Network(ed) Adaptations: A Regional Food System Network Responds to COVID19

Yesterday I was on a call with the Food Solutions New England Network Team, meeting virtually instead of in-person, to do some checking in and also to move forward ongoing efforts focused on strengthening our collective work towards the FSNE Vision. This included talking about ways to use the current moment to strengthen resilience, even as so many in-person convenings, including the FSNE 2020 Summit, are being cancelled or postponed.

Many of us feel like there is an opportunity to take the network to another level in this time, to deepen connectivity, to ramp up exchanges, to facilitate greater alignment, to engage in much more mutual support. Evidence of this came from a round of sharing announcements, updates, requests and needs (riffing on the “network marketplace” that we have adapted from Lawrence CommunityWorks), among the nearly 20 participants on the call (representing all 6 New England states, different sectors and perspectives in the food system). I think we were all heartened to hear about the adaptations, creativity, and care happening in so many places amidst COVID19.

Examples of emerging activity, which came up during our call and in email exchanges since, include:

• Various mutual aid initiatives (see Big Door Brigade for resources on this front)
• A coordinated call for stimulus funds to invest in communities to build out critical infrastructure between local and regional food producers and families in need of healthy food
• More robust activity around the upcoming 21 Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge to advance equity considerations and actions especially in these times (see and register here)
• Advancing research and work on regenerative food and economic hubs in western Massachusetts and in Connecticut (see Regenerative Communities Network)
• Rapid response grassroots funding (see The New England Grassroots Environment Fund and opportunities to donate)
• Farmers opening up farm stands, home delivery, etc.
• Food delivery route adjustments to ensure people who are most vulnerable have food
• Rapid responses around work visas for farm workers to keep farms working
• Work to reimburse private childcare centers for caring for the children of essential workers, including grocery store workers. 
• Just and sustainable food organizers digitizing campaigns (see Migrant Justice and Real Food Challenge)
• Efforts to meet current needs amidst COVID19 with needs to address climate change (see some reflections from Otto Scharmer on this front, which have been making their way through the network)
• Food funders revising guidelines and getting money out the door quickly and for general operations
• Innovations around education in food system programs through universities
• Rallying support for small food-related businesses
• Re-galvanized food policy council activity
• Getting food to children who are now out of school and otherwise depend on schools for breakfast and lunch
• Open forums on institutional needs around providing food during COVID19 (see Farm to Institution New England)
• Collecting COVID related resources and reporting on impacts on the food system (see this Google doc started by FSNE Network Leadership Institute alum Vanessa García Polanco)
• Free virtual/video cooking demonstrations
• Leveraging online platforms to connect people across geographies and systems to talk about taking action around systemic alternatives (see Now What? 2020)
• Utilizing virtual tools creatively to advance strategic thinking under changing and challenging conditions (there was also good discussion about the importance of considering issues of inclusion and equity, given uneven access to certain tools, dependable wi-fi, and supports that allow more focus when working virtually, etc.)

There are others that I’m sure we did not hear. That said, beyond the warmth of the personal connection time during our call, which we always make time for, and the emails of mutual support since, there is a hopeful sense that in what we are sharing are the seeds of systemic alternatives to the system that is failing some more than others and all of us in the long run. All of this needs more tending, more care, more connecting, more inclusion, always more considerations of equity, and more coordination. And more time and space for wisdom and innovations to emerge …

Please share with us what else you are seeing emerge and adapt for the good and the better in these times!