The FINE team is excited to share that we are contributing authors to the newly released book Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers: Leveraging Purchasing Power to Drive Systems Change! This important book explores case studies and models for institutional procurement from across the country and makes the case for institutions as key players in a shifting food system.
Institutions as Conscious Consumers is divided into four primary sections titled: The Role of Institutions in Food Systems Change, Setting Purchasing Standards through Policy, Creating Shared Identity through Place-Based Connections, and New Directions for Institutional Food Service. Within those sections, chapters are written by farm to institution leaders across the country, including those from Health Care without Harm, the Center for Good Food Purchasing, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, the Center for Regional Food Systems at Michigan State, and many more.
FINE’s chapter, titled “Farm to Institution New England: Mobilizing the Power of a Region’s Institutions to Transform a Region’s Food System,” includes an overview of FINE’s history and origin, followed by an in-depth look at the state of farm to institution in New England today. We explore the farm to school, farm to college, and farm to hospital sectors through case studies that demonstrate the challenges, rewards, and nuances of getting more local food into New England’s institutional food service. Case studies focus on the Northeast Farm to School Institute, the seafood program at Boston Medical Center, and the Maine Food for UMaine project.
We are excited to share this important book with you! We believe that this is important reading for institutional dining directors, food producers, distributors, researchers, students, policy makers, funders, and anyone else working to support farm to institution activity.
If you are interested in hearing more about the book, please email peter@farmtoinstitution.org.