Buy Local Food In Kitsap

The Kitsap Community and Agricultural Alliance relies almost exclusively on its members and network of volunteers to accomplish its stated mission. We organize our objectives and work programs according to what we call our task force outline. The subjects populating our outline are what our board has determined to be the critical elements necessary to make producing and consuming local food in Kitsap the mainstream as opposed to a niche activity.

We value the time, talent and commitment of our volunteer members highly and seek to provide them with the best possible and most efficient experience of supporting the local food movement in Kitsap County. If you are looking to put your shoulder to the plough and join a fun group of hard working volunteers, please contact us at KCAA to sign up. Better yet, come to our next monthly meeting t meet us all and get connected.

Download a pdf copy of the current task force document here or ……

Below is our outline of task force groups that we have compiled for 2009:

KCAA Membership Development and List Building

The Kitsap Community and Agricultural Alliance and its predecessor organization have been active in Kitsap County for nearly 10 years. While the hard working and dedicated members have experienced success with their efforts the organization has remained somewhat static with a low level of active membership and revenues from dues and sponsorships. We perceive that more people are becoming aware of the value of buying and eating locally and that the potential exists to increase the market share of local food purchased by the residents of Kitsap County and surrounding areas.

To take advantage of the opportunity we need more active members, income and to create systems that deliver results desired by our members and the general public without burning out the good efforts and intentions of those willing to work for the present and the future.
As a community this means that we must to the greatest extent possible enable people to express themselves through the specific sub-topics of local food that inspires them and provide them with support to accomplish what they devise to accomplish within.

At our January, 2009 strategic planning meeting the current board of directors took a critical look at our assets, liabilities and performance measured against our stated mission. During 2008 we were able to create new assets, new organizational value, that if properly managed should continue to grow and provide increasing value over time. These assets including new communications efforts, better attended meetings, more valuable education, strengthened community ties and improved member services, tracking and communication were achieved with a minimum of cost.

In addition we have launched one major effort to promote the growth of consumers as members of CSAs offered by individual farms, the number of farms offering CSAs and the formation of an association of CSAs to leverage benefits and resources for farmers and members. A significant component of this effort is the forging of a connection with financial service companies such as the Kitsap Credit Union to expand the number of conduits to capital for farmland acquisition and preservation, farm, value added and food distribution infrastructure development.
Below is a list of what we call task force priorities. The current carriers of the KCAA believe that improvement in these areas for the Kitsap communities would improve conditions for growth in the production and consumption of local food, improve the lives of our members and others in the community and promote economic growth.
We are looking to expand the number of capable volunteers to expand our network, provide opportunities seeking to work or build businesses in this sphere and improve the capacities and performance of the KCAA.
We welcome all to our community that wish to contribute something of value out of their passion for a topic in the sphere of local food and local farms. If you are aware of an important mission that could be achieved that is not included here, we welcome that you would bring it to our attention and work to accomplish what can be achieved therein.

• List Management
• Meeting Announcements and Promotion
• Referrals and Networking
• KCAA Sponsor/Community Partner Development. The KCAA recognizes that it is not the only group working in this sphere and desires to strengthen its ties to other groups to offer them leverage on our assets and reciprocally leverage theirs to benefit the overall effort.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Development Task Force

This is an initiative begun in the fourth quarter of 2008 with conversations among KCAA members and a Kitsap financial institution.

It is based upon the assumption that farmers, value added processors and local vendors will need a greater variety of financing mechanisms to build the infrastructure needed to supply a greater share of the local population with year round local food.

We believe that Community Supported Agriculture is the best and most flexible model to provide the people, the resources and the new relationships necessary to make this successful.

This task force will lead the effort to research, promote and operate an association of CSAs to build this new system of local farm finance.

Task Force Objectives

• Farmland and Ag Infrastructure Finance Group
• Marketing and Promotion Of CSA members
• Marketing and Promotion to Increase CSA Farms
• KCAA Sponsorship Development

Community and Cultural Development Task Force

Local food is not just all about food. It is about family and community relationships, the arts, culinary skills, nutrition, education, communication and much more. This task force might research, foster and promote new social ties and healthy dining practices in Kitsap County.

Task Force Objectives

• Education on Family Dining
• Education on Community Dining
• Local Food and The Arts
• Music
• Singing
• Drama
• Dancing
• Fine Arts
• Journalism
• Photography
• Children and Farming
• Storytelling
• Seasonal Festivals
• Integrating Education In Schools With On Farm Teaching
• Chores
• Eating Seasonally

Several members have offered an idea to produce a cookbook with seasonal recipes exclusively for local food. The book could be produced one recipe at a time and published first on BuyLocalFoodInKitsap.org. When compiled and edited it could be produced in a hard copy form and sold or otherwise distributed to help consumers understand eating seasonally.

• Recipes and Cook Books
• Classes and Demonstrations

Farmer Development

KCAA members and friends are likely aware of a great number of younger farmers looking for connections, resources and opportunities to start or continue farming. This task force might take on the task of finding, listing and welcoming new farmers to our community. The task force might assume responsibility to see that these new farmers make the right connections with resources they need to be successful.

Task Force Objectives

• Farmer Recruiting
• Farmer Training
• Farm Management Training
• Education
• Internships
• Urban Gardener Training
• Network Building

Farm and Value Added Infrastructure Development Task Force

Currently, there is an abundance of specific opportunities to build infrastructure on farm and off farm, creating the capacities in Kitsap to feed more people, year round. We would hope that this task force would take responsibility to shepherd projects through the conceptual stage to design, finance, permitting, construction and operations. The task force might begin with just a networking effort to augment the majority of work done by others.

Task Force Objectives

• Local Wholesale Production and Distribution
• Soil and Fertility Development
• Biodynamic Practices Education and Development
• Farm Improvements
• Commercial Kitchens
• Animal Processing
• Cold Storage
• Food Preservation Facilities
• Equipment Co-op
• Farmer Housing
• Kitsap Food Co-op
• Permanent Farmers’ Market Facilities
• Design and Permitting Services For Project Development
• Farm Succession Planning-Farmland Preservation

Events Task Force

Events involve much work for the organizers. The KCAA holds monthly educational meetings and participates in other events organized by others. We are looking to improve the quality and variety of our meetings by asking experts to produce one meeting during the year.
In addition, we would like to sponsor an annual trade show and food event to recognize the efforts of Kitsap farmers, chefs and value added processors. This could be done in conjunction with the Kitsap Fair or separately.

We could also boost the efforts of other groups to promote farm tours.

Task Force Tasks

• KCAA monthly meetings
• Kitsap Fair
• GPFF
• Farmers market days
• Annual KCAA Trade Show
• Education
• Farm Events, Farm Tours, Demonstrations

Food and Farm Opportunities Trade and Barter Task Force

KCAA has the potential to become a broker or facilitator for opportunities, commerce and barter among the people developing their farms and businesses in Kitsap. This task force could develop and promote a local food opportunity exchange.

Content Development and Publicity

The KCAA owns two actively visited websites including www.Kitsapag.org and www.BuyLocalFoodInKitsap.org. According to a consensus of experts there may be as many as 2,200 active farmers in Kitsap but we are only aware of less than 700. One of our objectives particularly for the blog is to identify all of the farmers in the county, interview them, write a story, take some photos, post the story on the blog and invite that individual to join the KCAA. This task force could take responsibility for production and content and to recruit more authors to write on the site.

Community Calendar

• Articles and Blog Post Development
• Regulatory Review and Reform Task Force
• Farm and Health Regulatory Relief

Many locavores have produced a great body of work on current regulatory challenges to successful local farming. This work could be better used if it were collated and published on the blog and elsewhere soliciting comments and opinions from the public and our members. As our membership and lists grow we have the potential to become an authoritative voice to advocate for regulatory reform for farmers and local vendors. This task force could take responsibility to develop this body of knowledge, publish it and organized advocacy with local, state and federal regulators.
Farm Policy Advocacy

KCAA Board and Administrative Infrastructure Development

This task group will undertake a review of the bylaws, administrative procedures, budgeting, list maintenance, accounts payable and financial reporting. The task group will publish an explanation of organization practices, procedures and budget on both of the websites for transparency. They will identify prospective new board members and refer them to the current board for consideration.