PACG Local Foods Initiative: Healthy, Smart, and Sustainable

You are what you eat; a popular saying takes on new meaning in our diets today.  The food we eat has changed drastically in the last 30 years: Factory Farms, Genetically Modified Food ingredients, Cloned Animal Food ingredients, contaminated food, and toxins in imported foods.  We face a daily challenge trying to ensure that the food that we eat and feed our family is safe, healthy, environmentally-friendly and supporting our local economy.

PACG is energized to announce its newest forum, the Local Foods Initiative Forum.

The Local Foods Initiative goal is to assist in the development of a healthy, safe, sustainable, local food supply for the Quad Cities.

Four components of the Local Foods Initiative will work to educate and move to action citizens, businesses and local government to pursue a local food supply. There are:

• Farm to Cafeteria
• Community Gardens
• Local Food Coop
• An Annual Local Foods Summit

The first Annual PACG Local Foods Summit will be Saturday September 26^th at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.  Download the Brochure PDF or click to download the REGISTRATION FORM

The Local Foods Initiative meets once a month on the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30pm at the Unitarian Church.  Committees meet throughout the month also.

Join us at the PACG Local Foods Initiative.  Together we can help to educate and mobilize municipalities and their citizens to strengthen the Quad City area and foster a source of healthy, local, safe food.

If you are interested in joining the Local Foods Initiative or one of its committees, please contact Rachel Griffiths rgriffiths@qconline.com 309-721-3204

Community Gardens:

The mission of the PACG Local Foods Initiative Community Garden Program is to educate and mobilize municipalities and their citizens to strengthen the Quad City area and foster a source of healthy, local, safe food though establishing community gardens.  PACG LFI Community Gardens program will create a working plan for community gardens that can be adapted to a city to private plot and assist interested parties in organizing Community gardens.

Community Gardens offer a great opportunity to meet and learn from fellow gardeners. CG offer citizens plots to produces fresh vegetables and flowers. CG are a learning tool for Quad City’s youth; and provides a gardening experience that benefits all of the QCA through education, mentoring, and volunteer participation. Community Gardens can provide a safe, beautiful & well-equipped garden facility for citizens; to grow, harvest & distribute high-quality produce. Community Gardens  serve as a community-building and educational resource for all residents of the Quad Cities.

Extra produce can be distributed to the recipients of food donations:

Local Food Coop:

The mission of the PACG Local Foods Initiative Coop is to educate and mobilize municipalities and their citizens to strengthen the Quad City area and foster a source of healthy, local, safe food though establishing a local food coop.

PACG LFI would like to facilitate the creation and administration of a local food coop in the Quad Cities.

Food coops support a healthy, sustainable, safe, local food supply by selling produce grown locally by family farms.

Increasing a local, sustainable, safe, food supply  is dependent of guaranteeing small family farmers a place to sell their products.  Small family farmers seldom have the resources to increase farm infrastructure and product with out a guaranteed place A local coop can provide the farmer with just that.  As opposed to a farmers market a coop does no require the farmer to be their to sell.  This is very beneficial to the farmer; freeing up their time to work the farm.  The PACG LFI coop administration facilitates finding buyers and sellers. The Coop Administration develops trusting relationships with sellers and growers, maintains a directory of buyers and sellers and works to continually connect and increase this connection. As a local food coop helps increase the demand for local food, local small family farms will be compelled increase their food production.

In addition, through food coops, consumers have sought to improve the quality and nutrition of available foods, to become better educated about food and environmental issues as they pertain to food choice, and to create a marketplace for local, sustainable grown foods. Coops also create and cultivate a place for locally grown and organic products and are a vital community resource on food, nutrition and environmental issues.

Farm to cafeteria:

The mission of the PACG Local Foods Initiative farm to cafeteria effort is realize the establishment of  a healthy, sustainable, local food supply for Quad Cities area schools. Also to continue educating children to eat local and healthy, while putting more dollars into the pockets of local farmers.  PACG LFI will facilitate the creation and administration of options for integrating local food into the current school food supply system in the Quad Cities.

PACG LFI will continue trying to educate and reach out to the community, parents, teachers, students, food service, administration and elected officials, gauging the interest among parents and students, school officials and growers about a farm to cafeteria program and get out the word on the possibilities.
PACG LFI will offer concrete steps school food services can make to integrate local food into their system, for apples to organic school gardens.

PACG LFI will connect with producers and potential buyers, understanding that institutional buyers have their systems in place. Then showing them where local foods can augment their current system.