Letter from CRFS Director

As the Center for Regional Food Systems comes together with its many partners and friends to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Michigan Good Food Charter, we have much to share and much to reflect on. Michigan was just beginning to emerge out of a deep recession back in 2010. Through the past 10 years we have worked with our many partners to use the frame of the Charter as a common, shared agenda to develop a collaboration infrastructure to work towards a food system that is healthy, fair, green, and affordable for all Michiganders

As we traveled from 2010 into a new decade, we have been vividly reminded of the fragility and lack of resilience in our food system due to the COVID 19 pandemic. We have seen a much brighter light shone on the pervasive anti-blackness and racism in our society and our food system. And we are now much more aware of the consequences of not addressing climate change.

Addressing continued racism and adapting our food system to withstand future shocks provides the theme for this 2020 Good Food Summit “Moving Forward with Resilience and Equity.”

We are offering this virtual webinar series in October and November 2020 to connect and honor what we have accomplished the past ten years and share a vision of how we need to move forward to address structural racism and the lack of resilience in our food system. The events of 2020 have made it imperative we rise to the challenge of building a food system that not only provides equitable access to healthy, green and fair food to all, but also seeks to dismantle racialized poverty through ownership of businesses, farms and other assets in our communities. It will take a level of collaboration and trust across organizations and communities as yet unseen to accomplish such a goal. We hope you will join us for the journey.