MORRIS, Minn. — Building a community-based infrastructure that is centered around local farmers producing food for local markets is a significant challenge in a region dominated by an export-driven corn and soybean system, but there are signs of progress being made in the Upper Minnesota River Valley, said participants in a Land Stewardship Project (LSP) forum held Feb. 23 at the University of Minnesota-Morris.

“We’re feeling some real momentum right now, and the people in this room have the potential to increase that,” said Kate Seybold, farm to institution coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA).

The people she was referring to were the couple dozen participants in the 2026 Western Minnesota Food Forum, which was held in Oyate Hall on the University’s campus.  Farmers, community organizers, community health and foodbank professionals, a school food service director, local business owners and government officials were on hand to discuss the potential for getting more locally produced food to people living in the region, generating more economic activity in rural communities in the process. The Forum, which LSP organized with the support of UMN-Morris’ Center for Small Towns and the USDA’s Local Food Promotion Program, featured breakout sessions on using local foods to bolster community health, climate resiliency planning and farm to kids initiatives, as well as the relationship between immigration and the food system. It also featured a “speed dating” session where farmers had an opportunity to meet with others involved in the local food scene.

Scott DeMuth, an organizer for LSP, said one area that has shown great potential for bolstering community-based foods in rural areas is arrangements where local farmers connect directly with schools and other institutions. These connections have great potential for providing farmers a consistent market for their products while providing healthy food to kids, he said. Such initiatives can also benefit rural economies. An analysis by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and University of Minnesota Extension shows that for every dollar spent on farm to school in Minnesota, an additional 94 cents is generated in economic activity.

“Building the Farm to School Network in West Central Minnesota,” a recent report LSP helped put together, is based on interviews with 13 food service directors across 12 school districts in an eight-county region. Results of a survey of 31 farmers in and around the five-county region of the Upper Minnesota River Valley were also included in the report, which LSP did in partnership with educational institutions and government agencies and which was authored by UMN-Morris student Elsa Eaves. The report found that although not all the food service directors interviewed are currently purchasing from local farmers, there is great interest in doing so. Numerous barriers stand in the way of either starting a farm to school initiative or expanding an already existing one, including labor shortages, limited knowledge of how to connect with local farmers and processors, product seasonality, inadequate storage and prep space, and uncertainty about the availability of government grants. A major barrier is literally getting the food from the farm to an institution’s kitchen.

“You can see western Minnesota is not a geographically dense area,” said DeMuth. “Transportation is the number one issue.”

Thanks to support provided by the Minnesota Legislature in recent years, schools can now apply for funding through various MDA initiatives that support farm to institution initiatives, said Seybold. There are grants available to not only purchase food direct from farmers but to install kitchen equipment. In addition, a new MDA initiative, the Farm to Food Security Grant Program, helps individuals and organizations buy locally raised foods and distribute them at no cost to Minnesotans experiencing food insecurity.

Sara George, who works for Renewing the Countryside, said her organization now has five regional local food coordinators who support farmers, schools and early childcare providers in efforts to make more farm to kids connections. George, who is also a produce farmer, said such support networks are a key part of supporting the “three-legged stool” of farm to kids: cafeterias, classrooms and community. One critical need is food aggregators that can serve as a linchpin between the field and the table.

“The problem is the missing middle,” she said, adding that one example of how filling that missing middle can help is evident right in Morris.

Over the years, Jeanine Bowman, the food service director for the Morris Area Schools, has used MDA grants to build up a farm to school initiative to the point that now around 10% of the kids’ meals are sourced from local farmers. Some of those farmers Bowman deals with directly, but she also utilizes the Real Food Hub in Willmar, Minn., which aggregates food from regional farmers.

It’s stories like this state lawmakers need to hear if farm to kids initiatives are to live up to their potential, said Sean Carroll, LSP’s policy director. There’s great opportunity during the current session of the Minnesota Legislature to increase support for local foods initiatives, he said. Carroll encouraged Forum participants to contact lawmakers and tell them, either as a farmer, food hub coordinator, food service director or even a student, how connections between the field and the cafeteria are helping them and their community.

“Your voice matters,” he said. “This is just the first step.”

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The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering an ethic of stewardship for farmland, promoting sustainable agriculture and developing healthy communities in the food and farming system. LSP has offices in the Minnesota communities of Montevideo, Lewiston and South Minneapolis. More information is available at landstewardshipproject.org.