Gila Valley Food Coalition
October 2021 Update
The coalition hosted the second Marketing & Social Media Basics Workshop on August 25th at Safford City- Graham Library for Gila Valley food producers. Attendees learned how to best market their business through learning how to create a brand story, establish an online presence, take quality photos, and how to build a following.
On Saturday, October 2nd, we gathered together for a “Farmers & Families Potluck” to celebrate the hard work of the Gila Valley food producers and the Gila Valley Food Coalition. Attendees enjoyed food and drinks with friends at this family-friendly event.
In The Media:
https://gilaherald.com/gila-valley-farmers-market-receives-15000-grant-to-support-mission-of-gila-valley-food-coalition/
https://www.eacourier.com/news/eat-local-gila-valley-marketing-campaign-showing-positive-results/article_f6b455ac-5759-11eb-97bc-1feb18a65741.html
https://gilavalleycentral.net/gila-valley-food-coalition-meets-thursday/
https://www.eacourier.com/news/survey-hunger-is-a-definite-issue-in-graham-greenlee-counties/article_886b2e2e-8911-11eb-923f-b35749a31b91.html
Where It All Began:
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the global food supply chain left rural Arizona communities in a state of shock facing sudden food shortages. But the pandemic only magnified existing gaps in the rural food system, including rising food insecurity, lack of local market opportunities, and depleted environmental health, adding more weight to the need for rural communities to organize their collective resources and begin addressing these issues.
Gila Valley stakeholders in Graham, Greenlee, and part of Gila county had already been working together with Local First Arizona in 2020 on a variety of projects including winning a $15,000 grant to establish the Gila Valley Farmers Market - an indoor market open to the public 5 days a week. Local leaders from Our Neighbors Farm & Pantry, United Way of Graham and Greenlee County, Graham County Public Health Department, and Graham Chamber of Commerce decided it was time to get formally organized around food issues. After partnering with LFA to win a grant from United Way, the Gila Valley Food Coalition was born.
Local First Arizona began facilitating the Coalition meetings and helped secure an AmeriCorps VISTA to develop and lead the Coalition further. The GVFC defines itself as a mechanism for regional multi-stakeholder collaboration to develop holistic local food systems. The goal of GVFC is to:
Improve access to healthy, nutritious local foods
Increase economic opportunities for farmers & food entrepreneurs
Strengthen the social and cultural connections across Gila Valley
In addition, LFA received funding from United Way to partner with Northern Arizona University and conduct the Gila Valley Food Security Survey during 2020-2021. The results indicated that ⅓ of Gila Valley residents are food insecure- more than half with some college or a college degree and almost half are currently employed. The survey also found that 61% of those that are food insecure make less than $30,000 annually but tend to have larger households (more people to feed). Even more concerning, 40% of food insecure households reported running out of food before receiving more money and on average skipped or reduced the size of meals for 7 days out of the month. The survey showed higher food insecurity in the Gila Valley than reported on other surveys and provided evidence to support the need for a Gila Valley Food Coalition to look into collaborative and new ways to address food insecurity.
Another aspect of this partnership included an Eat Local Gila Valley campaign funded by the Flinn Brown Foundation and the Vitalyst Health Foundation to promote the consumption of local food products, which was active in the fall of 2020. LFA developed an inventory of local farmers, food producers, food processors, and food outlets, collected digital assets of select local food businesses, built a permanent landing page for Gila Valley consumers to identify local producers, and managed a digital campaign for 3 months. This campaign was one of the most successful LFA has seen and over 60 food businesses and organizations are now featured on the Eat Local Gila Valley website!
Building on this momentum, the Coalition hosted a public launch event on March 18th, 2021. Community input collected at this event helped the Coalition to outline three workgroups to focus efforts on Food Insecurity, Farmer’s Market Development, and Producer Capacity-Building. In the coming months, LFA will develop a series of workshops aimed at supporting Gila Valley producers to grow their business and a stronger sense of community.
In August, we began hosting capacity-building workshops for Gila Valley producers starting with a ‘Funding for Farmers’ workshop. Hosted at the Eastern Arizona College Discovery Park Campus with a beautiful backdrop of Mt. Graham, community members gathered in the early morning to learn about funding opportunities to start an agriculture business or improve their existing business. Speakers from the USDA, Small Business Development Center, Arizona Economic Recovery Center, Graham & Greenlee Microloan program, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Prestamos CDFI, Graham County Government, and Farm Credit West delivered short rapid-fire presentations to the crowd before transitioning to individual tables as community members walked around to network and find out more about different organizations.
The events were well-attended by community members who had been farming for decades as well as those that had a vision but had not broken soil yet. There were so many resources to share and opportunities for connection that speakers and attendees lingered long after the event officially concluded.
