ABOUT
Our mission
Since our founding in 2009, we work to fulfill our mission through increased food production, access, distribution, and educational efforts that encourage community-led food sovereignty. Feeding Laramie Valley grows our own fruits and vegetables, mentors and supports backyard gardeners, develops and helps with management of community gardens, and is deeply committed to partnerships with independent farmers.
Our Roots
Feeding Laramie Valley is a program of Action Resources International, LLC, a grass-roots 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to community equity and justice in all of its forms. Feeding Laramie Valley was founded as a response to the crisis in food security initiated by the recession of 2008. Founder Gayle Woodsum had been working with local seniors and was deeply troubled by the difficulty they had in obtaining access to enough healthy food. To address this need, she reached out to other local community members and leaders who worked with the most vulnerable populations within the community: elders, people living with disabilities, and children.
At that time, the rate of food insecurity was especially high, and Albany County had the highest rates of all in Wyoming. Feeding Laramie Valley's
first community action was to hold a workshop at the Eppson Center for Seniors in Laramie on how to grow your own food. Immediately following, they began plans for Laramie's first community garden, and then kickstarted the Shares program to collect and distribute fresh produce to those who needed it.
For the past 15 years and counting, Feeding Laramie Valley has been dedicated to the project of community-led food sovereignty, finding and implementing solutions to address food insecurity. FLV now runs nine programs, each focused on a different aspect of food sovereignty, with twelve dedicated staff members, an active volunteer program, and supplemental positions through a thriving partnership with Americorps Vista.
Our Approach
Community-Led: Feeding Laramie Valley believes that the people who are affected by a problem are the best experts to consult in finding solutions. Therefore, FLV works closely with members of the community who are experiencing food insecurity and with small local producers to find the right approaches to building a better food system. All of our programs, including Shares, Community Gardens, and the Mobile Market, grow from these roots.
Dignified: Research shows that community members have a strong preference for providing for themselves. FLV programs are designed to fill gaps in the food system to help community members grow their own food, pay fair prices, have access to healthy foods, and privilege local producers. We believe that all community members have the right to fresh, high-quality foods and the health benefits that they deliver. To honor the dignity of community members, FLV does not perform income or eligibility checks to participate in our programs; they are available to anyone who feels they need the assistance for as long as they need it.
Diverse: Both in our work with the community and the culture of our workplace, we honor all peoples and their rights to equity and justice. Therefore, we maintain a lived commitment to gender, racial, religious, and cultural diversities.
Local: We believe in the power of communities to provide for their own members, even at 7,200 feet! Albany County's high rate of food insecurity and challenging growing conditions have been the perfect experimental grounds to show that any community can ensure that all have access to healthy, affordable foods using resources from within the community itself. Using local suppliers revitalizes the economy and improves health by privileging fresh, high-quality food.
Collaborative: We can't do it alone! We actively seek partnerships with community members, leaders, and organizations at the local, state-wide, regional, and national levels to do food better. Past and current partners have included Americorps, the University of Wyoming, Cornell University, USDA, Wyoming Department of Agriculture, Wyoming Food Coalition, Laramie Interfaith, Laramie Soup Kitchen, Laramie Rivers Conservation District, City of Laramie, Albany County, Eppson Center for Seniors, Sunshine Coffee, Ivinson Memorial Hospital, 9H Ranch, and Sheila Bird Farms. See our Partners page for a full list!
What We Do
Feeding Laramie Valley is committed to helping create and run food security, equity, dignity, and sovereignty initiatives that the local community feels will work best for them. We help design, find funding for, and implement programs that address fundamental community food needs. Some examples include:
Need
Solution
Community members want to grow food to provide for themselves
Establish convenient access Community Gardens and a mentoring program to help beginning gardeners
Individuals and families with low incomes have trouble affording fresh, healthy foods, which impacts physical and mental well-being
Grow, collect, and distribute fresh produce free of charge until community members become more financially secure (Shares program)
Rural communities don't have grocery stores, so fresh produce is difficult to get
Start a Mobile Market that takes fresh produce and other healthy ingredients to rural communities regularly
Small farmers and ranchers can't make enough steady income to thrive in a global food economy
Bring local producers together in a collective food hub to provide for regular, sustainable local markets (Satanka Food & Community Innovation Hub)
Why It Matters
Food Insecurity Is on the Rise
The latest report from the USDA shows that, after over 20 years on the decline, food insecurity rates rose sharply over the past year, affecting children especially.
United States
average
State of Wyoming
Albany County, Wyoming
Children in
Albany County, WY
Food insecurity is about more than just hunger. Concern about where a next meal is coming from affects children's ability to learn, job performance, and psychological well-being.