Building off our purpose and guiding principles, the CCFSA Leadership Council has developed a strategic vision and work plan for 2021-2022. The work plan identifies long range objectives for the alliance, outlining four objectives as well as steps to achieve these objectives. Find more information and documents on the resources page of our website.

As a first step in implementing the work plan, the council has been reconnecting with all of our partner organizations. By attending your meetings and learning more about your experiences over the past year, we hope to better serve you and act as a regional resource.

This October, we are facilitating a discussion about Data and Assessment needs in our region, with the goal of forming the first of three work groups. Please join us to share your thoughts, and consider participating in the upcoming Data and Assessment Work Group if this area is of interest to you or your organization. Save the Date: Friday, October 22, 3:00-4:30 pm on Zoom. Registration information coming soon!

Leadership Education and Farming, also known as The LEAF Project, "cultivates youth leaders from diverse backgrounds through meaningful work in the food system."

Christina Nguyen is a local incoming college freshman who has spent two summers working at the LEAF farm in Landisburg, PA. She got involved with the summer internship through her high school counselor. With interests in sustainable agriculture and medicine she was excited for the opportunities that LEAF provided. Christina talked about the confidence that this program gave her through learning new sets of skills such as farming techniques and public speaking. She described the farm as a “safe space” and as a student, loved to interact with others on the farm while growing and learning together. “LEAF is a community” who gave Christina a life changing experience by giving back.

COVID-19 has impacted organizations all over the world and The LEAF Project is no exception. Christina joined last summer in the midst of the pandemic and saw first-hand the adaptations made to follow CDC guidelines. These changes included pushing post-harvest outdoors to decrease the spread of the virus and moving internship days to Zoom when people could not be on the farm. Christina stated that even with the new guidelines, LEAF was able to keep her safe and still give her a meaningful experience.

 

LEAF thrives on youth development, using agriculture as a form of community development to give students from 12 surrounding school districts the opportunity to do meaningful work. Every year, 25 youth are involved in "core" programming. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, LEAF provided food for 91 households per week with produce from the farm and created an outdoor kitchen to meet growing hunger needs in our community.

Learn more on their website and in the 2020 annual report.

With funding from the Partnership for Better Health, the Center for Land Use and Sustainability (CLUS) at Shippensburg University provides administrative support to the CCFSA. The CLUS recently applied for funding through the USDA to further support the CCFSA and add capacity to support regional collaborations- if awarded, projects would begin October 31, 2021.

We are pleased to introduce Mary Ann Leidigh (left) as the temporary CLUS Project Manager and CCFSA Facilitator. Mary Ann will be with us through March 2022 and will be adding capacity to the alliance and our activities.

Student Fellow Kelsey Bortner (right) is supporting outreach and communication efforts of the CCFSA through Fall 2022.

Contact Mary Ann: mmleidigh@ship.edu; 717-477-1519

Stay Connected

Many thanks to our partners for helping build a local food system that supports healthy and resilient communities. Please let us know if you have project highlights, updates, or resources to share!

Click here to share with us directly via Google Forms
Email: foodsystemalliance@gmail.com
Phone: 717-477-1509