Government & Community Affairs Roundtable

MAY TOPIC: Tompkins County Food System Plan Discussion + Roundtable updates
with Katie Hallas, Community Food System Plan Coordinator - Cornell Cooperative Extension

Join us to learn more about local efforts to create a healthy, sustainable, equitable, and economically impactful food system in Tompkins County - as well as ways the business community might be involved and benefit from participation in the plan.

Tompkins County is, by many accounts, a food-rich community characterized by agricultural abundance. Yet, observing the broader food system, it’s clearer than ever: the current path is unsustainable. Characterized by extreme climate events, racial and economic injustices, ecosystem degradation, growing food insecurity, geopolitical instability, supply chain vulnerabilities, and worsening public health outcomes, the time to transform our food system is now. Tompkins Food Future is building a more resilient, equitable, and healthy food system through community-driven planning and collaboration.
 
Tompkins Food Future is a community food system planning initiative guided by the Food Policy Council of Tompkins County. Community food system planner Katie Hallas will share an overview of the findings from the first-ever comprehensive Food System Baseline Assessment of Tompkins County, and the Food System Plan that resulted from that process. 

To review the plan before our Roundtable:
Tompkins County Food System Plan: A Roadmap for our Future
 
About Katie Hallas:
Katie Hallas has worked in sustainable community development and food systems for 15 years as an educator, planner, grant maker and program designer. She has worked on farms throughout the Northeast, helped launch a food co-operative in Keene, New York, developed nonprofit programs as a board member of the Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming in Ithaca and led the Sustainable Ithaca grantmaking program at the Park Foundation in Ithaca. Katie also taught in the Sustainable Farming and Food Systems Program at Tompkins Cortland Community College and led long-term community planning initiatives throughout Tompkins County. Katie is the coordinator of Tompkins Food Future. 

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The remainder of our time will be spent on some updates regarding dredging and member roundtable items.

Thank you to our Roundtable Series Sponsors: BorgWarner, M & T Bank, and Cayuga Health System!