The Central Appalachia Food Heritage project (CAFH), working with local and regional partners, is a collaborative, community-based effort that helps to build knowledge about the foodways of central Appalachia, and cultivate opportunities to build community vibrancy and thriving local economies. The CAFH project is a new effort, and the goals and activities are evolving with input from project partners. We welcome your ideas, participation, and suggestions as this project develops – please see below for our contact information.
The CAFH effort is being built with many local and regional partners
throughout the central Appalachia region of Southwest Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Ohio, and eastern Tennessee. The UVa Institute of Environmental Negotiation (IEN) is coordinating the effort, and additional project partners are always welcome.
CAFH seeks to build knowledge about heritage place-based foods and to create future opportunities for economic development and community-building. We are actively seeking feedback on ideas for the effort, and welcome additional project partners (which currently includes the Southern Foodways Alliance, Southwest Virginia Cultural Heritage Foundation, Skyhouse Films, The Farm 2U Collaborative, Agee Films, and Virginia Commonwealth University, and other regional partnerships). Several existing organization and networks have built tremendous capacity around local foods throughout Central Appalachia including Appalachian Sustainable Development, the Central Appalachian Network, Center for Economic Options, Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, ‘Round the Mountain: Southwest Virginia’s Artisan Network, Southwest Virginia Cultural Heritage Foundation, and several other groups.
The information collected through this initiative will be used to create audio, visual, print, and film to share stories and knowledge of regional food heritage and celebrate these communities.
Download the one page project overview here.
We look forward to hearing from you. Please contact Christine by email at: appfoodheritage@gmail.com or 434-924-0263.
