Name: Statewide & Regional Food Systems Plans National Community of Practice (NCoP) Session — Collective Impact: From Ideation to Action
Start: 2026-5-28EDT3:00PM
End: 2026-5-28EDT4:30PM

Statewide & Regional Food Systems Plans National Community of Practice (NCoP) Session — Collective Impact: From Ideation to Action

May 28, 2026 3:00PM - 4:30PM

Contact: Colleen Matts, matts@msu.edu and Lindsey Scalera, scaleral@msu.edu

Hosted by the Statewide and Regional Food System Plans National Community of Practice, this May Connection Session will focus on Collective Impact.

Collective Impact (and its updated versions throughout the years) is a framework for community-based change. Processes grounded in Collective Impact have successfully supported groups in addressing complex issues — issues that require more than one sector to work together. Collective Impact can bring us out of our silos and help us strategically contribute to the whole. In this Connection Session, two guest speakers from Illinois will join us to discuss this framework and how it is different from other types of collaboration. Through an interactive discussion, we will gauge interest in further conversation together on this topic.

Guest speakers:

Anya Knecht, Knecht Research Consulting & Design, and Owner and Farmer at Anya Farm
Megan Murphy, Food Systems Coordinator, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Coordinated by the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems, the Food Systems Planning National Community of Practice (NCoP) is a national, multi-state space that convenes leaders from current and emerging food system plan efforts across the country to increase our collective knowledge and capacity to collaborate and strengthen local and regional food systems using an equity approach.

Find more resources and tools on the NCoP website.