Developing the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan was a collective effort, representing the work, vision, and voices of hundreds of dedicated individuals deeply committed to New Hampshire's food system. Implementing the Strategic Plan is no different.
The Strategic Plan lays out 143 recommendations, ranging from toolkit developments and research projects to multi-million dollar infrastructure investments. Some can be accomplished in a matter of months, for others, it will take many years of effort. Some can be tackled by one organization, and others require extensive collaboration. What do all Strategic Plan recommendations have in common? They are specific, identified opportunities for our network to create change across our food system. The key to successfully implementing the Strategic Plan and creating lasting progress in our food system is knowing which recommendations others are working on, collaborating when needed, and communicating about our successes.
We need you to drive change in our food system.
Here’s what you can do.
Join an Implementation Workgroup
Workgroups bring together a group of individuals from organizations and businesses to collaborate to move forward a specific Strategic Plan issue or recommendation that requires extensive collaboration. Any individual, organization, or business who is interested in the workgroup topic is welcome to join. Learn more about implementation workgroups and join one today.
Become a Participating Partner
A Participating Partner is an organization or business committed to planning with us— sharing how your work, programs, and initiatives align with the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan.
Each year, organizations and businesses who sign on as Participating Partners will share any specific recommendations they plan to work on and what Strategic Plan-related programs or initiatives they hope to accomplish in the year ahead. The NH Food Alliance team will weave your work together with the work of other Participating Partners to create the annual NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan Progress Report to help the broader network understand who is doing what and help each of us approach these complex issues in effective and efficient ways. Learn more and sign up as a Participating Partner today.
And we're here to help, every step of the way.
Here’s what we're doing.
Coordinating, Communicating, and Facilitating
The NH Food Alliance holds the center of the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan: posting updates on recommendations that are being addressed on the recommendation's webpage and through communication channels, hosting opportunities for the larger food community to learn about current work, facilitating implementation workgroups, and keeping the network weaved together. Here's how we're helping you move forward the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan:
Tracking Statewide Progress with an Annual Progress Report
Each year, the NH Food Alliance team will produce the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan Progress Report. The report summarizes the work of Strategic Plan Participating Partners (like you!) over the course of the year— what recommendations were completed and other work they took on related to the Strategic Plan— and what work they plan to take on in the year to come.
The progress report organizes the contributions of each Participating Partner, making it easy to see where work is happening and where there are gaps in issues not being addressed. The goal of the progress report is to weave our food system together and foster collaboration across our collective food systems work, reducing duplication and driving strategic alignment and decision making.
Supporting Network Partners through Implementation Workgroups
The NH Food Alliance team designs, launches, and supports Implementation Workgroups. Through feedback from the network, we consider ideas for new workgroups and assist in providing structure and securing leadership to launch each. Then we maintain a working relationship with the workgroup leads to help facilitate meetings and provide administrative support, keeping the group focused on getting things done.
Engaging Our Food System Leaders
The NH Food Alliance is supported by its Network Leadership Team, a team of 25 leaders representing diverse sectors and regions of the New Hampshire food system. Implementation Workgroups leads serve on the Network Leadership Team and all members of the Network Leadership Team are Participating Partners.
