November Meeting on Sustainable, Local Food Purchasing

West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum presented a luncheon program on local and sustainable food purchasing for businesses and institutions at its November monthly meeting. The meeting was presented by Unidine and Metro Health.
Hillary Bisnett, Healthy Food in Health Care Director for the Ecology Center, talked about statewide efforts to promote local food sourcing for Michigan institutions and farmers, including the Cultivate Michigan campaign, the new Michigan Farm to Institutions Network and other efforts.
Cultivate Michigan is designed to help ramp up Farm to Institution programs and track progress. It is a campaign of the Michigan Farm to Institution Network, a group of practitioners, supporters and advocates all sharing common goals to help Farm to Institution programs grow. The network is a statewide forum for learning and sharing that uses shared capacity to overcome the challenges of getting more Michigan food into institutions.
View her presentation here.
Alison Sutter, Senior Sustainability Consultant for Key Green Solutions, and Ryan Reynolds, Executive Chef for Metro Health Hospital, shared lessons from Metro Health’s efforts to make its food service operations more sustainable, and in tracking such efforts.
View Reynolds’ presentation here.
View Sutter’s presentation here.