A recent Indiana Food Vision listening session held at Lost River Market in Paoli. Submitted photos by Dave Pluimer
County residents are getting a seat at the table to give feedback on creating a better food system in the state.
The Johnson County Local Food Council is holding a county-wide listening session with the Indiana Food Vision team at 5:30 p.m. on July 22. The event will be held at Johnson County’s Purdue Extension Office at 484 N. Morton St., Franklin.
Attendees are asked to share experiences and feedback on their food system and help the Indiana Food Vision “create a shared understanding of the food system’s challenges and opportunities,” according to the event page on social media.
Indiana Food Vision and the Johnson County Local Food Council share a passion for improving the food system residents interact with daily. The food council’s mission is to “implement a thriving local food system that ensures access to healthy, affordable food through education, outreach and strategic relationships,” according to its website. It has three committees with different initiatives to help reach this goal.
One is the local food system committee, which focuses on farmer education, Good Agricultural Practices certification, shared-use kitchen/co-packing and connecting food suppliers with consumers. There is also an outreach committee that addresses educating county residents on the access, use and production of locally-produced food on social media and in monthly meetings. Finally, there is a food access committee that wants to develop and maintain mutually beneficial and strategic relationships through food rescues, food pantries and gleaning.
“One of the keywords I think is ‘connected,’ that’s really what we want to see here is a more connected food system and just making those connections with farmers and other growers and consumers, schools,” said Erin Slevin, volunteer with the food council and Nutrition Education Program community wellness coordinator at Purdue Extension. “Everybody working together, knowing each other, people knowing where their food comes from, and then also those who are food insecure having the food they need and families having the food they need to thrive.”
Slevin said food summit events were held in 2016 and 2017, and interest started brewing. In January 2019, a call-out meeting was held for individuals interested in forming the council and a group of dedicated volunteers started meeting regularly. The council officially started in 2020.
For the listening session, the food council will partner with Jodee Smith, the Resilient Food Systems manager at the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University Bloomington, who works on the Indiana Food Vision. She will be the facilitator of the listening session.
Smith said Indiana Food Vision came together as food councils were looking for a statewide food charter.
“Food vision is trying to create a space for the lived experience of households in Indiana … We know there are issues in the food system, we know there are problems. What we’re focused on is what can we do about it?” Smith said.
Food Vision will be a roadmap that will create “a robust, nourishing and equitable food system where all communities in Indiana thrive,” according to its website. The effort is organized by a statewide steering committee of public and private sector partners, nonprofits and regional food policy council members in partnership with the Indiana Department of Health and Indiana University.
The vision is hoped to unify state efforts to inform decision makers; help communities, businesses and organizations receive funding; identify what’s working in food systems; foster innovation and collaboration across sectors; and support local efforts with statewide data and information.
Smith said the Indiana Food Vision gathers data from focus groups and survey responses, and hires a company to analyze the data and translate the data into policies and advocacy. She said the food council knows what’s best for Johnson County, and the Indiana Food Vision aims to support the council’s ideas with secondary data.
One way to gather data is through the July 22 listening session. The event is open to individuals of all ages and backgrounds. No registration is required and there is no cost.
After coming to the listening session, Smith hopes people will become more involved in their community food system.
”We hope the (food) vision and the vision data collection process is part of a capacity-building effort across the state, so we want people to think, ‘Gosh, I could do something about my food system,’” Smith said. “‘I don’t have to necessarily go volunteer somewhere, but am I thinking about where my food is coming from? Am I thinking about does my food support Indiana farmers and Indiana jobs? I spend thousands of dollars on food a year. Is that really supporting our Hoosier economy?’”
She is excited to hear people’s thoughts by giving them the time and space to envision what they want for their food system.
Smith explained in an online webinar why caring about the food system is important for all people, and Heather Tallman, volunteer with the county food council and marketing director for Fischer Farms, mirrored those thoughts when explaining why having a say in the food system is important.
“I think Jody hit the nail on the head in her webinar that we all, literally all of us of all ages in the entire state, have a stake in this because we all eat, we all eat and our food comes from somewhere,” Tallman said. “And I think for us, it’s important to know where they buy their food, do they struggle to get it? Do they struggle to find culturally appropriate foods?”
Tallman believes the average consumer doesn’t know where their food comes from. She is excited for the event to give Johnson County residents a voice in the conversation about the food system.
Residents also can make their voices heard by taking an Indiana Food Vision survey at indianafoodvision.org/take-the-survey. Those who take the survey can also come to the event since the survey and the listening session will have different questions, Smith said.
