A Fair Food System: A Summit on Scalable Solutions to Creating Community Food Systems, a series of half-day events presented by the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) in partnership the USDA, will be a learning environment regarding the problems related to nutrition security such as healthy food access and affordability. It will engage a coalition of organizations who are working to build and support resilient and accessible community food systems, and will work to attract federal, public, and private funding for scalable programs addressing nutrition security in Central Appalachia.

Topics for Summit #1 on July 28^th include Healthy Food Value Chains, from accessibility to equity; the upcoming White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health in September, and new USDA opportunities.

Summits will include educational presentations, panel discussions, opportunities for partnership building & collaboration, networking events, and state-focused breakout sessions to address community food system issues within Central Appalachia.

For more information about CAN & its network of nonprofit members:

https://www.cannetwork.org/

Summit #1 speakers will include representatives from:

• Appalachian Accessible Food Network
• Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet)
• Appalachian Sustainable Development
• Central Appalachian Network
• Community Farm Alliance
• Community Food Initiatives
• Rural Action
• U.S. Department of Agriculture

A Fair Food System will be series of 6 half-day, virtual summits on community food systems from 9am – 1pm, July to December.

Summit 1: July 28, 9:00am - 1:00p

Summit 2: August 25, 9:00am - 1:00pm 

Summit 3: September 22, 9:00am - 1:00pm 

Summit 4: October 27, 9:00am - 1:00pm 

Summit 5 & 6: TBD

All sessions will be held virtually and are open to stakeholders working in the Central Appalachian food system in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. The Summit is free, but space is limited and registration is required.

For more information, event agenda, and to register:

https://www.cannetwork.org/community-food-systems/

Please contact Meggan (megganr@acenetworks.org) or Kayla (kayla@arcd.org) with any questions.

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, The Educational Foundation of America and Sugarbush Valley Impact Investments share the Central Appalachian Network’s (CAN) goal of improving access to healthy food for underserved communities and will sponsor the CAN and USDA Community Food Systems Summit - A Fair Food System: A Summit on Scalable Solutions to Creating Community Food Systems.