Local First Arizona’s 17^th annual Devour Culinary Classic, the most anticipated tasting event of the year, will impress even the most refined diners with its luscious eclectic fare Feb. 22-23, 2025.

Desert Botanical Garden and Southern Arizona Arts and Culture Alliance will partner once again with Local First Arizona to assemble a panoply of the most creative and indulgent chefs, sommeliers, cicerones and other food and drink purveyors Arizona has to offer.

Thunderbirds Charities has awarded Local First Arizona $90,000 to support Spanish-speaking and Black entrepreneurs’ success. 

The donation will go toward Local First’s business education programs Fuerza Local, Nivel Ejecutivo and We Rise.

Thunderbirds Charities has invested about $620,000 in the Local First programs since 2017.

PHOENIX (Sept. 1, 2024) —  Mark your calendars and plot your course for Local First Arizona’s 18th annual Fall Festival presented by Arizona Financial Credit Union on Saturday, Nov. 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kick off your holiday shopping early with 250+ local vendors and taste and sip goodies from 70+ local restaurants, breweries and distilleries in the expanded food court and beverage garden.

Local First Arizona will bring the Arizona Good Food Forum + Expo — the state’s largest conference and sampling event for local food and agricultural businesses — to Tucson this year on Aug. 27.

Anyone with an interest in food, dining, agriculture and the environment is encouraged to attend, including chefs, restaurant owners, farmers, ranchers, tribal growers, packaged food producers, brewers, vintners, distributors, foodies, climate advocates and others eager to learn about and contribute to the future of food.

The Arizona Rural Policy Forum — the most popular meetup of the year for rural and tribal leaders — is now sold out, but reporters looking to gather story ideas and sources can still sign up to attend at no cost.

More than 300 rural and tribal changemakers will converge on the 17th annual conference held by Local First Arizona, this year in Clarkdale and Cottonwood.

Local First Arizona acquired the Keep Arizona Beautiful charity in 2022, after the program had been dormant. Keep Arizona Beautiful engages community members across the state to keep rural  Arizona clean and beautiful with projects including litter collection, recycling programs, illegal dumping prevention and community beautification.

PHOENIX (Feb. 27, 2024) – Local First Arizona is proud to announce the winners of the 15th annual Devour Culinary Classic. 

The event showcasing Arizona’s top chefs was hosted Feb. 24-25 at Desert Botanical Garden in partnership with the Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance.

Heritage Foods of Arizona and Taste Tempe, in addition to live music and painting.

Tickets are sold out but media may request credentials by this Friday Feb. 16 to cover the event at Desert Botanical Garden

Anand Giridharadas — the world-renowned author of internationally best-selling books that examine economic inequality, the charade of elite philanthropy and the need to build bridges with those who disagree — will keynote the Arizona Good Business Summit in Tempe on April 16.

The summit, presented by Local First Arizona, brings together more than 300 business people and entrepreneurs engaged in making local economies and communities stronger and leading positive change.

Tickets go on sale to the public Friday for Devour Culinary Classic

Don’t miss your entry pass to the Valley’s most decadent foodie event

PHOENIX  (Nov. 1, 2022) — Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday for the 15^th annual Devour Culinary Classic, the most anticipated tasting event of the year. 

Maryvale’s first low-cost commercial kitchen is launching new restaurants and food businesses

A dozen women entrepreneurs are receiving one-on-one mentoring and fees well below market rate at Local First Arizona’s third community kitchen

PHOENIX  (Oct. 4, 2023) — Local First Arizona’s 15^th annual Devour Culinary Classic, the most anticipated tasting event of the year, will impress even the most skeptical of diners with its luscious eclectic fare Feb. 24-25, 2024. 

Desert Botanical Garden and Southern Arizona Arts and Culture Alliance are partnering with Local First Arizona to assemble a panoply of the most creative and indulgent chefs, sommeliers, cicerones and other food and drink purveyors Arizona has to offer. 

PHOENIX (Sept. 6, 2023) —  Enjoy the return of autumn weather, shop 200+ local vendors and taste and sip goodies from 50+ local restaurants and beverage makers at the 17th annual Arizona Fall Festival on Saturday, Nov. 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free! 

The state’s largest “certified local” event and downtown Phoenix’s largest free annual festival celebrates everything that makes our state special with live entertainment and games in a family-friendly, dog-friendly atmosphere at Margaret T. Hance Park, 67 W. Culver St.

Six local business owners will compete in front of a live audience June 29 in Phoenix for $17,500 in seed money during the first We Rise Demo Day pitch competition.

Each competitor is a graduate of We Rise, Local First Arizona’s six-month, no-cost business boot camp for Black entrepreneurs. The six finalists were selected from a larger pool of graduates after submitting written pitches.

As Arizonans prepare to celebrate Juneteenth, Demo Day will showcase the skill, ingenuity and creativity of Arizona’s Black-owned businesses, while providing crucial seed funds to the most promising concepts.

Calling all rural and tribal leaders from across the state: It’s time for the most popular rural meetup of the year!

Join Local First Arizona and hundreds of changemakers for the 16th annual Arizona Rural Policy Forum, held this year at the historic Bullion Plaza in Miami, Ariz.

This sought-after conference attracts nearly 300 community leaders, so don’t wait to reserve your spot – both for the two-day forum and the add-on events in Globe and Miami where networking will go deep and participants will see firsthand why this part of the Copper Corridor is a special part of Arizona.

Young people between the ages of 16 and 24 from rural Arizona are wanted to give feedback about jobs, housing, educational and recreational opportunities in their communities and why they have stayed or moved away.

Small towns and cities are facing a similar challenge: Young people are moving to larger cities, causing local jobs to remain vacant and threatening the long-term viability of communities.

A panel of top food critics and journalists from around the country personally tasted 70 dishes and beverages at the 2023 Devour Culinary Classic, scoring on taste, presentation, degree of difficulty and creativity. A new award, the Heritage Medal, recognized the best dishes with indigenous, heirloom, locally sourced or desert-adapted ingredients.

Local First Arizona is proud to announce the winners of the 14th annual Devour Culinary Classic, a showcase of Arizona’s top chefs hosted Feb. 25-26 at Desert Botanical Garden. The two-day event was the first in-person celebration since 2020.