Whatcom Food Network Policy Intern

During my internship with the Whatcom Food Network, I had the opportunity to explore the ways that council committees and members of our food system provide guidance to the Whatcom County government on maintaining a sustainable food system. I attended a Food System Committee meeting as well as an Agricultural Advisory Committee meeting, which were both created to provide insight to County Council on different issues impacting our food system. The Food System Committee was created through the Whatcom Food Network for the purpose of maintaining the Whatcom County 10-Year Food System Plan. Meanwhile, the Agricultural Advisory Committee provides insight to County Council on issues specific to agriculture. After attending the Agricultural Advisory Committee meeting, I wrote a report to share the results of the meeting, which was posted on the Whatcom Food Network website and social media for interested community members to access. In addition to attending these council meetings, I conducted research on members of our food system to update information on Whatcom Food Network’s online resource guide. The information on the resource guide was outdated from before the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the updated contact information, we reached out to members of our food system with a survey created to bring community input into the Whatcom County Food System Committee Annual Report. The information that WFN collected from the survey will be presented by the Food System Committee in their annual report to the County Council, which will also contribute to updates in the 10-Year Food System Plan. I also attended an event organized by Whatcom Food Network and WWU Community Engagement Fellows that was a community discussion as part of a Resilient Foodscapes series. Lastly, I did a gap analysis of the 10-Year Food System Plan and the Food System Dashboard that was recently created by members of the Food System Committee and Whatcom County Health and Community Services. The Food System Dashboard is an online resource that maps data about food production and access in Whatcom County. In this analysis, we compared the goals in the Food System Plan to the data in the Food System Dashboard to find out which actions are being measured. During these experiences, I learned about local policymaking processes impacting our food system, how community members within our food system interlink and collaborate, and about the struggles that our food system is currently facing.