NW Michigan Food and Farming Network Report to the Community 2015 Report to the Community | Page 9

2015 Report to the community

The Michigan Good Food Charter
Network’s goals closely
mirror charter
By Jude Barry, Ph.D
MSU Center for
Regional Food Systems
The Michigan Good Food Charter
was developed in 2010 with many
organizations from across Michigan
and with leadership from the former
Michigan Food Policy Council, the
Food Bank Council of Michigan and
the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems.
The charter is a vision and roadmap to advance Michigan’s food
and agricultural contributions to
the economy, protect our natural
resource base, improve our residents’
health, and enable generations of
Michigan youth to thrive.
By 2020, we believe we can meet
or exceed the following goals:
1. Michigan institutions will source
20 percent of their food products
from Michigan growers, producers and processors.
2. Michigan farmers will profitably
supply 20 percent of all Michigan institutional, retailer and
consumer food purchases and
be able to pay fair wages to their
workers.
3. Michigan will generate new
agri-food businesses at a rate
that enables 20 percent of food
purchased in Michigan to come
from Michigan.
4. Eighty percent of Michigan
residents (twice the current level)

The Charter is a
vision and roadmap to
advance Michigan’s
food and agricultural
contributions to the
economy, protect
our natural resource
base, improve our
residents’ health and
enable generations
of Michigan youth to
thrive.

will have easy access to affordable, fresh, healthy food, 20
percent of which is from Michigan sources.
5. Michigan Nutrition Standards
will be met by 100 percent of
school meals and 75 percent
of schools selling food outside
school meal programs.
6. Michigan schools will incorporate food and agriculture into
the pre-K through 12th grade
curriculum for all Michigan students and youth will have access
to food and agriculture entrepreneurial opportunities.
If you’ve already read the introduction to this document, this set
of goals should sound very familiar
to you. Soon after the Good Food
4

Charter was developed, The Northwest Michigan Food and Farming Network was formed and they
signed the resolution of support for
the charter and created the executive
summary adopting modified versions
of the goals of the charter.
With a framework towards supporting the agricultural economy
in the 10 counties of northwest
Lower Michigan, the NWFFN’s
goals align closely with the work of
the Michigan Good Food Charter.
We at the MSU Center for Regional
Food Systems would like to extend
our support and admiration to the
NWFFN for their work in making change through the goals of the
charter.
www.michiganfood.org