We're about to launch the last in a series of specific kinds of posts that can be made on the Ohio Local Food Systems Collaborative website, an offer of support. It will show up as an additional "button" along with "I'd like to post a message…", "I'd like to post a business plan", etc.

As noted at the Leap into Local Foods workshop in February, there are still some funds available through the Ben Stinner Endowment for Healthy Agroecosystems and Sustainable Communities that we'd like to use to seed the work on building local food systems. I'll use the offer of those funds as an example of how to use the form.

Before the workshop was over, however, we had others approach us with offers of support to the overall effort. Now there will be a way to formally make the offer to the entire collaborative. The offer could be of funding, money will usually get peoples' attention. But it could also be a particular kind of assistance or service, a presentation, equipment to donate or share, food, meeting venues, anything that you think could help. So once you've seen how it works I'd encourage each of you to consider what you might be able to offer to their working groups or to the overall effort to build local food systems. After all, this is what real collaboration is all about.