January Speaker Series: Building Lasting Food Security Partnerships with Local Producers

Erin Galloway, Executive Director of the Edible Prairie Project, David Johnson, Executive Director with Rooted in Wyoming, Odessa Oldham, the Food Sourcing Manager of the Wyoming Food Bank, and Leann Miller, Owner and Operator of Eat Wyoming, will discuss their organizations' success in building relationships with local producers, and sourcing and buying local food for their operations.

Edible Prairie Project, Rooted in Wyoming, and Eat Wyoming received grant funding from the Pilot Program 2025: Forward Contracting for Local Food Purchasing. Each were able to leverage their existing relationships with local producers to write and receive this grant, and use the monies to purchase and distribute local foods for their food hubs, farmers markets, and food pantries/distribution.

They will speak about how to reach out to and develop a relationship with local producers, understand the market value of locally grown foods, and coordinate the process of getting the product off the farm/ranch and into storage.

We will also have producers who are currently growing for the above organizations present to answer questions and provide prospective on forward contracting with food security organizations.

Bios:

Erin Galloway helped create Edible Prairie Project in order to form an organization committed to using local food as a solution.

Erin is focused on helping agriculture producers sell their products locally and works hard to build a thriving local food economy.

Leann Miller, better known as "The Veggie Lady", is the owner of EAT Wyoming, an on-line Farmer’s Market, where those wanting fresh, locally grown fruit and vegetables can sign up for a Veggie Box delivered to Casper, Lander, Sheridan, Worland, and Laramie. Miller grew up on a dairy farm in Minnesota, and has been a local food advocate her whole life.

David Johnson was born and raised on a wheat farm near Kimball, Nebraska. He studied agriculture at the Universities of Wyoming and Arizona. David has agriculture policy experience working in Washington, DC, served as a commercial alfalfa & clover breeder, and most recently international agricultural research and development experience throughout Asia, Africa and the Americas while serving as Deputy Director General Research at the World Vegetable Center based in Taiwan. David is passionate to inspire the next generation of agriculturalists to ensure food security.

Odessa was raised on a diverse livestock operation, teachings of her familyl egacy/traditions, was highly involved in FFA, and became an advocate for Indigenous people at an early age. Her love grew for advocacy when she was a National FFA officer candidate and worked with Dr. Larry Case on growing more FFA programs on reservations. Odessa was on the founder team for Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative. She worked in DC as an advocate speaking at Agriculture and Indian Country issues with IFAI and Intertribal Agriculture Council. While she was finishing her bachelor’s at the University of Wyoming, she continued her Diné (Navajo) legacy of jewelers and silversmiths, she now has an established jewelry business Indigenous Sister and is a 5th generation jewelry/silversmith. Odessa is currently at the Food Bank of Wyoming Food Sourcing Manager, serves on the Feeding America Elevating Voices Board, and the Sweetgrass Food Lodge Board. Aside from ranch work Odessa loves mountain time riding horses, hunting, and fishing, especially with her daughter Logan.

Our speaker series would happen virtually January 29th, 2025 from 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Zoom links will be distributed to attendees via email from info@wyfoodcoalition.org on the Monday before January 29, 2025.