MONTGOMERY COUNTY — One in six people in the Miami Valley does not know where their next meal will come from, and people are having conversations to help combat that.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00 p.m., Montgomery County held a first-of-its-kind conference, hoping to find new ways to make sure people aren’t going hungry and have access to healthy foods.
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Ashley Mack, the community initiatives manager with the Montgomery County Office of Strategic Initiatives, was one of the many people who made the first Local Foods Conference happen.
“We’re bringing together the sellers of local food and the buyers of local food,” Mack said. “We have lots of local producers here that don’t necessarily know how to get into our local markets to sell food.”
This event focused on bringing farmers to the table and connecting them with other food-related organizations.
The event also brings together a lot of different food-related non-profits like Miami Valley Meals and The Dayton Foodbank.
Montgomery County Commissioner Judy Dodge has spent the last decade focused on addressing hunger and access to healthy foods.
“I have been involved in this for years, in different capacities, and this is exciting today,” Dodge said.
She’s been a part of many conversations, but says this event is different.
“We’ve got to get it to the grocery stores and the pantries and everything to help these individuals go and get fresh food that is so important anymore,” Dodge said.
The Hall Hunger Initiatives is another one of the non profits who attended the event.
“These conversations today will be able to let us figure out where some of those food insecurity issues are and how we can meet those needs,” Alex Klug, the program director of Hall Hunger Initiative, said.
Klug said that the connections built at today’s event could really make a difference down the line.
“Having groups like the FoodBank and Homeful present today with a lot of the small farmers who are actually growing food for their community will allow us to start connecting those dots and making it more resilient here.
Together, they can address problems and make the Miami Valley better one step at a time.
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