Skyway Community Members Offered Stipend to Participate in Building Local Food Economy
by Elizabeth Turnbull
Community members are encouraged to join and provide input at "Local Foods, Local Places Virtual Workshop" sessions which will be held Monday through Thursday of next week. Organized by the Urban Food Systems Pact – Skyway (UFSPS), the events will help develop a community action plan to grow the local food economy and to improve access to healthy foods.
The sessions will explore possible food-related projects such as developing an affordable neighborhood farmer's market, a food hub with a commercial kitchen for entrepreneurs, or a gardening program led by BIPOC elders.
The purpose of the workshop is to form a short-term action plan for improving access to local foods to be implemented through the next two to five years.
A recent King County survey of the area confirmed a lack of accessible healthy food and residents of the Skyway-West Hill community have referred to the area as a food desert.
The majority of the "Local Foods, Local Places" sessions are set to be highly interactive and attendees are encouraged to participate in as many or as few sessions as they choose. UFSPS is offering a $250 stipend for Skyway residents and others with significant ties to the Skyway community who participate in all workshop sessions. The pact will distribute a $25 gift card to Skyway community members who participate in one or just a few sessions.
"The Local Food, Local Places assistance is a wonderful vehicle for continuing the food justice work that is happening in the Skyway Community," Cherryl Jackson-Williams, the family and community engagement coordinator for the Renton School District and an Urban Food Systems Pact core team member, said in a statement published by the group. "Bringing a spotlight to the plight of the food system within this neighborhood and leveraging the expertise of individuals from the federal government to assist the Skyway Community, in partnership with the Skyway Envision Center, is such a wonderful opportunity."
The opening session will be held Monday, Oct. 25, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Find the entire schedule and register for sessions here.
Elizabeth Turnbull is a journalist with reporting experience in the U.S. and the Middle East. She has a passion for covering human-centric issues and doing so consistently.
Featured Image: A 2020 pop-up resource center in the Skyway neighborhood. (Photo: Susan Fried)
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