The Community Food & Agriculture Coalition is a multi-stakeholder coalition that addresses community needs related to food and agriculture in a comprehensive and creative way. The dedicated involvement of citizens, public officials, and people with a range of interests, such as farmers and anti-hunger advocates, is essential to securing the health of our local food and farming system. |
CFAC works to: - Secure policies that support the local food and farming system. For instance, we are working to get the Missoula Schools and restaurants to buy more local food to create larger markets for farmers.
- Promote the economic viability of area farms and ranches, which face real threats from development pressures. We are working to establish a Land Link program and ways to create new markets for local farmers.
- Educate Missoula County residents about the value of farming and healthy, fresh food. We organized the 2006 Harvest Festival and other educational presentations.
- Involve all citizens in decisions that affect their food system. We are inviting those most affected by food insecurity to help guide research about barriers to food access and to promote advocacy efforts to address these issues.
| What's New with CFAC? - The Buy Fresh Buy Local Restaurant Collaborative (BFBL) will be hosting a meeting on Sunday, July 12, 2009 at the PEAS Farm. Missoula-area chefs, farmers, food entrepreneurs, and community members will have the chance to meet, mingle, and share information on ways to feed more of Western Montana's agricultural bounty to Missoula eaters! Click here for more information.
- Calling all photographers! CFAC is excited to announce Capturing Missoula's Foodshed, a calendar photo contest about local food, farms, and community in Western Montana. This fall, submissions will be judged by a panel of CFAC members, and winners will be featured in our 2010 calendar. Deadline for submissions is August 21, 2009. Visit our Upcoming Happenings page for more information.
- Our Farm to School program has already served over 39,000 pounds of local food to Missoula County's young scholars (K-12) this school year, exceeding last year's 31,000 lbs., 2006-2007's 17,000 lbs., and 2005-2006's 4,000 lbs. That's a darn good thing for our kids and farmers.
- Farm & Ranchland conservation continues to be taken more seriously, thanks to all your thoughtful voices. Here are a couple of those voices in a recent Missoulian opinion column. Also, City Council approved Chickasaw Place, a subdivision on 9.4 acres of Prime Farmland in Missoula's urban fringe. Read up on the fascinating details here. Thanks to the 30 CFAC members and concerned citizens who wrote their city councilors to conserve a few acres for farming!
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CFAC is currently conducting our first membership drive. We invite you to join us. Our campaign goal is to add 100 new members, and raise $10,000. With a generous matching grant from an anonymous donor, you can double the impact of your donation between now and the new year! Please consider joining CFAC by clicking on the link below. Or print out our membership letter and donation form here: membership letter 08 (pdf) |
