2011: The Year of Idaho Food

2011: The Year of Idaho Food was a grass-roots, year-long, statewide look at the surprising variety of foods grown in Idaho — and not simply focusing on the foods themselves, but also on the social, economic and environmental significance of those foods.

Here are some of the groups that participated in the event:

• The University of Idaho
• Idaho Preferred
• Sandpoint Transition Initiative Food Group
• Latah Economic Development Council
• Idaho’s Bounty
• Rural Roots
• Slow Foods Teton
• Idaho Office of Tourism
• The College of Idaho
• The Treasure Valley Food Coalition

Since we all eat — and are therefore experts on food in our unique ways — the Year of Idaho Food was eager to have just plain people submit stories and content too.  Farmers, ranchers, restaurateurs, restaurant patrons, gardeners and home cooks contributed over 50 stories through 2011.

Themes and Events

Along with the open-ended stories and projects, The Year of Idaho Food  incorporated several structured events and projects:

•The Day of Idaho Food: On Labor Day, September 5, 2011, everyone in the state was encouraged to include at least one food on their plate that was grown by someone they knew in their local area.
•The Months of Idaho Food: Monthly themes were planned to promote community discussion and civic engagement around the subject of food (detail on the themes can be found here).
•The Boise Weekly and Boise State Public Radio offered weekly stories throughout the year on Idaho food and agriculture in partnership with the Year of Idaho Food.  These stories are archived on Northwest Food News.

Organizers and Contacts

The Treasure Valley Food Coalition conceived and launched the Year of Idaho Food, but took no control of content. The project was designed to function as a truly grass roots, non-partisan expression of food and agriculture in Idaho with no single organization or agenda excluded from the conversation.

Year of Idaho Food was made possible in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, the state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Northwest Food News, in turn, provided a web-based platform for the Year of Idaho Food and, where appropriate, contributed editorial content related to the project.