Guidelines To Increase
The Use Of Local Foods
At Meetings

Download a PDF of this brochure.Food is a big part of annual meetings and conferences. Attendees often remember the food, for better or worse. In the few days that conferees spend together, they can learn a great deal about an area's agriculture, local cuisine and food customs, if the food reflects those unique aspects of the area. Many organizations and meeting planners find this brochure useful in planning events, while supporting local businesses and farmers.

Download the Local Foods Brochure

To view the Registration Form, you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader

 

The Guidelines To Increase The Use of Local Foods at Meetings were developed to assist anyone who is involved in planning the food for a conference in ways that support local farmers and to convey the local or regional flavor. While serving local foods can be a challenge, the rewards of positive impressions among attendees and the boost to the local agricultural economy can also be significant.

While the primary focus of these guidelines is on the food served at the meeting, consider other special events or ways you can feature local foods. For example, consider an off-site special event or non-food service event such as door prizes or auctions that feature local food and regional cuisine. If you supply a list of local restaurants to meeting attendees, identify any that support local farmers and processors.

When contracting with a facility for a meeting, consider what needs to be done to access, prepare and serve local foods. Also, consider finding a local recipient for food not served. By planning ahead and finding the appropriate contacts, you will be able to improve the likelihood that local foods will be served. The following ideas will guide your planning.

INITIAL CONTACTS

When deciding on the meeting venue, raise the following points in your discussions with potential facilities.

  • State That Your organization is interested in supporting the local food system.
  • Ask If Menus are flexible enough to take advantage of the locally-produced food that is available at the time of the meeting.
  • Ask Whether Unserved Food can be donated to a local agency such as a food bank, food pantry or soup kitchen.
  • Ask How The Menu can feature regional cuisine.

 

THE CONTRACT

When signing a contract with a facility, consider including some or all of the points listed above, as discussed and agreed on at your meeting with the facility.

 

ACTIONS

  • Ask Whether Food is purchased from vendors that supply locally-produced food. If not, will the hotel consider using recommended local vendors.
  • Let The Chef at your venue know your organization is very interested in supporting the use of local foods. Find out if the chef is already using seasonal, local menus and foods and determine how you can be of further assistance.
  • Identify A Member of your organization who can help make local contacts.
  • Post a notice on various listserves requesting information on local food suppliers or people who can help you find this information.
  • Contact the local USDA, or Department or Ministry of Agriculture offices to learn about local vendors. Ask for lists of farmer markets, small farms, or directories of locally produced and processed foods. Don't forget to use the web!
  • Contact a local agriculture/extension agent who can help you find suppliers of local foods.
  • Include local food products such as breads, cheeses, seafoods and meats in addition to local produce.
  • Contact small farm associations, direct farm marketing associations, food policy associations, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) networks, food processor associations or farmer market associations. These groups are all excellent sources of information about local foods.
  • Get in touch with Chefs Collaborative. This network of chefs is interested in promoting the use of local foods. A chef in your area may be of great assistance. More information on this group is available at...
    Chefs Collaborative
  • Honor the chef and otherwise thank those who help make local foods available at meetings.

 

DONATING FOODS

Donating unserved food is a component of local food systems in that the surplus food is consumed by those in need in the local system.

Identify a local food bank, food pantry, soup kitchen or other agency that can make use of the donated food.  Ensure that local ordinances allow for food donations without liability and that the hotel is aware of local health department guidelines or regulations regarding proper procedures for donated food. This may involve changing procedures on serving food so that unserved food is safe to donate.

For more information on donating food, refer to

http://www.chefnet.com/cc2k/html/donate.html

This document contains specific reference to the US federal legislation, the Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act.

 

EDUCATING MEETING ATTENDEES

Be sure to let meeting attendees know about your efforts! This is an important part of this process. A paragraph in your program about the steps you took to serve local foods will be of interest to those at the meeting. Information on printed menus about where the food was grown or produced will lead to interesting and educational conversations.

WHY LOCAL FOOD?

The mission of the Society for Nutrition Education is to promote healthful, sustainable food choices. Choosing local is a step towards this mission.

Reliance on seasonal, local food builds food security by increasing markets for local products and supporting local economic development.

Communities that rely on local food supplies vote with their dollars for a system of sustainable practices that preserve the environment and encourage local economic and social stability.