Mary Emery, executive director of Rural Prosperity Nebraska, said the award would help paint a clear picture of the farmers, distributors and other major players in the region’s local food system.

“You have all these different entities working with local foods — producers, grocery stores, local distributors, nonprofits, business developers, the Center for Rural Affairs, meat processing plants, extension offices, the Nebraska Regional Food Systems Initiative — and these are all puzzle pieces,” she said. “But we’ve never put the pieces together. What we want to do with this project is put the puzzle together and see the picture of how regional food systems work.”

by Russell Shaffer | Rural Prosperity Nebraska