Quarterly Meeting

August 26th, 2025

Welcome!

Please share in the chat:

• Name
• Who you are
• One small thing that you have gained by being connected to this network

Agenda for Today

• RFSP Re-cap! Looking Back
• Updates from Work Groups
• Communications Update
• Reflecting on our successes and looking forward
• With Eva Ringstrom, Raindrop Workshop
• Next Steps for OFIC

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Our Project Goals

• Analyze gaps in/voids in F2I and develop solutions
• Increase transparency of large institutional procurement
• Position F2I as a values system (not solely cost related)
• Changing public perception
• Keep engagement and collaboration in various F2I topics
• Celebrate and share!
• Create a diverse coalition of stakeholders: buyers, distributors, healthcare providers, businesses, brokers, producers etc.

Organizing Team

Aliza McHugh (she/her), NW Regional Coordinator, Health Care Without Harm

Amy Gilroy (she/her)

Ag Development and Marketing, Oregon Department of Ag

Melina Barker (she/her) Executive Director, Oregon Farm to School & School Garden Network

Shantae Johnson, (she/her), Farmer & Founder of Mudbone Grown, Feed’em Freedom Foundation and more!

Timeline of RFSP Grant

RFSP Grant awarded with 16 Oregon Partners

Housed at HCWH

OFIC Coordinator Hired

Facilitation begins with Regenerate Change

Kickoff meeting held at Chemeketa with 40 partners

Work groups begin! 40 meetings held as of today

-> Value Chain Coordination

-> Institutional Community of practice

-> Land Access/Shared Assets

End of RFSP grant!

Migrate to OCFSN, fund development and strategic planning for the future!

Relationships built and network activated!

Other grant activities completed:

-> Hired Kitchen Sync Strategies for VCC

-> Hired InCommon for branding

-> Research project completed with PSU

-> Regional Trainings held in person

GOT STARTED

Nov. 2022

May 2023

Nov. 2023

Feb. 2024

2024-2025

Sept. 2025

Institutional Community of Practice

Land Access

Value Chain Coordination

Producer Engagement

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(Some) Project Takeaways

More to come!

• There is a desire to have a space to hold farm to institution work, the level of engagement has shown this was a gap and a container is wanted (over 130 OFIC partners)

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• There is still some growth within our RFSP goals but we established a structure for initial setup that can hold momentum and progress

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• Creation of a statewide presence is important and can be expanded

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• There is national interest in Oregon as a state for expanding Farm to School, Farm to Institutions, and Food as Medicine

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• We move at the speed of relationships, creating a network requires intentionality, connection, and patience

RFSP Activities

Regional Trainings

Portland Metro

The Coast

Southern Oregon

Topics covered: Farm to Institution 101 (fundamentals), Requirements (licensing, laws, insurance, etc), Crop planning for institutions (growers), Buyer-Seller Relationships, Product development for institutional sales (food businesses)

*We’d like to create more of these training opportunities for producers and food businesses as OFIC moves forward and as funding allows!

PSU Land Access Research

Goal: Assist the Oregon Farm to Institution Collaboration in identifying possible lands for farmers and food producers to grow food for schools, hospitals, and other institutions.

Land holders we included in our definition of public and institutional lands are:

• Governments (Tribes, county, regional, state, and federal- not municipal which was beyond the scope of this statewide effort)
• Special service districts (drainage districts, utility districts etc.)
• Ports
• Schools
• Colleges and Universities
• Correctional facilities (which predominantly fell within governmental lands – either state or county)
• Hospitals

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Why It Matters

Research suggests significant benefits of farm to institution, which Civil Eats calls the “Sleeping Giant” of local food.

There are many potential benefits from farm to institution initiatives including these two key benefits:

1. Increased access to healthy, fresh food for patients and staff in hospitals and for students and teachers in educational settings,
2. More business opportunities for farmers and ranchers to keep a greater share of food dollars in the local economy.

Some of the contextual factors motivating this study include:

• The increasing number of farm seekers in Oregon who do not have access to land,
• Historical and ongoing inequities in land access,
• A growing interest in strengthening our regional food systems, and
• The decrease in available and affordable land.

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Overall Findings

• 16,657 parcels on 10,205,111 acres of public and institutionally held land
• 95% of the total acreage is held by state and federal entities
• Most suited to rangeland or large scale commodity crops
• Link to Full Slides

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New research on land access

By Aaron Poplack, FoodCorps & ASU Masters Student

• How can farmers in Oregon navigate opportunities to access and produce food on institutional lands - and what are the structural, legal, and relational conditions that enable or inhibit such partnerships?

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• Research methods: Landscape analysis, semi-structured interviews, case study reviews

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• Tools & Research presentation to come in the Fall!

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Land Access & Shared Assets

Purpose: Create solutions to benefit Black, Brown, and Indigenous farmers by providing a purpose to untended public lands and other institutional assets.

Workgroup Make Up:

• Farmers, land access non-profits, researchers
• Co-Chairs: Two farmers/non profit leaders

Accomplishments:

• Statewide farm suitability report on public lands
• OFIC Statement of Land Access Values document
• Work-plan for an institutional land access partnership with a farmer needing land

Future Opportunity

• Storytelling
• Tool development from suitability report
• Piloting farmer on institutional land

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Institutional Community of Practice

Purpose: Demystify institutional purchasing and support development of Oregon’s values for local food procurement

Workgroup Make-up

• Institutional procurement staff, food hubs, food policy staff, government agencies (health departments), state agencies

Accomplishments

• Learning sessions with distributors, policy advocates, and institutional procurement staff
• Investigate state policies for values aligned purchasing (organic, more institutions beyond schools, how a state incentive can achieve these goals, etc)
• Deliverable: Creation of Values Based Framework for Oregon Institutions

Future Opportunity:

• Connection with FIM/Health agencies
• Disseminating VB Framework

Value Chain Coordination

Purpose: Support aggregators & coordinators in understanding gaps in access to institutional markets and develop local purchasing pilots

Workgroup Make-up:

• Aggregators, food hubs, food businesses, VC Coordinators

Accomplishments:

• Value Chain Coordination trainings
• Pilot - institutional sales coordinator with 3 food hubs
• Identifying items in abundance this year that hubs or producers want to sell & reviewing shared tools (forward contracting templates etc.)

Future Opportunities

• Tracking the movement, storing, and distributing products to institutions
• Shared product creation

Value Chain Coordination

Kitchen Sync Strategies has been working with Gorge Farmer Collective, Agricultural Connections, and Lane County Bounty to coordinate sales with Oregon institutions.

Secured just over $52,000 in sales this growing season so far.

We reach out to about 200 institutions weekly – facilitated sales between:

• 12 K-12 school districts
• 4 early childhood education sites
• 1 university
• 3 corporate dining sites

with several others developing!

Type of food moved?

August – peaches, melons, pears, tomatoes! Lettuce mixes, summer squash, beets, corn, peppers, other diversified veg.

Earlier in the Summer / Spring: cherries, strawberries, snap peas, loose teas, beef patties, yogurt, Umi Noodles, strawberry jam.

Comms Update

Vision

Oregon-grown, raised, and processed foods from local farms and businesses served in all institutions.

Mission

To create and sustain a network of relationships between Oregon's agricultural producers, organizations, and institutions that supports local food purchasing, creates new markets for food producers, and improves food and nutrition security statewide.

Purpose

Connection | Education | Transformation

To leverage the power of local food for a healthy, equitable, and resilient regional food system.

Transition Team

Facilitators: Adam Brock (Regenerate Change), Aliza McHugh (OFIC)

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• Eddie Hill, Food Loop NW
• shiny flanary, Farmer & Executive Director of Black Food Sovereignty Coalition
• Eva Ringstrom, Learning & Evaluation Strategist, Raindrop Workshop
• Amber Hansen, Formerly at HCWH and Lead on RFSP Grant
• Shin Lee, Executive Director of OCFSN
• Andrew Collins, Program Director of OCFSN
• Rhianna Simes, Farmer and Leadership Team Chair OCFSN

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Transition Team

EXPLORE OPTIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL HOME

CONVENE TRANSITION TEAM

DEVELOP BUDGET + PROPOSAL TO OCFSN

REVISION + REVIEW

[FORMAL ACCEPTANCE + INTEGRATION]

Ripples of Impact

Our Approach

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We aim to:

• Understand your important questions, and make a plan to answer them
• Uplift peoples’ stories and experiences
• Help you and your partners use your data to the fullest
• Start with what’s working and build from there
• Adapt as possibilities emerge

Image source: Eva Ringstrom

Today’s Purpose

Looking back:

• What worked well?
• What did you and others gain?
• What has our connectivity meant?
• What have our learning sessions, trainings, and project led toward?
• In what ways have we woven our regional food system closer together?

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Looking ahead:

• What should we carry forward?
• What might we build toward?

Pause and Reflect

1. What has been a meaningful change that arose from your connection to OFIC?
• What role did OFIC play in this change?
• Why is this story important to you?

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• Looking forward, what would you like to see from OFIC?
• What should we prioritize or continue?
• What opportunities do you see?

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Please share your responses here: https://forms.gle/7TX1Tk7mgNJ1bPN56

Breakouts: Sharing Stories & Ideas

1. Round robin: Each person shares their story.
• Feel free to make connections ask clarifying questions.
2. Priorities and opportunities: Find your group’s sticky notes slide. Share and discuss your priorities, opportunities, and ideas for the future.
• One idea per note!
3. Report back: Share one intriguing story or sticky idea that came up in your group.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Future Opportunities for OFIC

Some things we are looking forward to!

• Connection with national organizations: Friends of the Earth, Impact Justice, Sodexo
• Collaborative grantwriting with other Oregon partners to fund F2I network, producer support and market development projects
• Integration with Food as Medicine programs, policy work, and values-based procurement initiatives

Upcoming Events

OCFSN Member Gathering

November 5-7th

Salishan Coastal Lodge

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Farm to School Month - October

Crunch At Once- October 23rd

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Local Link

November 12th from 9-12 PM

The REDD, Portland

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Oregon Farm to School & School Garden Conference

Jan 29&30

OSU

Brand colors

Brand shapes

Brand logos

(purple background for display only)

Brand background shapes

Brand tagline

Favicons and footer line

Approved brand imagery

Brand-aligned food/produce