At Montgomery County Food Council, we are leading a journey of discovery this fall, to learn about the infrastructure that makes it possible to buy and sell food locally. Please join us to learn, collaborate, add your unique expertise, and plan together how to improve food system infrastructure in the region.
The October 18th meeting highlighted a variety of public and private funding resources available to support investment in food systems infrastructure. Guest speakers shared overviews of creative financing opportunities available at the local, state, and federal levels through the USDA, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Maryland agencies, philanthropic organizations, and more.
Featured guests:
Tuesday, November 15th, 10:00-11:30am
Montgomery County is home to over 100 food producing farms and 80 packaged food and beverage businesses. The growth and expansion of these establishments is critical to long-term food system resilience as well as economic and social mobility within our community. The current lack of local food processing infrastructure, specifically commercial kitchen and co-packing space, limits our diverse entrepreneurs from accessing new retail customers and disproportionately impacts businesses wishing to enter or expand wholesale markets. Investment in food processing infrastructure would boost the economic sustainability of local food production while creating jobs, reducing the environmental impact of food distribution, and potentially attract food businesses from around the region to access facilities in our County. However, as documented in the recently released DC Central Food Processing Facility Assessment, 2018 MCEDC Co-packer study, and numerous other reports and studies, there is a significant lack of food processing infrastructure in the entire DMV region. An investment in food processing infrastructure would boost the economic sustainability of local food production while creating jobs, reducing the environmental impact of food distribution, and potentially attract food businesses from around the region to access facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical nature of increasing local food production for greater self-sufficiency and recent Maryland legislation has created new opportunities for local food producers to access new markets, though these goals will be difficult to meet without greater investment in aggregation and processing infrastructure.
Contact Ester@mocofoodcouncil.org with questions!
feb 2-april 6
10-week course, meeting every Thursday evening from 7:00pm-8:30pm from February 2 through April 6, 2023.