The Healthy Local Foods committee is dedicated to working with restaurants, grocers, schools, farmers, ranchers and food distributors on a consumer education campaign to support the use of healthy, local foods for all La Plata County residents. Some of the projects the HLF committee has been involved with are:

• Implementing Farm to School in the Durango Public Schools and growing to Bayfield and Ignacio school districts
• Co-sponsoring the “Homegrown Conference” at Fort Lewis College focusing on the distribution of local foods to residents (’07)
• Sponsoring the Farmers Market electronic balance transfer (EBT) machine for food stamp recipients to be able to purchase food at the market
• Organizing the “Tour de Farms” annual bicycle tour of local farms and gardens in collaboration with the ACE committee
• Collaborating on the Buy LOCAL (Local Organizations) campaign to increase consumer awareness of buying locally produced foods
• Sponsored the premier of the film “Heart & Soil” about local, sustainable agriculture (’07)
• Working with Durango Public Schools to create school gardens with accompanying curriculum that can be taught in the classroom
• Creating community gardens at Manna Soup Kitchen and La Plata County Senior Center

• Make most of your food choices plant-based – eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains (this is cheaper as well!)
• Eat only lean meats
• Limit saturated and trans fats, salt and sugar
• Try substituting legumes (dried peas and beans) for meat 1 day/week
• Drink mostly water or low/nonfat milk • Use low/nonfat dairy products
• Food harvested locally is picked at peak ripeness – tastes better
• Local food doesn’t travel (much) so it burns less fossil fues
• Purchasing foods from local farms and ranches means dollars circulate in the local economy
• If every household in the county spent just $10/week on local foods, this would generate $7.5 million annually for the local economy
• Sourcing food from farmers and ranchers you know means having the greatest control over how your food is produced

For more information on these and other HLF sponsored programs and events, please contact the HLF co-chairs, Jim Dyer at jadyer@frontier.net or Julie Hudak at juliehudak@gmail.com.