Our History

In early 2013 the Chatham County Health Department received funding from the CDC’s Community Transformation Grant Program to explore the idea of developing a local food council. The Health Department teamed up with Chatham County Cooperative Extension to develop a list of Chatham County local food system stakeholders and continue the process of developing a council. The grant funds paid for a professional facilitator from the Center for Environmental Farming Systems. We hosted our first public meeting in the summer of 2013 that attracted stakeholders from different sectors of the food system working throughout the county. Representatives came from county government, non-profits, food banks, farms, restaurants, and other local food- and agriculture-related businesses. A Task Force was formed in the fall of 2013 to lay the groundwork for a fully formed Food Council. The Task Force held regular meetings and developed a Mission, Charter, and Resolution that was presented to the Chatham County Commissioners and approved in May 2014 resulting in a Food Council that was formally supported by Chatham County government. The Task Force solicited applications for the Food Council and selected members in the summer of 2014. The first Chatham Community Food Council meeting was held in August 2014.