Growing Food, Growing Community: Sustaining Leadership

Community food systems do not just happen; they must be cultivated. Growing Food, Growing Community is a new place-based program that supports the development of community food systems by sustaining local leadership capacity.

Current leaders are capable, but stretched; sustaining local capacity requires replenishing leadership by meeting the needs of current leaders for information and social support, and surfacing new leaders. The kind of leadership needed to sustain communities into the future – shared leadership – is inclusive, relational, and collaborative. Shared leadership produces a social multiplier effect, every bit as real as economic multiplier effect. Resources multiply when committed people work together, share power, and network deliberately.

This program will focus on food and how, by virtue of bringing people together, it is woven into the social fabric of community. The elements are already in place: this program convenes the players, old and new, provides a curriculum, and facilitates the process. As the idea of a local food system involves a new way of viewing and organizing relationships in community, the emphasis will be on strengthening existing relationships and building new relationships from the ground up.

Objectives:
• to assess local capacity to shape food futures by identifying assets and capacity gaps
• to increase the stock of leadership so as to prevent over reliance on one or a few key persons
• to build networking skills, and the ability to develop, manage and nurture networks
• to build understanding and appreciation of value of shared leadership, inclusion and collaboration
• to nurture the relationships at the root of community food systems
• to extend leadership in expanding circles of influence
• to develop a richer understanding of community context and the importance of diversity
• to explore the myriad benefits of a community food systems, whether for increased resilience, enhancing food security and human health, or promoting economic vitality

Design and approach
The design builds on past successful programs, with modular content that can be tailored to local needs and priorities. The program features experiential learning and field experiences, with interactive ssessions variously combining group work, guest presentations, reflective discussion, case studies and scenario building, and application of learning to the individual situations. Neighboring towns or adjacent counties will become program partners, rotating meetings sites between sessions in order to provide diverse field experiences, expand networks, and share hosting responsibilities. The program will be piloted in at least two sites to further support cross-site learning