Ourlando Local Food Alliance

The goal of the Local Food Alliance is to reconnect our local food system. We are bringing together local independent businesses, non-profits, garden project leaders, restaurants and food distributors, food program organizers, policy makers and community members who share this passion. We launched the alliance at this year’s Central Florida Earth Day where we collectively planned the local food education center, which was a grand success.

The alliance currently consists of Slow Food Orlando, Simple Living Institute, Florida School of Holistic Living, PLACE, the Audubon Park Community Market and My Yard Farm. As we move forward, we are continuing to expand our partnership base and collaborative efforts.

Our collective goal is simple – making more local food available to the community.

Making it happen….

Step 1: Community Wide Meeting

July 28th, Ourlando Local Food Alliance held it’s first community wide brain-storm session on how we can Reconnect Our Local Food System. Nearly 40 people participated. Amongst the participants were farmers, gardeners, restaurant owners, farmer market vendors, food distributors, garden project leaders, urban planners, food coops and many passionate community members.

During this meeting, we had break-out sessions focusing on three key areas of our local food system: 1) Farmers and farmland; 2) Restaurants, distribution and supply and; 3) Education.

Download notes from break-out sessions here…
LFA Community Meeting Notes_Education
LFA Community Meeting Notes_Farms
LFA Community Meeting Notes_Restaurants

Step 2: Action Committees and Partnership Building

Each group will meet again to develop next steps and begin the process of Reconnecting Our Local Food System.

Saturday, August 29th @ 9 a.m. the Restaurant Relations Committee will meet at Harmoni Market.

Local Food Alliance will also have a meeting at Ethos, Sunday, August 30th @ 11:00 a.m. where we will be discussing the Farm to Table Event and Locally Grown Certification.

Part of this step is to continue to gain community capacity and build partnerships. If you have a local food project in mind, please let us know.

Step 3: Local Food Program Development and Collective Action

Soon, we will update the community on the various projects and collaborative efforts.

Locally Grown Certification

A focus group comprised of farmers, distributors, restaurants, certification and marketing professionals are working to develop a Locally Grown certification process to strengthen the linkages between local farmers and the community.

If you are interested in getting involved, pleast contact us at localfood@ourlando.org

Local Food Alliance Partners