Grow Lane County Food Security Summit
About this Event
Grow Lane County Food Security Summit ~ Food is Medicine
Join us for our annual Food Security Summit, bringing together partners from across the regional food system in Lane County. The Summit is an opportunity to strengthen connections, share knowledge, and advance collective action toward a more resilient and sustainable food system that supports the health and well-being of our community.
Plenary Speaker
In recognition of this year’s theme, Food is Medicine, we are excited to welcome Daphne Miller, MD, a practicing family physician, science writer, Clinical Professor at UC San Francisco, and Research Scientist at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Dr. Miller is Leadership Faculty with the Lifelong Family Medicine Residency Program, where she partners with Urban Tilth, a local farm, to teach doctors-in-training about the connections among food, soil, community, and health. Her work offers a unique perspective on how the health of people, communities, and the land are deeply interconnected.
Morning: Breakout Sessions
Choose from three concurrent breakout sessions exploring key issues and opportunities. Sessions will provide opportunities to learn from local partners, share perspectives, and identify opportunities for greater collaboration.
- Farms & Food Security (Focus on Farmworkers)
- Processing & Infrastructure (Building a Model for Collaboration)
- Health & Healthcare (Incorporating Food into Healthcare)
Afternoon: Food Justice Panel & Participatory Mapping
The afternoon will begin with a fireside chat exploring food justice and the experiences, challenges, and opportunities shaping equitable access to food across our region.
We’ll conclude the Summit with an interactive food systems mapping session. Participants will gather at sector-based tables (farms and producers, transportation, distributors, food vendors, health services, education, housing) to answer questions about their own conditions and pathways: where you live, where you access food, how you travel, and what's missing.
Responses will be plotted onto maps that will populate a Lane County GIS story map — visualizing social conditions, the built environment, travel pathways, and the gaps between them.
Over time, this map will develop as a resource for Grow Lane County workgroups to identify barriers and expand access to food, healthcare, education, and jobs.
Agenda
🕑: 08:00 AM - 08:30 AM
Registration
🕑: 08:30 AM - 08:45 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks & Overview
🕑: 09:05 AM - 10:15 AM
Plenary Speaker - Daphne Miller, MD
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Morning Break-out Sessions | Getting to know the farm workers of Lane County
Info: Farmworkers are often hidden from public view for reasons ranging from rural geography and economic position to immigration status. This panel-session with organizers who work directly with farm workers will create space to understand better who are the farm workers of Lane County and Oregon, and what issues are important to their communities. Participants will leave with a clearer picture of the people at the foundation of Lane County's food system and actionable ideas on how to be a better ally to local farm workers.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Morning Break-out Sessions | Building a Model for Collaboration
Host: Infrastructure & Processing
Info: Bridging the gap between local food producers and processors
Lane County has long established itself as a community that grows food, but recognizes that a majority of the production goes out of the area as a result of limited light-processing avenues for locally grown products.
Join us for a participatory discussion across multiple sectors to better determine community needs to support a variety of processing tracks that serve communities in our institutions; some of these sites include food pantries, community feeding sites, schools, retail consumers, farmers markets, independent grocers and other institutions.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Morning Break-out Sessions | Incorporating Food into Healthcare
Host: Health & Healthcare
Info: Participants will come away with a clearer understanding of the different types of food and medicine initiatives in Lane County, and a chance to connect directly with the people and organizations leading them.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 04:00 PM
Bridging the Gap: Opportunities Grower-to-Eater Pathways
Host: Food + Farm
Info: This will be an interactive dot board where participants can both read and engage with the question, How do we best support our local farmers in providing accessible, local food to those who need it most? PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A WORKSHOP + is an interactive component of the summit.
🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Lunch
🕑: 01:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Food Justice Panel
🕑: 01:40 PM - 03:40 PM
Mapping Lane County’s Food System: Resources, Connections, and Opportunities
Info: Participants from across Lane County’s food system, including producers, processors, distributors, food assistance organizations, healthcare providers, and community partners, will work individually and in groups to map key food-system resources, activities, infrastructure, and connections. Building on existing data and working-group findings, participants will identify spatial relationships, barriers, gaps, overlaps, and opportunities for collaboration. The resulting maps and information will support analysis, priority setting, and coordinated planning and action by the Grow Lane County Food Security Coalition.
🕑: 03:50 PM - 04:00 PM
Closing Remarks
🕑: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Reception
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 44.52
