Our Community Planning Workshop (CPW) team is collaborating with the City of Eugene and Lane County on a project to support the local food movement in Lane County. Our project is the “Lane County Year-Round Regional Public Market and Food Hub Market Analysis”. The focus of this project is an in-depth investigation into whether there is enough buying power in Eugene and Springfield to support a potential year-round public market and food hub.

As our team began this process we focused our efforts on developing a strong understanding of the local food system in Lane County. One key resource for doing this has been our Technical Resource Group (TRG). The TRG is made up of nine local food experts, including farmers, distributors, restaurant owners, and retail grocers, who provide valuable insight into the Lane County food system. Consultation began with one-on-one meetings where we asked each member of the TRG a series of interview questions about food in Lane County. These interviews were extremely informative, not just for our project but also for our own personal knowledge about how the local food system works. As a group we, learned a lot about the excitement surrounding local food as well as some of the challenges to its continued growth. Following these interviews our team organized our findings into key themes which highlighted challenges related to supply and distribution of local food. These interviews were a strong starting point for learning more about local food and preparing us for our first TRG meeting.

Bright and early on the morning of April 15, 2014 the TRG was assembled for the first of three meetings. The purpose of this meeting was to present major findings, identify missing pieces, and gain more information about supply and distribution gaps in the local food system. After a small technical issue (no projector, oh no!) we presented our findings to the TRG and began the process of gathering their feedback. TRG members were briefly split into two groups for small group discussions on issues of storage, processing facilities, food safety regulations, and public health. During the small group discussions we uncovered some useful material that hadn’t come up previously. One example the TRG identified is that there may be a need for more niche storage in Lane County.

Following this, we reconvened as a large group and ran through the details of each group’s discussion. It was great to see that both groups had touched on many of the same points. Now that we have held our first TRG meeting, we look forward to the next meeting where we will discuss our household survey and case study findings. This time we will be sure to bring our own projector.

About the Authors:   Evelyn Perdomo is a first year Community ad Regional Planning graduate student. She is originally from Daly City, CA. Her planning interests include economic development and affordable housing.   Stephen Dobrinich is a first year Community and Regional Planning graduate student. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Stephen moved to Oregon in 2011 to serve as a part of the RARE AmeriCorps –Resource Assistance for Rural Environments program. While in RARE, Stephen served as Community Development Coordinator for the City of Creswell. He is interested in community and economic development.  Evelyn and Steve enjoy “talking shop” at their favorite Eugene restaurant, Sweet Basil Thai.