Contact:
Sunny Johnson or Stephanie Williams
White Earth Tribal and Community College
localfoodchallenge@mail.wetcc.org
Phone: 218-936-5620
yeehawsunny@yahoo.com
swilliams@wetcc.org

Sarah Alexander
White Earth Land Recovery Project
218.573.3448
salexander@welrp.org

SIX IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA EMBARK ON ONE-YEAR LOCAL FOOD CHALLENGE

Challenging People To Eat Foods Grown Within 250 Miles Of Where They Live

Mahnomen, MN - October 31, 2005

Before you take another bite of food, think about where your food comes from. That is the message from the Local Food Challenge (LFC), a group of six people who have committed to eating foods grown within 250 miles of where they live for one year.

September 1st, 2005 marked the beginning of the year-long LFC. Sunny Johnson, nutrition instructor at the White Earth Tribal and Community College, and LFC participant said, "The obesity epidemic facing our nation and world is in part a result of the large disconnect between what we eat and where it comes from." The Worldwatch Institute estimates that food now travels between 1500-2500 miles between the farm and our plates.

The LFC is an attempt to strengthen the local economy, food security, discover the unmet needs of the local food system, community building, and to promote the health and wellness benefits of eating locally. Sarah Alexander, Food Programs Director at the White Earth Land Recovery Project, and LFC participant said, "By working to rebuild our local food systems, we are putting all of the money we would normally spend on food, directly into our local economy. The local producers that we have been buying from have already felt the impacts of our local food challenge."

A recent report from the Crossroads Resource Center shows that residents of Minnesota's northwest region, where LFC participants reside, spend $300 million annually on food from outside the region, while 40% of the regions farmers lost money in 2002. Stephanie Williams, Extension Coordinator at the White Earth Tribal and Community College, and LFC participant urged, "If everyone joined the local food challenge for even a day, together we could revitalize our local food economy, and if people joined for a week, they would see their health start to change, and if people did this for a year, the impacts would be astounding." Long lists of supporters have rallied behind the participants. Additional support is received from the Northwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership.

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