Coalition's goal: Connect Dan River Region residents with locally grown food

Local food doesn’t just nourish people, it can also feed money into the local economy.

Because of its potential health and economic impacts, a regional coalition of food growers and consumers is brainstorming ways to improve the local food system to ensure more food from local farmers makes it to local kitchens and tables.

The question for the Field to Friends coalition is: what should the local model be? What fits the community?

Food systems can be quite complex, as consumers have multiple ways of buying food from farmers: online and direct sales, farmers markets, grocery stores or through other businesses or institutions like restaurants or schools and hospitals.

“When you think about local foods, it is not one size fits all,” said Martha Walker, community viability specialist with the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Some areas are trying out community-supported agriculture, where locavores buy shares of the farmers’ crop in advance of delivery or pickup of a regular box of food during the season. The Shenandoah Valley has been conducting produce auctions for wholesale buyers, Walker added.

Field to Friends would like to increase consumer demand and the amount of locally grown food. The coalition has been working the past year to build relationships among farmers, consumers, food businesses and anyone who cares about food. On Valentine’s Day, about 40 people attended a coalition meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church west of Brosville.

The group started in Martinsville and Henry and Patrick counties, but extended to Pittsylvania County because of interest.

But how do you get residents to buy local food?

One meeting attendee wanted a more centralized way to search for and buy different products from regional farmers online instead of trying to track down farmers individually. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has a searchable online database, but it cannot act as a broker for sales and not all farms submit info to the website.

Attendees also asked Bryant Pearce, who helped organize the meeting, if the Cascade area would get a farmers market. If that’s what the community wants, Pearce would like someone younger to coordinate it.

Field to Friends President Bob Tuggle said education is needed on the importance of buying local food, like consumers knowing where their food is coming from, keeping their dollars in the area and helping the environment.

Garnett Collins, who produces honey in Axton and sells seafood through a supplier, agreed and noted that many people shop for higher quality food in Greensboro, N.C., instead of buying from local farmers.

Jessica Sturm, of Spencer, would like to see the region grow and sustain its own food system, especially because of local food’s nutritional value for residents. Sturm’s family has maintained a garden, and will sell at the Martinsville farmers market for the first time this year.

“I dream big for it,” the mother of two said about the coalition.

To get involved, visit www.fieldtofriends.org or call Bob Tuggle at (276) 340-0043.

Bozick reports for the Danville Register & Bee.

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By the numbers

How local food can impact the economy.

» $577 million is spent annually on groceries in the region, but most of the money leaves the local economy.

» If households spent 15 percent of their weekly food budget on locally grown food, $90 million in new farm income would be generated.

» The region is: Danville, Martinsville and Henry, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Carroll, Floyd and Franklin counties and Caswell and Rockingham counties in North Carolina.

Source: Ken Meter, Crossroads Resource Center in “A Community-Based Food System: Building Health, Wealth, Connection, and Capacity as the Foundation of Our Economic Future.”