Pre-Conference

All pre-conference trainings and tours will happen on Monday, September 11th. Once you are signed up for the pre-conference event of your choice, an organizer will contact you directly with details.

Training

Changing the Narrative from Charity to Justice: Story-based Strategy Training

WhyHunger presents a training with the Center for Story-Based Strategy to explore framing, narrative power analysis and elements of campaign storytelling in this hands-on workshop. Learn new techniques/tools and help develop a new, shared framework to shift the narrative around US hunger from a model based on charity towards social justice.

Time: 9:00 am-5:30 pm
Lunch: Provided
Price: Free (sponsored by WhyHunger)

Tours

All tours will meet and leave from Hotel Murano and will returning between 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm on Monday, September 11, 2017.

Tour 1: Partnering Up for Food Security

Cultivating land and food. Attend this tour and learn how tribal, nonprofit, and government organizations are bringing in diverse partners to solve land management and water disputes and forging innovative new ways to strengthen local food donation infrastructure. You’ll visit the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, the largest estuary restoration project in the Pacific Northwest and an important step in the recovery of the Puget Sound. We’ll also see the partnership between Thurston County Solid Waste and the Thurston County Food Bank, who have developed a program that keeps food out of landfills and puts it in food banks.

Time: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Lunch: Provided
Price: $50

Tour 2: Tribal Traditions in Local Food, Health and Gardening

Cultivating tradition and community. Come and see how these garden programs are more than just food; they’re about youth, elders, jobs, culture, and community. Begin the day at the Nisqually Community Garden and Nisqually Elder Feeding Program, enjoy lunch on a farm that promotes a CSA food bank and gleaners program, and then learn about innovative programming happening at the state level with Washington State’s Farm to School program.

Time: 10:00-5:00
Lunch: Provided
Price: $35

Tour 3: Food Preservation, Organic Farming, and Food Justice

Cultivating community grown solutions to food justice. Attend this tour to learn how organizations are valuing, promoting, and investing in community members while at the same time localizing food production, diversifying distribution, and reducing waste. We’ll visit the Emergency Food Network’s Mother Earth Farm, an 8-acre organic farm located in the beautiful Puyallup Valley that distributes 80,000 pounds of fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs to Pierce County food banks and meal sites. You’ll also get a tour of The Center for Food Preservation Arts, which provides educational demonstrations and hands-on workshops in food preservation, activities that support local emergency food providers, use of a commercial kitchen, and a food preserving tool library.

Time: 12:30pm-5:30pm
Lunch: No lunch provided
Price: $40

Tour 4: Downtown Seattle Food Security: Pike Place Market

Cultivating collaboration and local economy. Come and learn how these businesses and organizations have created partnerships to support the entire community. Experience Pike Market and learn how’s it much more than a simple market, but also an incubator, community kitchen, and service hub for low-income families. Participants will then have the option of visiting FareStart or Elk Run Farm. FareStart has culinary and barista programs to train people in the technical and life skills they need to thrive in the restaurant and hospitality industry. Elk Run Farm is an innovative collaboration that grows produce for food banks in South King County.

Time: 9:30am-5:00pm
Lunch: Lunch on your own at Pike Market
Price: $40

Tour 5: Empowering Seattle’s Youth Through Food

Cultivating job training and youth empowerment. Attend this tour to learn how organizations are empowering youth to reclaim their lives and experience food in new ways. You’ll hear from Green Plate Special, whose mission is to inspire and empower youth to experience food in new ways through gardening, cooking, and eating together. Street Bean Coffee is a nonprofit multi-roaster coffee shop providing opportunity for street-involved young people to reclaim their lives, one cup at a time.

Time: 9:30am-5:00pm
Lunch: Provided
Price: $50