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The food policy council movement in Minnesota began in 1987 with the publication of dual reports from the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Please see Resources for the full publications) Staffing for both Councils was provided by Ken Taylor, Minnesota Food Association’s founding executive director.
In the Fall of 1993, the Minnesota Food Forum was convened by representatives from all sectors of the food system, including anti-hunger advocates, producers, processors, retailers, consumers, and government agencies. A Citizen’s Panel was convened to hear and gather input from a variety of sources providing a multitude of perspectives on Minnesota’s food system. Then a series of focus groups were held to discuss a draft of a food policy statement. And, finally, in February of 1995, a FoodSummit was convened to develop a comprehensive food policy for Minnesota, built upon the answers to the single question,
“Why do we have hungry people in the United States and in Minnesota when our agricultural system produces abundant food?”
Also in 1995, the Minnesota Food Association joined with experts from around the country to create a W.K. Kellogg Foundation- funded initiative called, The Local Food System Project Team: Kate Clancy was the founding member of the Onondaga Food System Council in New York and, at the time of the project was with the Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture; Kenneth Dahlberg, Local Food Systems Project Director and professor of political science at Western Michigan University; Jan O’Donnel, executive director or the Minnesota Food Association; and Robert Wilson, a chief architect of the Knoxville, Tennessee Food Policy Council (Please see Resources for excerpts from the published report). The focus of the Project was to provide technical assistance for developing local food policy structures that would, in turn, strengthen their local food systems. Six locations were selected during the three-year Project. Dr. Dahlberg, then, evaluated the Project and published a report that has since been posted as one part in a series of reports on urban food systems posted at the web site of The International Development Research Center.
In his report, Dahlberg identified five “Key Contextual Parameters,” and four “Key Organizational Variables,” in measuring the relative success of each food policy structures. While Dahlberg identified six capacity building elements necessary for strengthening local food systems.
Food Summit 2003: Strengthening Local Food System resulted from the work of Minnesota Food Association and many partner organizations. The Summit gathered together a diverse range of policymakers and local food advocates and asked them to begin identifying the charge of a Twin Cities Food Council. With all of the history of food policy councils, and food systems structures, the planning group decided there was a need to estalish a unique local food system structure using the following operating principles:
1. Projects that will increase the market reach of local producers will be the focus of the Council, with a secondary eye on policies that directly impact identified/adopted projects;
2. Financial Stability of the council will come from a membership base.
Minnesota Food Association continues to be part of the regional conversation as to how best to build a sustainable, local food system.
Saint Paul Food and Nutrition Commission: Municipal Food Policy, November 19, 1987; and A Municipal Food Policy for Minneapolis, The Report of the Minneapolis Food Policy Task Force, May 1987.
“Citizen’s Panel Information,” as published in A Values Framework for Minnesota State Food Policy, Minnesota Food Forum Citizen’s Panel, January 1995, pages 22-23.
Food System SourceBook, a publication of The Minnesota Food Forum, February 1995.
The International Development Research Center published the article, Local Food Systems: Promoting Sustainable Local Food Systems in the United States.
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