The Wellness Coalition Healthy Voices committee is a part of Champions for Change, and focuses on bringing together a broad group of stakeholders and community members to create change in the local food systems. This group of people will come together to assess and recommend practices that affect one or more aspects of the food system in a specific area. The committee seeks to create a healthy community with a thriving local food system that:

• Promotes access to healthy and culturally appropriate food for all residents
• Assesses and promotes the valuing and preserving of community land for food production.
• Develop partnerships to maximize the use of local, regional, and seasonal foods
• Identifies organizations that can work to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future ones
• Shares messages to promote economic development within the existing food systems

Members that form this committee are made up of representatives of the following areas of expertise:

• Agriculture
• Food processing
• Food inspection
• Food distribution
• Healthcare
• Hunger relief

Additional members may consist of:

• Consumers and concerned residents
• Educators
• Farmers
• Food justice advocates
• Food service workers
• Government officials
• Grocers
• Representatives from nonprofit organizations

Healthy Voices Committee members:

• Serve as a public forum for discussion of food-related issues.
• Create a place for assessing the community food system as a whole.
• Identify and address gaps in the food system.
• Act as liaison between public and private sectors of the food system.
• Build relationships among stakeholders in the food system.
• Work to make food systems more environmentally sustainable and socially just.
• Give a voice to often marginalized stakeholders, such as those who rely on the emergency food system.
• Play an active role in educating policymakers and the public about food system challenges and barriers.

Already a member? Register for the next meeting.