The New England Farm & Sea to Campus Network, hosted by Farm to Institution New England (FINE), has officially launched, and interested individuals can now sign up and get involved! This is a great opportunity for anyone involved in the campus food system in New England to take part in an exciting new collaborative network.
The mission of this network is to build a community of higher education and food systems stakeholders who connect, share, and collaborate to develop transparent regional supply chains and educate campus communities about regional food systems.
In order to work towards this mission, the group formed a Steering Committee several months ago, with members from across the region – you can learn about them here. With their leadership, along with input from dozens of additional stakeholders, there is now a set of four working groups that will help in building further momentum, creating more opportunity for connectivity across the region, and ultimately moving us closer to our mission and vision. The working groups include: Outreach & Communications, Supply Chain Development, Education & Engagement, and Evaluation & Tracking.
For anyone that wants to get more involved, there are two options:
1. JOIN THE FARM & SEA TO CAMPUS NETWORK
Interested individuals can join the contact list! Members of the list will receive two to three emails per month with general updates from FINE as well as targeted updates for people at colleges, universities and private schools. To sign up, please go here.
2. SIGN UP FOR A WORKING GROUP
To become more actively involved, sign up for one of the four working groups. Each group will have an initial meeting (via conference call) in June 2016 to start to outline some priorities and action steps. These will be active groups, so interested individuals should consider whether they have a couple hours per month available for participation. Sign up for this first round of meetings by May 20th, and then after that there will be more opportunities to join groups via rolling admissions! This form allows those who are interested to join a working group.
The group looks forward to working together with those who sign up from around the region to create a better regional campus food system! Please submit any questions to riley@farmtoinstitution.org.
This post was adapted from the original on the Farm to Institution New England blog.
Riley Neugebauer is the Farm & Sea to Campus Project Manager for Farm to Institution New England.
