Community Development

22Sep 2020

Know Better, Do Better

September 22, 2020 Susan Beckwith Community Development, Economic Development, Food Systems, Justice, Latest News, Resilience, Teaching & Learning 0 Comment

This is part of a series of posts from participants in the Texas Local Food Anti-Racism training by the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ). Together we are creating an anti-racist food system in Texas. My name is Alejandra Rodriguez Boughton, I’m originally from Monterrey, Mexico, but I’ve called Austin home for the past […]

14Sep 2020

Black farmers’ markets work to “redesign the food system”

September 14, 2020 Susan Beckwith Business and Financial, Buying Food, Community Development, farmers market, Food Systems, Justice, Latest News 0 Comment

From our friends at The Counter, this excellent overview of the history of Black farmers and current actions to dismantle racism in our food system. Farmers market managers take note and count on us at the Texas Center for Local Food to support your shift to a more diverse customer base. “… the recent movement […]

28Aug 2020

Racism in our Food Systems

August 28, 2020 Susan Beckwith Community Development, Food Systems, Justice, Teaching & Learning 0 Comment

As our country reckons with our historic systemic and systematic racism, I want to share these links to posts by Chris Newman and Joel Salatin, both farmers in Virginia. I was out a bunch in late 2019 so I missed these at the time they were published. Some of the comments on Instagram are so […]

25Dec 2019

Hello 2020

December 25, 2019 Susan Beckwith Community Development, Farm to School, Institutions, Latest News 0 Comment

Here we go into a new decade and even amidst the tumult in our world, here at the Texas Center for Local Food, we find hope as we move forward. Sure there’s been some serious yuk this past year and we’ve also seen sprouts of new ideas and new collaborations that – if we nurture […]

22Aug 2019

Elgin Local Food Center project Gaining Momentum

August 22, 2019 Susan Beckwith Community Development, Economic Development, Food Processing, Latest News 0 Comment

We raised nearly $1,000 in the first weekend of our online fundraising campaign and we’re looking forward to more small donations to build the first local food education and food processing center in Texas! We hope you’ll donate today. All donors will have their name on the wall (or you can remain anonymous). Here is […]

14Aug 2019

Local Food Leadership and Community Development Training

August 14, 2019 Susan Beckwith Community Development, Economic Development, Justice, Latest News, Teaching & Learning 0 Comment

The Texas Center for Local Food has been working with Iowa State University since 2018 to develop a training program for local food leadership and community food systems development. We’re interested in learning about similar resources, so as we discover training programs, we’ll keep an updated list in this article. Please add comments to the […]

07May 2019

We Love Metrics!

May 7, 2019 Susan Beckwith Business and Financial, Community Development, Economic Development, Health, Justice, Latest News 1 Comment

This new list of metrics will be useful as we design and work our food system projects and orgs. Not perfect. Missing mental health. Good start! Measuring Racial Equity in the Food System (PDF)

07May 2019

Designing the Elgin Local Food Center

May 7, 2019 Susan Beckwith Community Development, Economic Development, Food Processing 0 Comment

Here is our homespun video describing our process for designing the Elgin Local Food Center. We created this video for the Iowa State University Community Food System Training program. 11 mins long. Look for more updates soon as we work hard to raise funds to build this fabulous new food processing and education center in […]

15Apr 2019

Many migrants are farmers fleeing climate change

April 15, 2019 Susan Beckwith Business and Financial, Community Development, Health, Justice, Latest News 0 Comment

It’s not just violence and poverty that Central Americans are fleeing. It’s also climate change. In this NY Times article, you’ll read about how the temp in Central America has increased 2 degrees F, how the rains are off schedule, and how coffee won’t grow in the heat like it has for so many years. […]

08Apr 2019

Schools, universities, hospitals… cities’ new allies to change the food system

April 8, 2019 Susan Beckwith Business and Financial, Buying Food, Community Development, Economic Development, Farm to School, Institutions, Food Processing, Latest News 0 Comment

This article from Urban Food Futures gives a brief overview of the changes happening in our food system. Spoiler alert: high volume buyers make big differences in our food sourcing and eating. We would add the fabulous Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP)! We’re a proud member of the Austin area GFPP team with the City of […]