ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP

The Poudre Food Partnership was formed in 2021 to complete the research and planning objectives of a two-year USDA Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) planning grant awarded to The Northern Colorado Foodshed Project, This project brought together strategic partners from the Northern Colorado food system, each with unique expertise, shared values, and resources. The partners collaborated to prioritize policies and actions for local food system planning and development, with each committing to both specific and collective roles. Through the orchestration of the Northern Colorado Foodshed Project, the partners of this grant are the following: The Growing Project, La Familia/The Family Center, ReKaivery, Poudre Valley Community Farms, and Colorado State University Extension.

This project brought together public, private, and nonprofit organizations, along with community members, producers, and resources, to design and build a more equitable, vibrant, and resilient local food system in Northern Colorado. Our goal for the project was to address three key areas of growth and opportunity: Food Sovereignty & Access, Community Outreach & Education, and Production Growth & Land Access.

Goals

Over the 2 year funding period (2021-2023), this diverse range of community organizations has worked together to develop community assessments, engagement and organizational collaboration to better understand community needs and barriers to growing the local food system. We worked alongside individuals and organizations in a coordinated effort to set priorities, connect resources and services, and measure progress towards common goals. In order to address the three identified growth and opportunity areas mentioned above, the organizations involved in this project proposed the following objectives:

• Objective 1: Convene authentic community collaborations with established and potential partners to envision, define, and design the local food system scope and structure. This includes developing data-informed planning processes and frameworks to build an equitable, vibrant, and resilient local food system that is inclusive of all people and addresses the three key areas of opportunity and growth;

• Objective 2: Collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data within the three key areas of opportunity and to create innovative, sustainable, and community-driven solutions toward a more equitable, vibrant, and resilient local food system. This includes conducting assessments and feasibility studies, as well as researching metrics to measure, evaluate, and document the partnership’s work. We will also establish time-defined performance benchmarks for achieving partnership goals;

• Objective 3: Research and form a local food equity advisory council to promote interconnectivity and inclusivity by prioritizing marginalized voices in the local food system, generating a dialogue between diverse stakeholders and community members, and building capacity for leaders in a more equitable framework.

The Process

Our mission was to delve deeper into understanding our food system, engaging with a broad spectrum of community organizations and members. This planning process aimed to uncover the gaps in our food system and identify opportunities for growth and improvement through community engagement and outreach.In the first year, we successfully formed new partnerships and hosted a Regional Food Summit. We engaged local and regional officials, organizing a series of food system mixers, and initiating four food system-specific working groups. To develop our community working groups, we used our primary focus areas of Food Sovereignty and Access, Community Outreach and Education, and Production Growth and Land Access along with extensive community input as guides.  Throughout this period, we prioritized developing partnerships, hosting community engagement events, and facilitating regional visioning exercises. These activities allowed us to reach a diverse audience, amplifying their voices at a regional level and building trust within our local communities. We focused on creating a partnership structure and shared language that was inclusive and holistic, reflective of our dedication to Northern Colorado communities and the grant’s objectives.Year two saw us guiding the food system-specific working groups and fostering community events, like the Community Convos series and the Farm Hop. Our engagement spanned long-term working groups in areas critical to our mission: Public Outreach & Policy, Community Support, Market & Infrastructure, and Producer Support. The goal of these working groups was to facilitate long term dialogue between community members involved in various sectors of the local economy to help inform the gaps and areas of opportunity within our community.  We deployed bilingual (Spanish/English) recruitment for the PFP working groups through our various networks. In the 8 weeks the application was open, we received 44 applications for the working groups. Subsequently, we conducted interviews and selected 30 applicants to join our working groups, with each group comprising 6-8 community members and integrated simultaneous interpretation.

This period also included 3 pilot programs informed by the working group members and partner organizations,  and community surveys on the development of a LatinX focused farmers market (El Mercado), and Community and Producer focused food system surveys. We also engaged in interviews, focus groups and framework development for a Food Equity Advisory Council for our region. All of these activities and data culminated in the assembly of an all-working-group meeting that, alongside the steering committee members from partner organizations, discussed and assessed the findings. This collaboration led to the development of the 2023 Northern Colorado Community Action Plan.

The Community Action Plan we put forward offers actionable items derived from our research over this funding period. It targets four main areas for growth: elevating and empowering marginalized voices within our food system, increasing access to local foods for all community members, enhancing consumer education and awareness about our local food economy, and supporting diverse local food producers at all stages of their business development. This plan, shaped by the collaborative efforts of our community collaborators, lays the groundwork for implementing solutions that support an equitable and vibrant food system regionally.

Reports & data

More information on our events, pilot programs and partners can be found at our Poudre Food Partnership Website

Community Action Priorities

Final Report & Data Analysis — contact us to get more data details