San Juan County Food System Plan

Read the San Juan County Food System Draft Plan here »
Read the San Juan County Food Assessment here »

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Background

The San Juan County Food System Team convened in Spring 2020, with representatives from WSU San Juan County Extension, San Juan County Health and Community Services, San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild, San Juan County Agricultural Resource Committee and Orcas Food Co-op. Project initiation included clarifying our mission and vision.

Mission: Food is a mechanism for change: by fostering an equitable, localized food system, we create the conditions for social justice, environmental stewardship, and a thriving economy.

Vision: By understanding the many elements in our local system and how they relate, the Food System Plan will provide a shared framework to guide collaborative decision making and equitably relocalize our county’s food system.

Thanks to a private donation, we hired our Coordinator and took a deep dive into both primary and secondary data research. We have also partnered with the Northwest Agriculture Business Center (NABC), the recipient of a $994,400 grant from the USDA Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) Program. Together with a network of over 30 regional entities, NABC is devoting the next three years to addressing food system infrastructure, food access, and education. The Food System Team received a $180,000 subaward, which is devoted to food system planning and implementation in San Juan County.

The Community Food Assessment (Draft) offers an overview of the current state of the food system in San Juan County. Modeled after similar efforts in neighboring Whatcom County, this analysis emerges from in-depth data collection, research, outreach, and interviews, as well as input and editing by a broad swath of food system community members.

This Community Food Assessment provides a solid foundation from which to build a county-wide, coordinated Food System Plan that provides a shared framework for collaborative decision-making in our county and region. To align with ongoing efforts around our county’s Comprehensive Plan update, and as part of an iterative process of assessment and planning, we are aiming to establish a timeline of actions through 2035. For this next planning phase, we are very pleased and grateful to be working with Terra Soma to guide our team in a coaching capacity.

Community Food Assessment documents:

Contact information: