Workgroups, Task Forces, and Networks
Residents know their community best. Join one or more groups to help build a strong local food system!
Food Access
Ensuring everyone who lives, works or plays in the Lehigh Valley has access to fresh, healthy food. As a collective, we identify gaps and barriers and we leverage our food access work to strengthen, build and protect our community.
Food Respect & Recovery
Educating, training, and advocating for the respectful use of our resources in our food system and reducing food waste.
Urban Farms & Community Gardens
Encouraging resourceful green spaces to grow sustainable food, build communities and improve food sovereignty.
Farm to School
Encourages access to nutritious, high quality, local food to kids at all stages of life so they are ready to learn and grow. Farm to school empowers children and their families to make informed food choices while strengthening the local economy and contributing to vibrant communities.
Thriving Local Food Economy
Working to address gaps in food aggregation, processing and distribution infrastructure and to improve supply chain logistics in the local food system.
Kids Eat Free LV
Advocating for access to child nutrition programs for every eligible child in the Lehigh Valley.
Our Four Pillars
Our pillars prioritize healthy local food access and our local food system. put people that need healthy food first. Our strategic vision Big Idea is that all Lehigh Valley residents can eat healthy and nutritious local food, contributing to a strong and diverse local economy and meeting long term needs of the community.
1. Food Access
Ensuring everyone has access to fresh healthy food and that producers receive a fair return in a community conscious process, creating a robust, self-supporting local food system.
2. Advocacy
- Supporting affordable access to productive land
- Promoting strength and resilience in the local food system
- Protecting and expanding our investments in agriculture and production
- Encouraging respectful use of resources that protect farms, families and our food supply
- Building diversity in our local food system
3. Aggregate
Supporting opportunities to gather food from multiple sources across local agricultural providers that creates a larger and more consistent supply to meet consumer demand, better serve the long term needs of our community, and improve the diversity of those contributing to agriculture.
4. Collaborate
Working with government, school districts, community organizations and consumers to increase visibility and best utilize resources in public programs. Driving initiatives that can help consumers make better decisions about the food they eat and lead healthier lifestyles, contributing to physical and mental well-being and improved public health.
Become a Member
We are community born. A year of community listening sessions produced a report from the Lehigh Valley. It detailed what the community envisioned and the obstacles in the way. One recommendation to address that was the establishment of the LVFPC.
Meet Our Team
A small but mighty team! They keep their hands dirty and the mission moving forward.
Susan Dalandan
LVFPC Coordinator
Steering Team
We are a diverse group of stakeholders that make up the steering team that also participate in the work groups. They help bring the work together and make sure everyone is on track to achieve the vision and strategic plan.
Brian Moyer
Penn State Extension
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Eric Ruth
Kellyn Foundation
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Tina Amato
Allentown Health Bureau
Food Access Work Group Chair
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Sherri Penchishen
Bethlehem Health Bureau
Farm to School WG Chair
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Second Harvest Food Bank of the
Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania
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Dawn Godshall
Community Action Lehigh Valley
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Food Recovery & Respect WG Chair
Community Resident
Cathy Coyne
Community Resident
Moravian University
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Katarah Jordan
Community Resident
James Lawson Freedom School
Liz Wagner
Crooked Row Farm
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Virginia Haas
Lehigh County Department of
Community and Economic Development
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Lisa Liddington
Community Health Administrator
Lehigh Valley Health Network
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J. Marc Rittle
New Bethany Ministries
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Tina Smith
Northampton County Department of
Community and Economic Development
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Kathy Ramson
Community Health
St. Luke’s University Health Network
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Priscilla Rosado
Food Access & Emergency Services
United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley
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Maribel Tandazo
Greater Valley YMCA
Interim Chair
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