On May 21st through 23rd, farmers, food system workers, government officials, and nonprofit leadership met in Elgin, Texas to participate in Local Food Leadership and Community Food System trainings lead by a team from Iowa State. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Texas Southern University, Texas Center for Local Food, and the Elgin Economic Development Corporation. The Texas Center for Local Food was selected to host these training events on behalf of Iowa State University to assess program content and determine replicability of this program in other states.
The Local Food Leadership training held on May 21, 2019 taught several foundational competencies critical to an individual’s successful involvement in community food systems development including: working in food systems, facilitation and capacity building, equity as a foundation to food systems, evaluation, and professional development. The Community Food System training held on May 22nd and 23rd was conducted as a two-day intensive and included sessions on: the fundamentals of the Community Food Systems (CFS) program, creative methods for community engagement, coalition development, and community food systems assessment. The full details of both training events and TCLF’s evaluation reports can be found below.
Both the LFL and the CFS trainings included in-person workshops and post-training online modules specifically developed to offer intensive curriculum that covers community food systems, methods of engagement and leadership, equity and cultural competence, community food systems assessments, creating teams and tools for success, and evaluation following the training.
If you are interested in similar trainings and other local food events, make sure to check out our Event Calendar.