John Wittler, Executive Director, Ogallala Commons

Slide Set

• A food value chain is a coordinated network of people, businesses, and organizations working collaboratively to meet market demand opportunities. This presentation will look at the history and composition of value chains as well as the components of systems change. We will then explore the methods for effective value chain coordination and their impacts on the food system.
• Ogallala Commons (OC) works to develop rural communities by using an asset-based approach to nurturing leaders who help human and natural communities thrive. In 2022 OC launched a food hub focused on serving remote rural communities in eastern New Mexico, southeast Colorado, and the Texas panhandle. John’s background is in entrepreneurship and organizational development. He has helped train and develop scores of leaders over the years and particularly enjoys a good research paper and beautifully designed spreadsheets. John lives in Baca County, Colorado, with his wife Trina and their three children Alea, Emma, and Brock.

Breakout A: Interventions Designed to Prevent Food Waste - Dietrich Earnhart, Professor, University of Kansas

Slide set

• This presentation explores local efforts to prevent food waste through the use of information-based intervetions. These efforts focus on post-consumer food waste in various settings: restaurants, schools, and sports venues. The interventions provide consumers with information about food waste and ofod insecurity as implicit appeals to prevent food waste.

Breakout B: Implementing Farm to School: Leveraging Your Existing Efforts - Pantaleon Florez, Experiential Learning Specialist, Lawrence Public Schools

Slide set

• Participants will learn about getting started with Farm to School programming, the Three C's model, Farm to School action planning, and mechanisms for developing sustainable programming. This session aims to help you understand where you may already be implementing Farm to School.

Breakout C: Leveraging Funding to Address Food Bank Access and Safety Challenges - Daniel Craig, Cancer Outreach Coordinator and Michelle Coats, Mobility Manager, LiveWell Saline County

Slide set

• Daniel and Michelle will talk about the work they have done in Salina related to food bank access and safety, especially around leveraging funding resources. They were able to make a range of improvements around the food bank including site plan development, solar lighting, car and bike parking improvements, and sidewalks connecting to the local business corridor and public transportation.

Breakout A: Connecting Extra Food with the Need for Food - Stephanie Merritt, ICT Food Rescue

Slide set

• Learn how ICT Food Rescue collects food surplus and shares it with the food insecure of Wichita. ICT Food Rescue began when founder Stephanie Merritt returned to college at the age of 46. The courses that she took to obtain her degree at Wichita State University in conjunction with a job where food surplus was thrown out every day inspired her to find a way to make a change. Merritt started small, just rescuing whatever food surplus, whenever she could. ICT Food Rescue is what it is today because of those that are passionate about feeding people and not landfills.

Breakout B: Serving Producers and Communities by Developing Rural-focused Food Hubs - John Wittler, Ogallala Commons

My Foodshed website

• In this breakout, we will explore designing, launching, and sustaining food hubs in isolated rural communities.

Breakout C: Community Engagement for Food Systems Change - Teresa Kelly, Kansas Rural Center

Slide set

• The session will begin by looking at examples of community engagement that resulted in long term success by exploring the steps that led to change. Discuss lessons learned when efforts failed and alternative ways that could have produced a different outcome. Leave with new ideas for application to local food system change.

The learning circles will be short, 25 minute sessions where participants will have the opportunity to share ideas, opportunities, and resources with each other related to the topic. Come prepared to learn, listen, and share!

Learning Circle A: Explore the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste

• Connect ideas for local efforts with the draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics.

Learning Circle B: Introduction to the State Food Policy Council

• Meet & Greet with members of the new Kansas Food Policy Council while having a chance to share with them your top policy priorities for the state.

Learning Circle C: So You Think You Want a Food Hub...?

• Have the chance learn and gain ideas from experienced Food Hub organizers while connecting with others looking to start food hubs in Kansas.

Learning Circle D: Organizing Gleaning Programs & Donation Gardens for Local Food Access

• Discuss the opportunities for establishing gleaning programs and donation gardens to help support healthy food access for all.

Learning Circle E: Brainstorming Ideas to Support Local Farm to School and Child Care Program Implementation

• Interact with KS Dept. of Education staff and brainstorm ideas for how to better support Farm to School and Child Care in your community.

Learning Circle F: Increasing Food System Capacity with Local Food Fellows

• Hear from some of the 2024 Local Food Fellows and have a chance to brainstorm ideas for your 2025 Local Food Fellow application.

Mary K. Hendrickson, PhD., Associate Professor of Applied Social Sciences, Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security

• In this presentation we will explore together how we might build food system resilience in the face of a consolidated food system. In our current consolidated food system, power is in the hands of a few large companies. In order to build resilience for our communities, we need to transform our systems through through agroecology, civic agriculture and democracy.

• Mary Hendrickson is Professor of Food Systems in the Division of Applied Social Sciences at MU. Her scholarship focuses on the social and economic organization of different types of food systems, and the social, ecological, and economic impacts of those systems. Through research and teaching, she seeks to build resilient, food secure communities across Missouri and beyond. She directs the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security, and in 2020, was a Fulbright Scholar to Iceland, teaching sustainable agriculture and rural development.