A Four Part Virtual Series About Building and Maintaining a Network, Planning Collectively, and Addressing Our Most Immediate Food & Farm Concerns
Due to an abundance of caution, and the fact that so many attendees enjoyed last year’s program, CFSA’s annual summit will once again be a four-part, interactive, virtual series. These sessions will span multiple weeks and cover topics such as building a sustainable network, crafting a statewide food action plan, and understanding and addressing the Connecticut food system’s role in the climate crisis. The fourth and final session will be an opportunity to learn more about the other three sessions, and discuss ways in which attendees can take action after the summit. Every session is designed as a stand-alone event, so attend one or attend more! These sessions welcome anyone interested in engaging further in Connecticut’s food system and food policies.
Here’s what CFSA has in store this year:
Climate & Connecticut’s Food System
Friday, October 22, 2021
10am-12pm
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued an alarming code red for humanity. The rising temperatures and increase in natural disasters have an impact on agriculture and our food supply chain. We’re already seeing the ways in which climate change impacts Connecticut. Please join Aziz Dehkan, Executive Director for Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs, and Kip Kolesinskas, Conservation Scientist, for a discussion about their experiences with climate change and how CFSA can integrate climate action into our food system planning.
Growing Our State Food Plan
Thursday, October 28, 2021
10am-12pm
Be part of the plan! The ultimate goal of the Connecticut Food System Alliance is to craft a statewide food action plan to guide our food policies toward a more equitable, sustainable, and just food system. Connecticut has never had a food action plan and it is the only state in New England currently without one. During this session, Winton Pitcoff, Director, MA Food System Collaborative, and Tanya Swain, Project Director, the Maine Food Strategy, will present their states’ plans and discuss the methods they used to craft each one. This session will be two presentations followed by some discussion and activity related to the food action plan. Your input is critical and will be used to draft the food action plan.
Rethinking Networking
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
6pm-8pm
Are networking events the bane of your professional existence? Do you understand the value but loathe the process of forging these professional relationships? There’s a better, more sustainable way! Please join Curtis Ogden, Senior Associate at the Institute for Social Change, for a workshop on building a network in service of food system change. Leave your notions of transactional and competitive networking behind as we learn how to build solidarity through collaboration. This session will be a presentation followed by some discussion and activity about building the network.
Please join CFSA at Grace Farms for appetizers, refreshments, and a watch party for the third session in our annual summit, Rethinking Networking. Thank you to Grace Farms and Fairfield County Community Foundation for generously offering to host this event. We hope this event can provide a safe welcome back to in-person collaboration, and we look forward to an evening of connecting, discussing, and working together.
Deadline extended! RSVP by no later than October 20, 2021.
What’s Next?
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
6pm-8pm
This fourth and final session will recap the previous three and give attendees an opportunity to reflect on what they learned. This will also be an opportunity to develop a set of actions that attendees can take away from the series and bring into their own advocacy. CFSA is hoping to use information from this summit to inform the creation of a food action plan.
Connecticut Food System Alliance 