Gather with small-scale growers, ranchers, and community leaders around local food movements in the Texas Panhandle. Share a meal and learn.

The Red River Headwaters Local Food Summit is set for Thursday, May 11, in Pampa at the Pampa EDC Building Meeting Room, located at 200 Ballard Street in downtown Pampa, from 9:30 am to 3:45 pm.

The Summit, presented by Ogallala Commons, the Amarillo Area Foundation, and the Tecovas Foundation, will cover topics including “Getting Started in Food Production/Crafting” and “Marketing Local Food to Customers” in the morning sessions. After a catered lunch, the afternoon segment will feature sessions on “Local Meat Production/Processing & Marketing,” plus presentations on “Growing/Marketing Fruits and Vegetables” and “Getting Youth Involved in Local Food Systems.” 

The event will conclude with an overview of “New Initiatives for the Red River Headwaters Foodshed.”

Registration for the Summit is $35 per person. Anyone interested can see an agenda and register online by using the link: http://bit.ly/3KkEpQs or payment may be made by check payable to Ogallala Commons and mailed to: PO Box 346, Nazareth, TX 79063 by May 4.

For questions or additional information, contact Blaze Diamond (blaze@ogallalacommons.org or 806.553.0956) or Darryl Birkenfeld, Ph.D. Deputy Director (806.945.2255 or darryl@ogallalacommons.org).

Ogallala Commons, a nonprofit education and leadership organization (www.ogallalacommons.org), invites local food producers/crafters, educators, and the interested public to attend.

Foodsheds and watersheds mirror a similar footprint: food grows where water flows. Exchanges of locally grown food help to trigger a more resilient economy, while creating shared stewardship of natural resources and a step towards community empowerment. At this gathering, we will hear the voices and stories of those who provide us with nutrient-dense, fresh food, while stewarding lands in the eastern half of the Texas Panhandle—places drained by the Red River headwaters. Join with us for the day, to share peer-to-peer learning opportunities, to build knowledge and inspire new coalitions among agricultural producers and consumers—so that we can become stronger and more hopeful as we move into the new growing season!

At the Red River Headwaters Local Food Summit, we are gathering together the voices and stories of our rural food economies, those who provide us access to nutrient-dense, fresh food and who steward the lands of the Texas Panhandle. Focusing on the Red River region of the northern Panhandle, we are taking a day to share peer-to-peer, living knowledge among agricultural producers, provide a space for community members to meet the hands behind their food, and ultimately strengthen a coalition in the northern Texas Panhandle to nurture those movements going forward.

The summit will feature the following topics and presenters:

Getting Started in Food Production

Markus Schick, Schick's Strawberry Patch | Amarillo; Bonnie Allen, The Egg Shop | Panhandle; Rev. Beverly Couzzourt, St. Peter's Episcopal Church | Amarillo

Marketing Local Food to Customers

Natalie Knutson, Pampa Farmers Market | Pampa; Blair & Blanca Schaffer, Schaffer Farms | Jericho, TX; Veronica & Ethan Weinheimer, Granview Granary | Groom; (Catered Lunch by Natalie Knutson)

Local Meat Production/Processing/Marketing

Trent Cadra, Texas Beef Grass to Grill, LLC | Wheeler; Josh Cook, Plant Manager, Clint & Sons Processing| White Deer

Growing/Marketing Fruits & Vegetables

Tim Gee, Gee Family Farms | Amarillo; Tony & Ryan Frogge, Bear Creek Farms, LLC | Pampa

Getting Youth Involved in Local Food Systems

Kristen Moudy, Wheeler County EDC | Wheeler; Wendy Hazzard, Wheeler County AgriLife Extension Service | Wheeler

New Initiatives for the Red River Foodshed

Brady Clark, Square Mile Development | Amarillo; Darryl Birkenfeld, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Ogallala Commons | Nazareth

In addition to a variety of talks, there will also be that Brown Bag Roasters (of Canadian) coffee, and a catered lunch, sourced as locally as possible. We hope you will gather with us for story, strategy, coalition-building, and good food.