Milwaukee Food Council Unveils New Strategic Plan

Fresh produce. CC0 Public Domain.

The Milwaukee Food Council has adopted a new strategic plan that relies on specialized coalitions to identify and address gaps in the local food system.

Guided by community input, the council aims to expand equitable access to healthy food while diversifying the voices that inform its work over the next five years.

“To us, a food movement and improvement of our food system is nothing if it’s not bringing the most vulnerable people into the room,” said Samual Odin, MFC’s board president. “The farm worker, the dishwasher, the processing kitchen person, the delivery truck driver — so many of these voices have not been welcomed into the space.”

The new strategic plan would engage those groups directly. Recruitment is now underway for six key sub-groups: retail and grocery, food service, restaurant and fast food, food assistance, farmer, and intermediary — which could include storage, distribution, food recovery or waste processing.

Coalitions, each with their own chairperson, would be required to meet at least once every two months to identify problems in their scope of interest, then plan and implement solutions. All-coalition meetings would be held quarterly.

Odin has been active with MFC for more than a decade, but felt the organization struggled to define itself. “I couldn’t figure it out,” Odin said, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic further slowed the council’s progress.

The organization previously was involved in efforts to legalize beekeeping and raising chickens within city limits.

Over the past three years, board members have restructured the council’s governance model, defined its roles and responsibilities and worked to improve communication channels.

The structure is “100% democratic,” Odin said, giving every member an equal vote. Meetings would also include basic accommodations such as food, beverages and child care.

Each group hopes to attract 100 members by 2027 and grow to 500 within three years. Coalitions will lead fundraising efforts and collect member dues, though payment is not required, Odin said. MFC offers a sliding payment scale starting at $0.

MFC’s stated mission is to “advance a food system free from the exploitation of people and the environment” that “ensures adequate and equitable access to healthy, quality food for all.” However, the five-year plan does not refer to specific goals, which will instead be decided collectively by coalition members.

Odin, who also operates Village Farmstead in Oak Creek and serves as chapter president for the Milwaukee-Waukesha Farmers Union, expects the new structure to have a learning curve, but said it has already yielded a better understanding of MFC’s purpose.

“At the end of the day, we settled on wanting to be a representative of the food system,” Odin said. “The success is in members showing up regularly, learning about other people’s experiences and perspectives and just trying to move the needle a little bit every year.”

For more information, or to join a coalition, visit the MFC website.