Welcome to the wonderful world of local food! Doesn’t it just sound as wonderful as it tastes? During the 2009-2010 school year, Kenai Resilience hosted a series of community gatherings to brainstorm ideas and identify priorities for cultivating a more sustainable community.  Not surprisingly, LOCALLY PRODUCED FOOD was a central theme, and one of the top needs participants identified was a consumer’s guide to local food producers.  Several Kenai Resilience volunteers took on the project, and this on-line directory is the result!  There’s also a print version of the directory being distributed around town.

Eat local for a healthy family, community and planet. Why eat local?  There are so many benefits to choosing to grow and shop locally for food.  Here are a few:

• fresher and healthier food for your family
• raising kids who know where food comes from
• getting to know your food producers first-hand
• strengthening and diversifying the local economy by supporting local farmers
• increasing family and community self-reliance
• improving local resilience to supply chain disruptions and natural disasters
• reducing the environmental impacts of long-distance, energy-intensive food production

For more thoughts on the subject, see this great article in the Redoubt Reporter or this fun video on our 2010 Peak of the Season Local Foods Festival.

How to expand and improve this directory: Our vision is to continually update and improve this directory to make it the most useful resource possible for Central Peninsula residents.  In the near future, we hope to automate the directory so the producers can keep their own listings current.  In the meanwhile, if you have a favorite local food business that’s not listed, or if you are a local food producer and would like to add or change a listing, please send an e-mail to kenairesilience@yahoo.com.

An important note: Inclusion in this directory does not constitute endorsement of the producers or their methods by Kenai Resilience. It’s important that you, the consumer, determine for yourself the safety and suitability of products for you and your family.  Talk with producers directly to learn more about their growing methods and sanitation practices.

Here’s to becoming self-reliant, sustainable, and supporting the growth of tasty food on the Central Peninsula. Long live delicious cuisine and that Alaskan spirit of independence!!!!!

THE DIRECTORY

(printable PDF)