Friends of the Finland Community
Report date
January 2021
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Hiring of a Coordinating Team. The first year of the Finland Food Chain project, we used minimal staff to promote and encourage community participation and leadership. It became clear we would need a stronger dedicated staff to support greater community buy-in, participation and leadership.
The Finland Food Chain Heart Group identified 4 key topic areas (Producers, Infrastructure, Education, Consumer) and advertised for 4 part-time coordinators, one for each topical area. Through that process, two initial coordinators were hired (1 Education Coordinator + 1 Producer/Infrastructure Coordinator).
A later position was identified as the Pivot Position, a lead coordinator who would lead the Coordinator Team, be the liaison between Coordinator Team and Friends of Finland, and the Finland Food Chain Heart Group. The Finland Food Chain project was developing along several directions, and we recognized this individual would be needed to keep track of all the moving parts. As we finished up the 2nd year of the grant, we realized we were not spending enough of the grant funds, and had additional projects to work on, so two additional part-time coordinators were hired for the 3rd year.
The Finland Food Chain Heart Group identified 4 key topic areas (Producers, Infrastructure, Education, Consumer) and advertised for 4 part-time coordinators, one for each topical area. Through that process, two initial coordinators were hired (1 Education Coordinator + 1 Producer/Infrastructure Coordinator).
A later position was identified as the Pivot Position, a lead coordinator who would lead the Coordinator Team, be the liaison between Coordinator Team and Friends of Finland, and the Finland Food Chain Heart Group. The Finland Food Chain project was developing along several directions, and we recognized this individual would be needed to keep track of all the moving parts. As we finished up the 2nd year of the grant, we realized we were not spending enough of the grant funds, and had additional projects to work on, so two additional part-time coordinators were hired for the 3rd year.
Hiring coordinators to push the work forward was probably the biggest thing. It poised the group to be in a position to assess and adapt to changing circumstances quickly. Though it wasn't planned, COVID forced us to transition to entirely online educational outreach, which in turn grew our online presence, email list, social media following, etc, and also allowed really specific local cultural content to reach a far greater audience than it would have otherwise. Gathering, formatting, and then preserving that knowledge in a way that will continue to be accessible, because it's posted online. Having a monthly email newsletter has been pivotal also, which wouldn't have been possible without hiring paid staff. We also facilitated an interested local person in learning the traditional skill of processing wild rice, which led to a relationship with a processor, which led to us gaining ownership of his equipment for a very low cost, which is going to allow for a local wild rice processing facility in our community in the very near future.
Due to Covid-19, the Finland Food Chain had to adapt just like the rest of society. Online technology allowed us to continue our work to a stronger degree than otherwise. We were able to continue our weekly coordinator meetings via Zoom, which was vital in keeping projects moving forward.
As well, we dedicated part of our time each month to develop an educational series around food production, rules/regulations, highlighting regional food related projects, etc. We noticed that many people would sign up for many of these classes, but many would not attend. However, this still allowed us to collect their email addresses, which we have used to dramatically expand our email lists for our monthly newsletter. We feel the newsletter has been a resounding success, as we have a “open rate” of 45 -60% each month.
HOWEVER, while technology has been a saving grace in these trying times, it is a poor substitute for community events. Especially in a rural area, technological access is not available for a good portion of the local community. And a lot of community members simply won't engage on this level. This has severely hampered our ability to make this a true community project.
As well, we dedicated part of our time each month to develop an educational series around food production, rules/regulations, highlighting regional food related projects, etc. We noticed that many people would sign up for many of these classes, but many would not attend. However, this still allowed us to collect their email addresses, which we have used to dramatically expand our email lists for our monthly newsletter. We feel the newsletter has been a resounding success, as we have a “open rate” of 45 -60% each month.
HOWEVER, while technology has been a saving grace in these trying times, it is a poor substitute for community events. Especially in a rural area, technological access is not available for a good portion of the local community. And a lot of community members simply won't engage on this level. This has severely hampered our ability to make this a true community project.
Key lessons learned
We learned that we need professional facilitation and guidance, especially at key moments for the project. We're all too deep in this work sometimes to see everything. We need tools to show us the big picture. During the Summer of 2020, the Coordinating Team held an outdoor meeting and brought in an outside Facilitator who taught a great strategizing tool to the team. This tool was called the Strategic Inquiry Project Design Template.
It leads an individual/group through a project design starting with what Outcomes one would like to achieve, to discussing what's already present/working, what's blocking, what actions are needed to move the project forward, assessing/prioritizing aforementioned actions, laying out a time frame of action steps, identifying who takes lead, and whose buy-in is needed to achieve stated outcomes.
We have used this template to lay-out a plan for several projects. It is a great template for the planning process. The next step is getting that plan into a format that easily tracks the proposed actions steps/timeline. This seems to be a good role for the pivot position who would use it to check in on the wide variety of projects underway.
It leads an individual/group through a project design starting with what Outcomes one would like to achieve, to discussing what's already present/working, what's blocking, what actions are needed to move the project forward, assessing/prioritizing aforementioned actions, laying out a time frame of action steps, identifying who takes lead, and whose buy-in is needed to achieve stated outcomes.
We have used this template to lay-out a plan for several projects. It is a great template for the planning process. The next step is getting that plan into a format that easily tracks the proposed actions steps/timeline. This seems to be a good role for the pivot position who would use it to check in on the wide variety of projects underway.
We had set up a conference for March of 2020 that ended up being cancelled because of the pandemic, but looking back, it doesn't seem like it would have been very successful at reaching many people. We didn't have the online or interpersonal networks at that time to pull in enough people to make that a very good event. Having it all set up and ready to go and then cancelling was very frustrating, but that forced us to reorganize for an online format and that has propelled us so much further. The first webinar we did added over 100 people to our email list, which in our area is a really big deal. Each successive online event has grown our list and reach and allowed for greater promotion of the project overall. There are definitely people we aren't reaching that way, we're aware of that, and now that we have enough staff and name recognition, we are able to do phone calls and other types of outreach that wouldn't have been successful before. It has been a learning experience.
Reflections on inclusive, collaborative or resourceful problem-solving
The collaborative component of the process has been strong in year two of our community innovation work. This is exemplified by our work on creating a community wild rice processing facility. Working through our community connections to identify a person to participate in our first Wild Rice Apprenticeship Program, they went to learn through regional partners and bring this knowledge back to our community. We were able to purchase the equipment through one of these regional partners, and have contracted with other community members to house the processing facility at a local location. Several local and regional community members and organizations have worked together for additional grant funding to expand this community-based project. With the additional grant funding, we will focus on training the next generation of wild ricers through mentorships, add to the processing capacity of northern Minnesota via a new Regional Apprenticeship Program, and educating the broader consumer base around the historical, cultural, health and spiritual aspects of wild rice through development of teaching modules. Collaborations have proved key to bringing this project to where it stands today.
Other key elements of Community Innovation
We're only a generation or two separated from people living off the land. We are not as far separated from local food traditions as many other people and communities are. A local, regional food system is within living memory in our area. We have, unlike many places in the US, a strong local culture that is known and talked about and shared and appreciated. It's one of the reasons people who move to our community give for wanting to live here. Our community elders tell us stories and still hold this knowledge. Many of us who grow up here were raised with pieces of this knowledge, especially surrounding food and living on and with the land. We want to deepen and live this knowledge and culture, and pass it on to youth in our community, as well as folks new to our area. There's a lot that has been lost, yes, but there's still a lot there.
Understanding the problem
The COVID public health crisis has clearly shown there is a distinct need for enhancing local resilience in the face of uncertain times. However, it has also shown us that while a food system can be adaptive, it is vital not to wait until a catastrophe happens to address it. Maturing a food system can take years of work.
In this sense, community buy-in and support is hugely important, because this is what supports the food system in-between points of crisis. We live in an over-society embedded within far-flung supply chains, with the “cheap and convenient” factor being what often drives consumer purchasing decisions.
For us, this begs the question of optimizing aspects of the food system to make the process/products relatively inexpensive and convenient while still being economically viable for producers/sellers.
In this sense, community buy-in and support is hugely important, because this is what supports the food system in-between points of crisis. We live in an over-society embedded within far-flung supply chains, with the “cheap and convenient” factor being what often drives consumer purchasing decisions.
For us, this begs the question of optimizing aspects of the food system to make the process/products relatively inexpensive and convenient while still being economically viable for producers/sellers.
If you could do it all over again...
We would suggest (to ourselves) to immediately hire a team of Coordinators to take on the task of fostering community knowledge and buy-in, to hold ongoing public events focused on gathering knowledge and ideas, and provide leadership and support to community members. This has become vital in moving segments of the project forward. (This stuff did happen - but we should have trusted our knowledge and community organizing skills. It really scared some of our team members when this became messier than anticipated and/or felt out of their control. We were doing community events and outreach, but we stopped when it felt like the entire organization was falling apart. We should have stuck to our guns and kept on doing the outreach work.)
As well, we would immediately set-up a community leadership/innovation team that engages the top level vision/brainstorming/etc. Then turn these ideas over to the Coordinator Team to do the on-the-ground work. (We also did this, but it became an exclusive group, not open.)
*It would have been really good to initially begin working with a professional facilitator who could train both the organization and the community in project engagement.*
As well, we would immediately set-up a community leadership/innovation team that engages the top level vision/brainstorming/etc. Then turn these ideas over to the Coordinator Team to do the on-the-ground work. (We also did this, but it became an exclusive group, not open.)
*It would have been really good to initially begin working with a professional facilitator who could train both the organization and the community in project engagement.*
One last thought
To continue on from #7, when we got this grant award, our tiny organization didn't have the structure in place to hold a project this big. 2019, when we started the project, was a steep learning curve. There has been a lot of work to restructure everything within the Friends of Finland organization to allow a project like the Food Chain to blossom and flourish. There has been, at times, a lot of wheel spinning. There has been a lot of frustration when it feels like the organization has been inadvertently holding the project back. There have been times when we lost our confidence, or it felt like we were losing our way, or when there was a lot of tension and conflict among community members concerning the project, the organization's direction, or both. In the midst of all of that, it really helped to bring in an outside facilitator and trainer to help us get back on track. Certainly that would have been good to do from the beginning of the project, but we didn't know what we didn't know. Sometimes you have to try and fail in order to learn. Sometimes failing is minor stuff. Sometimes it's big. Or it feels big. We're still recovering and learning and restructuring. It's ongoing work.