“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

1. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” ~Michael Pollan In Defense of Food

2. Our Mission • To provide locally grown, healthful, fresh food to people in need, and • Support local agriculture by purchasing fresh produce from area farms at fair market prices.

3. Our 2012 Farmers • Bakker's Acres • Bardenhagen Farms • TLC Tomatoes • Still Point Farm • Plum Valley Farm • Second Spring Farm • Picked Today Freshness • Norconk Farm • Providence Farm • Sweeter Song Farm • Shetler Family Dairy • Cherry Bend Farm • Meadow Farm • Zenners Farm • Coleman Farm • Isadore Farm In addition to feeding us the freshest foods, productive farms • contribute to the local economy, • provide habitat for wildlife, and • frame the rural beauty of our region.

4. Second Spring Farm

5. Agriculture is the state’s second largest industry, generating about $37billion annually. • In our five county region alone there are more than 1,500 farms. • Michigan Department of Agriculture, 2001 and • the Michigan Land Use Institute

6. Agriculture is emerging as a solution to mitigating climate change, reducing public health problems and costs, making cities more livable, and creating  jobs in a stagnant global economy. ~Danielle Nierenberg Director, WorldwatchInstitute's Nourishing the Planet project

7. Sweeter Song Farm

8. Michigan ranks ninth in the U.S. in terms of farmland threatened by development

9. More than half of our farmers are over the age of 57

10. Economic threats to local agriculture keep small farms struggling and discourage new farms. Without a sustainable market of fair prices and wages, small local farms may soon be a thing of the past

11. Providing pantries with fresh local food year-round Zenners Farm

12. Fresh Food Partnership reinvested more than $53,000 into our local agriculture in 2012

13. “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth...” ~Psalm 104  ESV

14. Community Bowl Making with Blackbird Arts Studio and Chai Pottery

16. Over 380,000 visits were made to area pantries in 2012

17. “Because of the increasing rates of obesity, unhealthy eating habits, and physical inactivity, we may see the first generation that will be less healthy and have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.” ~Richard Carmona Former U.S. Surgeon General March 2004

18. A Community Challenge An increase in pantry visits by five-fold since Fresh Food Partnership was founded in 2003

19. Our 25 Pantries • ABBA House • ACTS • Bellaire Food Pantry • Benzie Area Christian Neighbors • Benzie Baby Pantry • Community Lighthouse • Empire Area Food Pantry • Faith Reformed Church • Father Fred • Fresh Winds Christian Pantry • Good Samaritan • Grace Episcopal • Grand Traverse Baby Pantry • Immaculate Conception • KAIR • Leelanau Christian Neighbors • Mancelona Food Pantry • Peninsula Bible • Prayer Fyre • Rapid City • St. Patricks • Salvation Army • Traverse House • Trinity Lutheran • Women’s Resource Center

20. Fresh Food Partnership distributed over 70,000 lbs. of fresh nutritious food to area pantries in 2012

21. VS

22. “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~Hippocrates

24. And God said, "Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.  You shall have them for food."  ~Genesis 1:29

26. “The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.”   ~Thomas Edison

27. Fresh Food Partnership relies entirely on donations and fundraisers like Empty Bowls!

28. Thank you