12/28/2021
Happy holidays everyone! I'm posting a "quick" update for those of you interested in tracking what we're doing through OCG to move towards food system equity. During 2021 we have made a TON of progress, and it's nearly all been on the backend which can be tough to track from a distance.
The big news is that we recently published a book detailing how OCGs fully developed system for community food system resilience, called "Low-Hanging Fruit: Market-Based Strategies for a More Resilient Community Food System". The title is super on the nose by intent, since it's on Amazon with about a billion other books I wanted to make sure folks get to the right info and know what they're picking up. Both the e- book and paperback sales directly support ongoing efforts to implement the food system changes described therein, and I will be working toward an audio-book next year as well.
Publishing Low - Hanging Fruit opens a number of tools and pathways for On Common Ground. Food system redesign is complex, the path isn't always logically apparent without a basis of understanding our current system, and options exist for change that grow the more we understand existing barriers and challenges to food insecurity and food waste.
I do not have the time or bandwidth to engage the community in city parks and other public events like we did just getting started in 2016. Think of the book as the basis for an ongoing discussion that you can join while it's in progress. It's also a signal flare spotlighting the rapidly escalating food system crisis and what our options are at the grassroots level to mitigate the resultant health challenges, or a "panic button" if that resonates better.
Supporting the book release, and ongoing efforts to connect with community leaders, OCG is reworking our website and communication channels. I am currently taking classes in basic web design so I can better control our content going forward and develop more cohesive messaging. Now that we have the grocery, food hub, gleaning and other business- aligned solutions fully developed the next step is implementation, and for that we need to identify a community filled with stakeholders interested in pursuing a pilot program to experiment with food system reforms.
OCGs board of directors has determined that, at this time, Northern Nevada does not have an environment conducive to this sort of collaborative effort and we will have better chances working within less ethically challenged community infrastructures and stakeholder alliances. There, I said it.
The Morris on 4th successfully found a buyer for the property last month, which resulted in OCG losing access to both the donated space and the donated retail shelving and refrigeration equipment intended to go into the retail store at that location. We did manage to negotiate some compensation from the property owner however, which gives OCG a bit of breathing room to pivot.
Now that the former Harrahs property is being renovated to include a grocery store OCG can stop working within downtown Reno Nevada, as an OCG grocery is now unnecessary. This means we can now look to Eastern Colorado (my new home!), California and the NW coast as prime options for initial efforts. Everything happens for a reason!
On Common Ground has now transitioned to a nationally focused nonprofit. We're still working out what this change looks like, but basically we've gone from working to implement solutions ourselves internally to seeking alliances with existing groups representing targeted vulnerable communities to implement solutions. Our transition and some of our strategies are modeled after Project for Public Places (pps.org) as will our future efforts, so if any of our changes in the past couple years have been confusing hopefully that clarifies what we're up to a bit.
Look for upcoming announcements including partnerships, capabilities improvement, platform and bandwidth development, and - as always - opportunities to volunteer and support market- aligned food system redesign efforts with On Common Ground and partners.
2022 is the year we tackle these problems together! ❤
