Many of us are familiar with TED talks, the now ubiquitous storytelling venue that has attracted over a billion viewers to thousands of talks worldwide. In the 1990s, their “ideas worth spreading” mission led to granting independent licenses called TEDx events, often hosted by cities, universities or non-profits. Once the talks are published online, they become tools that can make impacts in our community development work. A TED talk (or any well-done, brief, online YouTube video) can be used to jumpstart a conversation on job creation, our environment, our health, our future or virtually any topic we may be teaching.

On October 17, 2014, I presented a TEDx talk to nearly 1,100 people at the historic Victoria Theatre in downtown Dayton, Ohio. The talk was entitled, “Be a Local Food Superhero.” My original aim was to inspire attendees, their friends and families to get more involved in supporting local farms and economies by purchasing local foods… noting that they could become virtual superheroes by making simple, deliberate choices in their food purchasing habits.

As I began to think about our work in community development, I quickly realized Extension workers can become local food superheroes as well. Aside from personally participating in the purchase and consumption of local goods, we can use our teaching and partnership platforms to encourage diverse programming around local foods, food security, food justice and a myriad of other food-related topics regardless of our individual program area focus.

The local foods idea cuts across all four program areas and spans rural, suburban and urban populations. Whether serving as youth educators, in agriculture, community development or family and consumer sciences, the opportunities are there. Extension workers have immense potential to positively impact local food consumption through their work. As noted in the talk, the social, community, personal health, environmental and economic impacts are not manipulated statistics. The added value comes through a collective impact. And collective impact can change our world.

The talk was published on January 12, 2015 and may be seen online at: u.osu.edu/raison/local-food/.

(Submitted by Brian Raison, Assistant Professor and County Extension Educator & County Extension Director, Miami County/Top of Ohio EERA)

Accessible and affordable healthful foods are a critical first step in good nutrition. To help make locally produced foods available to underserved communities in Cuyahoga County, a “Double Value Produce Perks” (Produce Perks) initiative was developed by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition. The coalition, initiated by OSU Extension and Case Western Reserve University, sponsored a program that offered incentive dollars to customers that used an Ohio Direction Card to purchase food.

Photo credit: Amy Thompson

Last year, this program involved 18 farmers’ markets and two farm stands throughout Cuyahoga County and it worked like this:

A customer wishing to use their food assistance benefits could swipe their Ohio Direction Card at a central terminal, located at any of the 20 participating locations’ information booths, and ask to withdraw a desired amount. The market or farm stand would then provide tokens for the transaction in addition to Produce Perks that could be spent on fruits and vegetables. The incentive was a dollar-for-dollar match on every dollar spent (up to $10) using an Ohio Direction Card.

Program highlights from 2014 show promise for continued expansion into 2015. For example:

• The Double Value Produce Perks EBT Incentive program grew to 20 farmers’ markets and farm stands.
• One hundred eighty women and their families redeemed $3,920 in vouchers, enabling them to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.
• EBT sales surpassed 2013 totals, reaching over $39,000.
• Additionally, Produce Perks brought 260 new food assistance customers to farmers’ markets for the first time.
• A new aspect of Produce Perks, the Produce Prescription program, was expanded to connect mothers and pregnant women to local farmers’ markets.

For more information on this program or to learn more about initiating a local food policy coalition, please contact Nico Boyd or go to cccfoodpolicy.org/.

(Submitted by Nico Boyd, Program Coordinator, Cuyahoga County & Western Reserve EERA)

“Can you believe vegetables are growing in the shadow of an urban high-rise apartment building?”

“I will be more deliberate in including community members—particularly those whose voices are often omitted—in the early, developmental phases of my Extension educational outreach and programming.”

Overview:

These thoughts are from two participants of the USDA AFRI funded Food Security Conference hosted by the eXtension Community, Local & Regional Food Systems Community of Practice (CLRFS eCoP) and held in downtown Cleveland, September 29 – October 1, 2014. The conference included 104 Extension educators, researchers and community partners from Land Grant Universities and local non-profit organizations from 23 states. Since 2012, this group has grown to become the fourth largest eCoP among nearly 80 in eXtension’s nationwide system.

Key conference goals included:

• positioning food security as a priority in food system research and practice
• enhancing Extension’s capacity to work on food security and food systems
• bringing together University and Extension workers with community food system practitioners to address core competencies for professionals engaged in this work

It also sought to align University research priorities with community needs and to train Food Systems Extension professionals of the future. The breakout sessions focused on skill development, aligning research, developing understandings among the local and regional food system community and building the capacity and value proposition of the CLRFS eCoP. The Cleveland location allowed participants to gain experiential knowledge via urban agriculture tours and conversations with the growers and food security practitioners in the region.

The conference keynote plenary session targeted the role racism plays in food security in America. The CLRFS eCoP identified the need to build Extension’s capacity to address food security through new lenses as a critical initiative for the group. Trainers from The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond led attendees through a training session on “Undoing Racism in Our Food Security Work.” Conference participants were challenged to define racism and its implications for society and to consider how their work might unwittingly contribute or further injustice in the food system.

Click here to read the full article, including descriptions of the urban ag tour stops and links to additional coverage.

The conference was made possible by eXtension and a grant from the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).

(Submitted by: Brian Raison, Assistant Professor and County Extension Educator, Miami County and Top of Ohio EERA / Co-leader, eXtension Community, Local & Regional Food Systems Community of Practice.)

What can we do to help regional food businesses become more competitive? In Cleveland, we start by engaging in collaborative applied research.

There has been tremendous growth and interest in local foods in communities across Ohio, and Cleveland has become an epicenter of innovation. Cleveland is now known for its local policies in support of urban agriculture and local purchasing, the high percentage of farmers’ markets in the city that accept SNAP benefits, its dynamic restaurant and culinary scene, and a growing network of hundreds of community gardens and urban farms. With all of this interest and support of local food in Cleveland, community leaders and stakeholders wanted to have a better understanding of the food industry in Cuyahoga County and Northeast Ohio and identify specific ways public and private partners could support new and existing food businesses and job growth.

The City of Cleveland and the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition (FPC), a collaborative initiative coordinated by Extension professionals in Cuyahoga County, decided to look at its food businesses as an industry cluster. According to the Brookings Institution, an industry cluster is ‘a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, service providers and associated institutions.’ Local economic development organizations in Northeast Ohio, including The Fund for Our Economic Future and NorTech, have been focusing their work on industry clusters in AgBio, Advanced Energy, Flexible Electronics and Water Technology.

FPC and the City of Cleveland partnered with a local consulting firm and used a combination of financial analysis and guidance from regional experts and industry leaders to identify what the region’s food businesses need to be more competitive. A broad group of stakeholders from the economic development community participated in the process including financial institutions, food service companies, grocery stores, farmers, food entrepreneurs, regulatory agencies, local foundations and food manufacturers. These working groups identified the regional food assets and developed a series of interventions to support the growth of food and beverage companies by replacing imported products with local food and beverage sources, expanding markets for exported products outside the region and improving operational costs and the region’s attractiveness to new businesses through sustainability initiatives.

More details are available in a new report, A Recipe for Success: Developing a Sustainable Foods Business Roadmap for Cuyahoga County which outlines the process, findings, and strategic interventions. This report is now available on the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition website both as an executive summary and a full report.

(Submitted by Morgan Taggart, County Extension Educator, Cuyahoga County & Western Reserve EERA.)