This project, funded through a USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) seed grant, builds on the Center's Virginia Tech College of Agriculture-funded Cultivating Rural Vitality (CRRV) initiative to advance a shared plan for food system resilience in Virginia. It aims to build a statewide stakeholder network, develop and administer an statewide resilience assessment tool, and lay the framework for a Virginia food systems resilience plan and backbone food systems resilience planning and policy entity.

Activities include: 

  • Conducting a statewide value chain assessment related to food aggregators, hubs, and auctions. 
  • Assess food systems resilience statewide.
  • Support regional councils and networks to develop or strengthen their coordination around resilience work through regional convenings.
  • Analyze state and local policies for how they reflect resilience principles.
  • Host a statewide summit to continue to refine priorities, share updates, and build statewide network capacity. 
  • Develop the framework for a statewide food systems resilience plan.
  • Build a hub to serve as a backbone entity for food systems resilience planning and science-policy coordination in partnership with our many partners across the Commonwealth. 

This project is supported by a NIFA AFRI FAS seed grant, (#2026-07181).  from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy. 

For questions, please contact Dr. Lia Kelinsky-Jones (project PI) at kelinskyjones@vt.edu.