Healthy Local Foods

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
• Beginning Farmer Program

2010 Growing Farmer Program

2010 La Plata County Building Farmers program (part of the Colorado Building Farmers program). The Colorado Building Farmers program builds farm community and farmer capacity through classroom and experiential learning for beginning farmers (0 - 10 yrs exp). The course is a series of 8 evening classes designed to help New Farmers explore farming as a business and provide Intermediate and Experienced Farmers with tools and ideas to refine and enhance their business management, production, and marketing skills.

Growing Farmers Brochure

Growing Farmers Application

Healthy, Local Food News for You to Use

Winter 2009- Spring 2010 newsletter brought to you by the Growing Partners of SW Colorado and the Healthy, Local Foods Committee of Healthy Lifestyle La Plata.

Healthy Local Foods Newsletter

Iron Horse Chef 2010

Iron Horse Chef Poster

Tour de Farm 2010

Tour de Farms 2010 brochure and registration
Tour de Farms 2010 poster

The Garden Project Southwest School Resource Guidebook

In 2008, The Garden Project started a school garden resource guide to provide area schools with tips and guidelines to starting a school garden, lesson plans, sample budgets, theme gardens and other helpful hints for school garden coordinators and teachers. The resource guide, also identifies ways to incorporate existing curriculum standards into the garden. A teacher/ garden coordinator was held in the spring of 2010 to release the guidebook as well as connect schools in the county with other garden resources.

School Resource Guidebook

The 3rd Annual SW Colorado Local Food Connection

“The Third Annual SW Colorado Local Food Connection strives to build understanding of local food system opportunities and constraints, as well as increase the availability of local foods in area restaurants, schools, and grocery stores.” Register Now!

Local Food Connection Registration Brochure

• 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
• “9R Schools Warm to Local Beef”, 16 Sep 2009

Good Magazine takes a look at the cost of food

Thanks to industrial, processed food, Americans have been spending less and less on what we eat. But those savings come with a high cost: obesity, diabetes, and big health care bills. Here's a look at how our diet has changed over the last 50 years, and what we can do to make it better.

GOOD Transparency: The cost of food

HLF events include:

• Farmer/Chef Speed Dating
• Annual Tour de Farms Bicycle Ride
  Tour de Farms highlights what is unique, healthy and homegrown about our agricultural community. You can watch a video from the 2008 Tour de Farms or view the brochure from the 2009 Tour. Read The Durango Herald Tour de Farms article (Sept. 2, 2009) by Karla Sluis.
• Iron Horse Chef Competition
  Listen to Four Corners Broadcasting's Iron Horse Chef Cooking Competition radio news article (Sept. 3, 2009) and read The Durango Herald Iron Horse Chef Cooking Competition article (Sept. 3, 2009) or The Herald's Sept. 9, 2009 article about the competing chefs. Here is a copy of the 2009 poster.
• Farmers Market Cooking Demos
• Harvest Week Festivities
• Volunteer gardening opportunities

Healthy Lifestyle La Plata Collaborates on Farm-to-School Grant

HLLP colaborated with Healthy Community Food Systems on a Farm-to-School grant. The award was recently announced.

Read the article in the LiveWell Colorado Newsletter.

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.