Our mission is to protect and improve the local environmental resources of Montgomery County related to agriculture and food.
Please contact lorien@mocofoodcouncil.org for more information or to be added to the Sustainability Collaborative’s email address.
Support composting through:Sustainability Collaborative members are researching and helping to establish appropriate strategies to address the reduction of wasted food in the County, such as participating in gleaning projects with Community Food Rescue, and working with local farms and the Office of Agricultural Services. Our Working Group hosted a gleaning of sweet potato greens at Red Wiggler Farm in August 2018, in collaboration with the Montgomery County Master Gardeners.
The Sustainability Collaborative shares and promotes resources and information pertaining to the nutritional and environmental benefits of eating a whole foods-focused, plant forward diet. According to Project Drawdown, plant-rich diets can reduce carbon emissions while also providing a myriad of health benefits, leading to lower rates of chronic disease. Global carbon emissions could be reduced by “as much as 70 percent through adopting a vegan diet [and] $1 trillion in annual health-care costs and lost productivity would be saved” (Project Drawdown, 2019).
In 2019, we launched a Plant Forward Cooking blog series to share recipes and cooking tips using hyper-local, seasonal produce. Check out our latest blog post, and join us for an Sustainability Collaborative meeting if you are interested in learning about this project, and getting involved!
Apr 25
Join us on Thursday, April 25th, 11am-12pm, for a meeting of the Equitable Land Access Working Group. We will be discussing the potential of farm incubator and community programming in the County, where beginning farmers are given the land, tools, and support they need to flourish. Additionally, we will learn about farmland preservation efforts in the County, and learn about USDA's recent initiatives and opportunities to promote local and regional food systems. We plan to have a lively discussion to learn more, and to connect to and fuel the momentum of these exciting efforts.
Apr 30
Join our local food procurement working group on April 30th at 11am-12:30pm. During this meeting we will hear from local retailers, Troy Sexton, Category Manager at Common Market and Mike Leveille, Fresh Category Manager at Common Market as they share industry insider knowledge on what retailers are looking for in a product when stocking shelves. You do not want to miss this! We will also go over sell sheet examples and share a template for local businesses to make their own. We hope to see you there!
