HISTORY

A council was needed!

In 2012, a group of about a dozen organizations began to meet with community stakeholders as the Food System Action Group. The Food System Action Group sought to connect better Indy’s food system through the creation of the Indy Food Fund, a micro-granting fund that awarded almost $50,000 to 9 different organizations to catalyze local food projects that improved health, enhanced ecology, and created meaningful economic and civic opportunities for Indy’s residents and neighborhoods. The Indy Food Fund granting process was invigorating for everyone involved. It was exciting to see such amazing organizations using food as an innovative vehicle to bring about change in the city.

With the first part of the granting process complete, many in the now-expanded Food System Action Group began to contemplate ways to mobilize the connections and energy coming from the Indy Food Fund to do something bigger. Many understood that the creation of a Food Council–one that helped strengthen the food system through connectivity, one that catalyzed ideas, and one that advanced initiatives that would only be possible through the power of collaboration–was a logical next step. With more than 200 now in existence in the United States, it was clear a Food Council was a necessary piece of healthy food infrastructure that would serve the needs of Indianapolis and its citizens for many years to come.

On February 1st, 2014 the council officially launched, and we are hard at work to improve the food system here in Indianapolis.