Our Collaboratives
The Farm to Institution Center grows the region’s farm-to-institution movement by setting a regional agenda, facilitating county-wide farm-to-institution collaboratives, brokering good food deals, market research, events, training, technical assistance. By working closely with San Diego County schools, hospitals, local government, farmers, produce distributors, good food businesses, and community partners, the center is helping bring more local, healthful, and sustainable food to hundreds of thousands of people across the County. To learn more about the collaborative groups, click on the links below:
The Farm to Institution Center has adopted a three-tiered definition, raised, or produced:
- In San Diego County (Tier 1)
- Within 250 miles of San Diego County (Tier 2)
- In California (Tier 3)
The F2I Center “local” definition is designed to prioritize food grown in San Diego County (Tier 1), but incorporates aspects of other common definitions of “local” (e.g. within a certain mile radius, state level) and allows for a greater volume and range of products at competitive prices to be considered in district’ efforts to source local.
Other Collaboratives
The organizations in the National Farm to Institution Metrics Collaborative work across the country to measure and track the impact of the institutional market from producer to buyer. There are 30 members based in 20 states working at municipal, county, multi-county, state, regional, and national levels. Quarterly calls are held and occasional in-person meetings; offer opportunities for collaborative partnership; and provide a platform for sharing best practices, foundational metrics terminology, tools and resources.
