Responses by Emily Manke & Cheryl Thornton, NABC
An Q&A re: the Resources Available on this Website!
Link to Western Washington Food System Partnership (WWFSP) website:
Questions & Answers
Q: Is there a plan to include Kitsap, Jefferson, and Clallam in the WWFSP?
A: The WWFSP Steering Committee is in transition at this time. When we begin recruitment to expand the Steering Committee, which will be happening in the near future, we will seek committee members from those counties.
Q: Are there plans to include resources for meat producers as well?
A: There are some resources for meat producers embedded in various sections of the Farm to Food Bank Toolkit. We can highlight those more specifically.
We are planning a summer Lunch & Learn by Mike Poteet on livestock production and processing.
We also are planning to add product specifications for more culturally relevant foods and to assist in making sure those crops are available to food banks/pantries.
Q: How can we make this website easier to navigate for non-English speakers? This is a lot of information and many of our immigrant farmers are not able to navigate a website like this. Bullet points? Translation?
A: We would appreciate input about how to make the website more accessible. We will be applying for funding to translate Lunch & Learn materials into Spanish.
The lists are annotated because we thought it would save people time if they had a little information about each resource before clicking on it, but that does make the lists text-heavy. Feedback about this is welcome.
Suggestion from participant: Perhaps a drop down feature would be helpful, where the resources are in a bullet point list and you could click on them to see the annotations for more detail (without having to click back and forth between pages).
Q: Last year, the African immigrant farmers Wakulima works with weren’t sure how to price produce, where to look, and who to ask. Where can we find this type of information?
A: There is a 2023 wholesale price sheet for organic produce in the pricing section of the Farm to Food Bank resource lists. There also is a 2023-2024 Kitsap Farm to Food Pantry Contract Farmer Pricelist. These will provide general guidelines.
In general, the three important sources of information to come up with an agreement about price are: the cost of production for each product, the going rate on sample pricelists, and discussion with the buyer at the food access program.
Q: Can we share this wwfsp.org website publicly or is this information still being collected?
A: Yes and yes! Please share the wwfsp.org website with your networks, and know that the website is a work in process and will be continually evolving to stay current and increase its functionality.
We always welcome resources you think would be relevant to share on the site and your feedback.
Q: Are we able to suggest/offer subjects for future Lunch & Learns?
A: Yes! We are open to all suggestions for future Lunch & Learns.
Q: Are businesses able to apply for Project Accelerator awards?
A: Yes. Preference is given to projects that benefit more than one business.
Q: Cascadia Produce is hosting an event next week that overlaps with all the topics we’ve discussed. The event includes a primer session on how to purchase local food. Growers of all sizes will be providing information to nonprofits and food relief organizations about purchasing more local food. How can we share this information on your site?
A: Cascadia Produceplays a critical role in food distribution and we appreciate any information you can share.
One option would be to distill resources to present in a Lunch & Learn format.
Another model Cascadia Produce uses is to build culturally relevant food boxes, sourcing from small farms at their price and supplementing with quantities from large state or nationally grown sources.
Questions to participants: Where do you go for resources? Do you have resources that you feel should be included? What kind of resources have you been looking for that you haven’t been able to find?
Suggestions:
- Things that help our producers are simple plans for pack shed designs. (Response: There is a grant that NABC did on best practices for pack shed design that we can add to the resource list.)
- American Farmland Trust has resources on land leasing.