Residents of Greater Lansing interested in alternative methods of growing, distributing, processing, selling and consuming food were offered the opportunity to listen to speakers and discuss issues at a citywide conference Thursday.
“Growing Our Food System: Nourishing Our People II” was an all-day conference hosted by the Greater Lansing Food Bank at the South Washington Office Complex, 2500 S. Washington Ave., in Lansing. This is the second time the food bank has hosted such a conference.
The main purpose of the event was to start longer conversations about how the food system in the community works and to provide understanding, clarification and a learning opportunity for anyone interested in improving the food system, Greater Lansing Food Bank Executive Director Terry Link said.
Link said many sessions offered at the conference discussed topics such as food safety, education of youth in the food system and connecting food growers with institutions. The event also featured lunch and a speech from keynote speaker Judy Wicks. Wicks, a leader in the local living economies movement, has co-founded many businesses and organizations which use sustainable business practices, including what is now known as Urban Outfitters.
The event likely helped many people who attended sessions offered at the conference see the community’s food system in a new way, said Ann Rausher, director of the Greater Lansing Food Bank’s Garden Project.
“A number of folks I’ve talked to seemed energized — I think it’s inspiring,” Rausher said. “(Events like this) help grow the effort as we collaborate and so forth.”
Chris Herrmann, an MSU alumnus and the outreach and volunteer coordinator at the South Lansing Community Development Association, said he’d been interested in the way food systems work since his tenure at MSU. He said the conference was informative and helped him and others see how Lansing is changing for the better in terms of food systems.
“I’m excited to see all the change and potential for change in the Lansing area,” Herrmann said.
Michelle Napier-Dunnings, a local business owner who works with local, state and national food systems on a regular basis, said Wicks and other speakers at the conference gave attendees new ways to look at the issues being presented and helped motivate people to make positive changes to how they interact with the food system.
“I think the conference stimulated people’s passions in a new way.”
Link said he received a lot of positive verbal feedback about the conference and that there likely would be more such conferences in the future.
“I think for the most part it went well, and people were quite happy with it,” Link said. “Next year, there might be something bigger — these kind of conversations need to continue.”
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