“We’re starting to hear ideas that I’ve never envisioned or never imagined coming out of these plans and that’s really the exciting part of a community process like this. We hear what our businesses really need. We hear what our residents really need to have successful lives and we’re able to say, “How do we bake that in to a longer term vision and then how do we turn that in to immediate action…” – Blake Angelo

(Welcome to Season 2!!)

The City and County of Denver are in the process of creating a city-wide food plan called the Denver Food Plan. This subtly-titled document will help shape Denver’s food future through the year 2030. Community Listening Sessions are running from March through early June, 2016. These well-run meetings are YOUR CHANCE to offer your thoughts on what Denver’s food system should look like. What are your priorities? What’s your vision? Let your government know!

While the creation of the Denver Food Plan involves many people and organizations, in this episode, we speak to one leader closely linked to the creation of the plan. Blake Angelo is Manager of Food System Development for the Office of Economic Development at the City and County of Denver. Prior to this, Blake was Director for the Beanstalk Foundation and served as the first specialist in Urban Agriculture for Colorado State University Extension in Denver and Jefferson counties. He has a master’s degree in Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in Evolutionary and Ecological Biology.

– IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN –

• How the Denver community, in many ways, has encouraged (even demanded) that the city create a food plan
• How important the food system is to Denver’s economy (thousands of jobs, billions of dollars)
• What role Denver’s community and citizens play in creating the city’s food priorities
• What elements of the food system the Denver Food Plan will cover, including Community, Health and Economy
• Which cities and regions around the country have already created food plans
• How our Colorado self-image as “thin and healthy” isn’t so true and the parallel challenges of both obesity and hunger
• How food has been and can be an engine for local business and job growth as well as greater health, sustainability, resiliency and culture
• What tangible deliverables we can expect from these meetings and how those will be used both near-term (2020) and long-term (2030)

 – LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE –

• http://www.denvergov.org/foodplan
• [email protected]
• Community Meetings Schedule (PDF) (When and where is my district meeting?)
• City Council District Maps (Which district do I live in?)
• Denver Office of Economic Development on Twitter @DenverOED and Facebook

– THANKS FOR LISTENING –

This episode (#19) comes from Mile High Locavorist.