Photo caption: Left to right: Kristen McDowell (Intervale), Allen Reetz (Hanover Co-Op Food Stores), Martha Machia (Salvation Farms), Rose Lovett (GMFTS), Julia MacGilbeny (Feeding Champlain Valley), Becca Perrin (GMFTS), Christine Porcaro (Healthy Roots Collaborative), Catherine Cusack (GMFTS) , Patrick Ackerman-Hovis (Food Connects), Cameron Huftalen (Vital Communities), McKenna Hayes (Food Connects), Devan Monette (Food Connects)
This April, GMFTS staff members Becca Perrin, Catherine Cusack, and Rose Lovett joined over 400 participants at this year’s Farm to Institution (FINE) Summit in Portland, Maine. This biannual summit brings together a diverse group of stakeholders in the New England food system to make connections, share knowledge, and generate ideas to strengthen the farm to institution movement. Our team was energized and inspired by the workshops, networking, and the powerful keynote speaker – Maine Senator Craig Hickman.
We were also lucky to attend a New England Food Hub & Processing Network Meetup the day before the summit, which included a tour of the Fork Food Lab – a nonprofit food business incubator and shared manufacturing and processing facility. Their impressive 30,000+ square foot facility is making a huge difference helping entrepreneurs grow their local food businesses from the ground up. Despite the very real challenges that federal funding cuts are posing to our local food systems, we left the summit feeling uplifted by being in community with passionate, creative, and dedicated individuals working hard to build equitable and sustainable food systems across our region.
