional Food Systems Partnership project, Resilient Relationships, Resilient Supply, was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant USDA-AMS-TM-RFSP-G-22-0009. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.

Jen Schaap is Groundwork’s Food & Farming Program Director
jen.schaap@groundworkcenter.org