Cultivate Michigan

“One of the great things about the network is that it helps to bring together all of the different pieces and connects people across the food system so that they can help and work with each other.” - Megan Thompson

An interview with Megan Thompson

Name: Megan Thompson

Job Title: Farm to Institution Data Manager for MSU Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS)

Years on the job: 1.5

Favorite recipe with local foods: Roasted asparagus with olive oil and salt

What is the most exciting part of your job? “The progress that you see over time: when you talk to distributors and they are more open to offering local foods, and food service directors are more excited getting local foods into their school menus.”

Megan first got involved with food systems work while in college, where she wrote her senior thesis on mapping food insecurity. After several years working in North Carolina, she moved to Michigan, where she worked as an AmeriCorps member at the Allen Neighborhood Center in Lansing. She helped with the year-round farmers market, organized a cooking workshop for residents of the neighborhood, and coordinated the Breadbasket program, a weekly distribution of produce and baked goods to those in need. Once she completed her work there, Megan discovered CRFS and was hired to manage data for Michigan Farm to School and the Michigan Farm to Institution Network.

As Data Manager, Megan works with the Cultivate Michigan member institutions to track their local food purchases as they work towards the Michigan Good Food Charter goal of sourcing 20% of their food products from Michigan sources by 2020. Upon joining Cultivate Michigan, food service directors and buyers create accounts and fill out surveys to report what they spend both on featured foods and on local foods by product categories. Megan helps to develop these surveys, gathers and analyzes the data from them, and communicates with institutions to help them find better ways to track their food purchases.

Megan gets an inside look at the progress and has been able to see institutional food service directors and buyers’ effort and interest grow in the short time she has been working as Data Manager. For institutions who are just getting started buying local foods, she advises them to reach out in their respective parts of the state to see who is already doing so. Chances are, there are ready partners right there in their home communities. “One of the great things about the network is that it helps to bring together all of the different pieces and connects people across the food system so that they can help and work with each other.”