Farm to Institution
Institutional Buying:
The goal of this committee is to develop an action plan for Adams County regarding institutions in the county buying from local growers. The committee began its work in 2009 and with the help of the Community Food Security Coalitions Farm to Institution Program Manager we began to plan for an introductory workshop to be held at the Adams County Health Summit in June of 2010. Four main presenters were selected including Mark Ott, a food service director from Wingate Pa.; Jennifer Halpin, the
Director of the Farm to College Program at Dickinson College; Katy Lesser-Clowney, the Sales and Marketing Assistant/Ag Tech Specialist for Bear Mountain Orchards and Kristen Markley, the above mentioned Farm to Institution Program Manager. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce the concept to interested food service directors, institutions, distributors and community members and begin to lay out the barriers to institutions buying local and develop a list of strategies to lay the ground work for an action plan for the county.
The workshop was a huge success, with Russell Redding, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Agriculture in attendance as well as other representatives from the Department of Agriculture, the Central PA’s Buy Fresh Buy Local Chapter and many other organizations with a focus on buying local.
The committee is now addressing the list of barriers and building on the list of strategies developed at the workshop. The first and largest barrier to be addressed will be adequate distribution.