Land and Table: Potluck and Conversation With Relay Foods – Oct 1

October 1st, 2013: Potluck and Conversation with Relay Foods[/caption] We spend alot of time thinking about how to cultivate the health and vitality of our region’s local food movement. One of the critical dimensions of this movement is the desire for more sustainable business models that can support the health of the land, a living wage for family farmers and under-gird our local economy. Fully relocalizing our foodshed could never happen overnight but the shift can come as incremental changes are made over the long term in how we grow and eat our food. This shift away from dependence on a volatile global economy towards a resilient, more localized food economy, can only emerge as entrepreneurial dreamers arise to create hundreds of new sustainable farms and build businesses that can connect the dots between grower/producer and consumer. These middle-man enterprises may be spaces like Farmers Markets, or direct from the farm like CSAs. But beyond these local food avenues there is a new breed of food business increasingly springing up – the direct to consumer delivery service. One such natural and local foods delivery service out of Charlottesville, Relay Foods, is making inroads into the Lynchburg area with a new grocery delivery service. Will this kind of enterprise truly be a benefit for farmers and the local food movement in our region, opening up slices of the market that were previously unattainable… or will it shake the already fragile ground that local producers are standing on with stiff competition from a broader segment of the statewide local food movement? Join us for our monthly Land and Table potluck and networking gathering, Tuesday, October 1st as we host a conversation with staff from Relay Foods about how they plan to collaborate with local farmers and food producers in the Lynchburg regional area. If you are a farmer, food producer or food artisan don’t miss this chance to hear from Relay Foods, ask some hard questions and who knows…maybe find a chance to link arms with this innovative approach to getting local and natural foods into the hands of those who want it. ______________________________