Strengthening Local Foods Systems through a Peer Exchange Learning Network
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Date
2018-04
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement
Abstract
Food hubs, as businesses that aggregate and distribute regionally produced food, create jobs and infuse capital into their communities, while also often providing significant support to farm businesses and working in areas that lack sufficient access to healthy foods. The Ohio and West Virginia Food Hub Network is a peer-exchange learning network convening stakeholders from around the region to identify and address barriers to hub development. The network's peer-to-peer model increases stakeholder access to technical assistance providers and connects new and emerging food businesses to best practice models. Learn about the various methods the network's facilitators use to create relevant educational opportunities and to enhance the peer-to-peer learning model of the network to create impactful engagement for stakeholders.
Description
Food hubs aggregate, distribute and market "source-identified food...primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand" (Barham et al 2012, p. 4). Food hubs are not only creating jobs and infusing capital into their communities, they often provide significant support to farmers, help reduce the environmental footprint of food businesses, and work in areas that lack sufficient access to healthy foods. (Barham et al 2012) The Ohio and West Virginia Food Hub Network is a peer-exchange learning network for food hub stakeholders facilitated by the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences' Center for Cooperatives. The network convenes food hub managers and employees as well as technical assistance providers from around the region to identify and address barriers to food hub development. The network meets quarterly for educational programing and for additional learning opportunities such as webinars on occasion. The network's peer-to-peer model increases stakeholders' access to technical assistance providers and connects new and emerging food businesses to best-practice models to increase the viability of local food businesses and their communities. This poster session will share the best practices for peer-exchange learning that organizers have learned during multiple years of facilitating the network. The presentation will focus on methods of ensuring that activities are relevant to stakeholders, which have included participant surveys, development of a participant leadership team and participation in and awareness of national initiatives. The session will also share methods used to enhance peer-to-peer learning opportunities. The network has visited various food aggregation and distribution businesses and has hosted various speakers from food hub businesses, including network participants and enterprises that are external to the network. This session will be of particular interest to audience members working to address challenges faced by a particular community using a collaborative approach. In particular, the network approach developed due to the multi-faceted and complex nature of the challenges that foods hubs face. Challenges to developing a successful food hub, much like problems faced by other communities, will not be solved through a single workshop. Instead, the network is an ongoing initiative designed for participants to learn as much from one another as from formal educators. Hannah Scott and Ivory Harlow are the facilitators of the Ohio and West Virginia Food Hub Network and are responsible for engaging network members and planning the network's programming. As staff of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences' Center for Cooperatives, they provide technical assistance to cooperative businesses, specializing in the development of agricultural cooperatives. Scott has been leading the network since 2015.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Hannah Scott, Program Manager, The Ohio State University South Centers, scott.1220@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Ivory Harlow, Program Specialist, The Ohio State University South Centers.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Hannah Scott, Program Manager, The Ohio State University South Centers, scott.1220@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Ivory Harlow, Program Specialist, The Ohio State University South Centers.
Keywords
food hub, local food, peer-exchange, learning network
Citation
Engaged Scholars, v. 6 (2018).