Creating Regional Alliances with the Huron Shores Local Food Coalition

MOLLY STEPANSKI, NE Michigan Local Food Coordinator

Across the country, there is a momentum driving sustainable growing and eating. Regional alliances working for small-scale independent producers are causing big shifts in the local food scene in Northeast Michigan. For example, the city of Grayling cultivated unparalleled investment for the Northern Market, developing a local food destination to provide countless markets to local meat, dairy, and specialty crop producers. Each January, area farmers come together at Farm to Fork Alcona’s recently re-established Small Farm Conference. Plus, the Northeast Michigan Council of Governments is investing into building healthy communities with over $25,000 worth of grant funds from the Center for Disease Control. These initiatives are bringing people together to actively participate in their food system.

Despite these, NE Michigan still faces fundamental challenges. As seen across the country, the region hosts an aging farming population, a shortage in skilled labor, and a lack of infrastructure to help small farms thrive. Plus, rural areas struggle with tenuous broadband internet connectivity, if they have access at all. All of these challenges work against the already difficult careers in food and agriculture.

However, to elicit more collaboration in the region, the newly created Huron Shores Local Food Coalition brings together regional stakeholders from multiple sectors of the food system. The group proposes food and health policy solutions that removes barriers to providing fresh, local food to the community. Founding allies of this collective engage focus groups to glean data about the obstacles and resources already present in NE Michigan.

Following learning sessions with stakeholders in Alcona and Alpena counties, Megan Masson-Minock of the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems identified the policy change proposals with the biggest impact, including the establishment of local distribution routes and aggregation sites from the UP down to Detroit, through NE Michigan, and shifting school policy to embrace sourcing locally on this side of the state. This past spring, the group moved policy recommendations forward to invigorate agribusiness and protect farmland. The Coalition envisions a prospering northeastern regional food system and we can’t wait to see the impact they make!