Local Foods, Local Places supports food-focused economic development
White House selects communities to develop local food projects in 19 states
Under this effort, a team of agricultural, transportation, environmental, public health and regional economic experts will work directly with the communities to develop specifically identified local food projects.
Although the White House Rural Council orchestrated the initiative, the selected communities range from rural to urban. The communities are located in 19 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
While most of the chosen projects are modest in scale, a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) spokesperson told FoodProductionDaily, “Out of the 26 identified projects, at least four are envisioning developing a local food processing facility of some sort.”
Processing possibilities
One example of a community that is planning for a food processing facility is North Little Rock, Arkansas, according to the USDA spokesperson.
“Their proposal to develop a Regional Innovation Hub envisions an integrated facility to include a community kitchen, light processing, small business training and other services,” she said. “This approach can also be called a local food network.”
Many of the communities involved in Local Food, Local Places are at the beginning stages of identifying and developing appropriate local food projects.
“One of the goals of Local Food, Local Places is to offer expert consultants who will work with the community to pull together stakeholders and convene workshops to help develop an action plan,” the USDA spokesperson said. That action plan should focus on integrating local food systems into the community’s economic development plan.
Another part of the process is to determine if a proposed project will succeed and is appropriate.
“Many of the projects involve developing year-round retail opportunities for local food including farmers markets or grocery stores,” she said. “Other projects will focus on community garden development, job training, food hub development and additional opportunities for local food entrepreneurs, farmers and ranchers.”
Government support
Local Foods, Local Places is a partnership among the US Department of Agriculture, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Department of Transportation, Appalachian Regional Commission, Delta Regional Authority, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those agencies jointly funded the initiative at $800,000.
That funding “will primarily underwrite technical assistance from teams of experts who will be working directly with the communities to refine their vision, and is enough to cover services in the 26 communities,” the USDA spokesperson said. “Local Foods, Local Places is not a cash award initiative.”
“Some communities in Appalachia and the Delta region will be getting nominal implementation funds,” she added. “However, as part of the technical assistance, communities will be able to learn more about other appropriate and available federal funding opportunities.”
The initiative draws on the Obama Administration's Partnership for Sustainable Communities, USDA's Seven Strategies for Economic Development and other place-based strategies to address regional challenges. The 26 Local Foods, Local Places communities were chosen from among 316 applicants.
