On February 22, FeedBack Nashville hosted a day-long Food System Forum at Green Door Gourmet, a 350-acre organic farm on the outskirts of Nashville. The event brought together 25 individuals working in our city’s food system to build and strengthen connections between organizations; build a shared understanding of the current dynamics, limitations, and areas in need of change in Nashville’s current food system; and to identify opportunities to do things differently to build a more just and sustainable food future for our city.
The first phase of FeedBack Nashville involves analyzing Nashville’s current food system and diagnosing its issues. Once complete in summer 2024, this diagnosis will help us understand as a community how our food system works — and more specifically, how community connections and other social, economic and environmental factors influence food access, local agriculture, local food economies, food waste, and more.
The Food System Forum helped us gather our first round of community insights, which we will integrate into FeedBack Nashville’s food system diagnosis. These insights will guide us towards informed action and reveal areas ripe for change within our city’s food system.
Forum for the Future — an international non-governmental organization that builds the local capacity of communities to transform food, energy, and business sectors towards more just and regenerative futures — served as the convening facilitator for the event. Members of the FeedBack Nashville Steering Committee also joined to help facilitate breakout discussions. Generous donations from Radish Kitchen, Dozen Bakery, and the Well Coffeehouse nourished us throughout the event.
Want to support FeedBack Nashville’s food system diagnosis? Take the FeedBack Nashville Food System Survey! Your perspectives will be synthesized with those of many other community members to help us create shared visions, and the actions that will help us get there, for a better food future for our city.