King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks Blog
“It’s not just enough to want people to get free things, we also want people to get high-quality things and to be inspired to look at food slightly differently,” said Moyo Tornai, one of the co-founders of the Black Star Food Collective. Continue readingBlack Star Food Collective: Increasing food access through food buying clubs
“Being able to share the different cultures of our diverse student body through our food in the cafeteria is really important,” said Seattle Public Schools Executive Chef Emme Collins.
Collins has led a new district initiative to introduce culturally relevant meals with locally sourced ingredients into the school’s lunch menus. This initiative has pushed culinary services to test out new recipes, collaborate with local farms and food vendors, and engage the 52,381 students enrolled at Seattle Public Schools.
Continue readingSeattle Public Schools: Serving culturally responsive meals for students with local ingredients
King County restaurants were some of the businesses most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Global supply chain disruptions and restrictions
Snoqualmie River Farm – still known to some as Beyers Farm – sits along the Snoqualmie River in the heart of the Snoqualmie Valley’s farming community. When the Beyers family decided to sell the land, they wanted to ensure it stayed in agricultural production. King County purchased the site as part of the Farmland Preservation Program in 2019, and it includes 20 acres of rich farming land that are now available to beginning growers who have their sights set on commercial agriculture.Continue readingMore farmers on more farmland: SnoValley Tilth preparing growers for success at Snoqualmie River Farm
Right along the Duwamish River is a vibrant and resilient neighborhood named South Park, which is full of passionate, caring, and hardworking community members who are dedicated to creating a space for connecting and celebrating the gifts the neighborhood offers.Continue readingCultivate South Park: Expanding food access and food justice though neighborhood led projects
As many farmers markets across King County wind down until next summer, the Local Food Initiative team wanted to share another way you can source fresh, local produce, and even have it delivered to your doorstep. We spoke with Chris Teeny, co-owner of Pacific Coast Harvest (PCH) and Farmstand Local Foods, about what these brands are doing to make it easy for individuals – and for larger customers such as restaurants – to support local growers.Continue readingPacific Coast Harvest and Farmstand Local Foods: Sending out and scaling up local food
Rows of kale, eggplant, corn, and other late summer vegetables extend for nearly 5 acres across one corner of Horseneck Farm in early September, located just a few miles south of downtown Kent. On a clear day, Mt. Rainier towers behind the trees in the distance. This setting – a small, green retreat within a hub of manufacturing – is just one of five King County-owned farms leased to area farmers through its Farmland Leasing Program. The goal is for marginalized and beginning farmers to have land access to grow their agricultural businesses despite increasingly expensive property prices across the county.Continue readingHorseneck Farm: Preserved for agriculture, now increasing access for diverse growers
epartment of Agriculture. While beekeeping is often done in rural areas, with some hives being transported farm to farm to foster pollination, a small company is supporting local farms and bottling honey produced in the Seattle metro area through a network of beehive hosts.Continue readingRainy Day Bees partners with local farms, other hive hosts, in creative approach to local honey production
On a typical day, you can find Caitlin Ames harvesting vegetables, guiding interns and volunteers, and generally keeping tabs on the ever-evolving to-do list at Matsuda Farm, where they have been manager for five years.Continue readingMatsuda Farm growing food and community on Vashon Island
According to the nonprofit ReFED, over a third of food products in the U.S. went to waste in 2019. From crops that are unharvested, to grocery stores that stock excess inventory, to shoppers who buy more than they can use, food waste propels climate change and harms the budgets of key players in our food system.Continue readingKing County joins West Coast states and cities to reduce food waste