"Blazing Trails" Food Regulations Training
What is Blazing Trails?
"Blazing Trails through the Jungle of Food Regulations" is a project to bring a half-day training workshop about local food regulations to every county in Minnesota, between January 2019 and September 2020.
The goal is to make sure the entire state has access to information and resources about how to navigate food regulations that pertain to local food, in order to help individual food entrepreneurs and local food systems move forward.
Who is doing this?
"Blazing Trails" is a project of the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Renewing the Countryside, and the Minnesota Farmers' Market Association. It is funded through a Professional Development Program grant from North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE.)
The trainers who will be going out to counties:
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Jane Grimsbo Jewett |
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Brett Olson Creative Director & Co-Founder Renewing the Countryside brett@rtcinfo.org |
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Kathy Zeman Executive Director Minnesota Farmers’ Market Association kzeman@mfma.org |
Who Should Attend?
ANYONE with a passion for their local farms and local food …
Who sees potential for local food systems where they live …
But is confused or intimidated by food regulations.
Who are some likely attendees?
- SHIP coordinators
- U of MN Extension educators
- Farm group leaders
- School board members
- School food service directors
- Economic development staff
- Public health staff
- Restaurant owners
- Farmers
- Community Garden coordinators
- ... and anyone else who wants to!
Who should NOT attend?
If you have to twist someone’s arm, they probably aren’t the right person for this training. We want folks who are already supporters of local food.
Get a workshop in your county!
We are working with Statewide Health Improvement Partership (SHIP) staff and others in Minnesota counties who can do local organizing for a training workshop.
Register your county for a workshop
Role of Local Organizers
The Project Team seeks a local organizer in each county. This could be a SHIP coordinator, or someone else with knowledge of available facilities, likely participants, and local food activity already taking place in the county.
What the local organizer will do:
- Arrange a meeting space
- Do local advertising
- Recruit at least three local food leaders to participate in the training
What the local organizer will get:
- $100 allowance to use as needed – venue rental, refreshments, printing additional binders, mileage for participants, local advertising, etc.
- Communication & support from the project team
Role of Trained Local Food Leaders
This free training is open to everyone. We want to have at least three local food leaders per county take this training, but as many can come as will fit in the room.
Three trained local food leaders in each county will get:
- A binder & flash drive of useful publications about local food systems and relevant regulations
- Ongoing access to the project team
Three trained local food leaders in each county will do:
- At least one presentation to a farmer group or community group in your county
- At least one newspaper or newsletter article in your county
- Ongoing service as a resource person re: food regulations in your county
