Yay! We're so excited that you want to celebrate with us this September for Eat Local Month! Let's get your info!

Contact Details

Your Business Name:

First Name

Last Name

Phone

Email

I represent a:

Farm - I want to be a stop on the Whatcom County Farm Tour on Sept. 16th!	Farm - I want to partner with a local food business to supply them with local food for Eat Local Month!
Restaurant / Cafe - I want to be a featured food business for Eat Local Month!	Restaurant / Cafe - I don't want to be featured, but I do want to connect with a local farm to find local ingredients!
Community Organization or non-food business - I want to promote or table at an Eat Local Month event.

Are you a current Sustainable Connections Member?

Yes!NoI'm Not Sure

Tell us a little about your business, and any ideas you have around participating in Eat Local Month:

The 2023 Whatcom County Farm Tour will be one day only this year, with 12-15 farms featured on Saturday September 16th from 10AM-4PM. Farms will be chosen based on their answers to the following questions. We may not be able to include all farms that are interested. Below we have outlined the standard requirements for Farm Tour Participants. Please read thoroughly, and check each box next to the listed requirements, acknowledging that you can meet each requirement!

1. Attend REQUIRED Meeting:

There will be a meeting in July with a Sustainable Connections staff member to discuss your education plan. You will receive an email after being secured to set a day & time.
An orientation during the first week of September. This meeting is crucial to your preparedness and success. You will pick up your tour day materials (signage, welcome booth materials, etc.) at this meeting.

Yes. I commit to attend both meetings!

Enter two potential dates and times you are available for a 30 minute meeting with a Sustainable Connections Food & Farming team member in the month of JULY.

3. Education and activities: We ask that you do something beyond your normal farm operations to teach the public about local agriculture. Activities can be just for fun, but we ask that you offer at least one opportunity for education. Sustainable Connections staff can help you plan this. What would your Farm offer for education and activities? Please describe:

Yes! I commit to have facilitated educational activities

Describe your ideas for educational activities and engaging your visitors:

4. Toward Zero Waste: All Sustainable Connections events, including the Whatcom County Farm Tour are Toward Zero Waste. We can work with you to make sure that you have adequate recycling and composting services for the day of the event. ALL disposable materials must be compostable (paper or corn based cups or utensils) or recyclable. No Styrofoam.

Are you willing to ensure your serving ware is compostable/ recyclable and help educate your visitors?

Yes!

5. Restroom Facilities: You must have a public restroom or rent a portable toilet for the day. Do you have adequate restroom facilities or can you rent a portable toilet?

Yes, I have public restrooms availableYes, I can rent a portable toilet for the day of the farm tour

6. Fee: The fee for participation is $75 for Sustainable Connections members. Please become a member if you haven’t already! Fees are used to cover a small fraction of the costs of staff planning time, promotion, and printed materials for the tour. (Fees will not be collected until we have reviewed all applicants and finalized participants.)

I have read and understand the fee responsibilities explained above.

7. Certificate of Liability: We will need a copy with Sustainable Connections named as an Additional Insured on a minimum $500,000 liability policy (this should be quick, easy and affordable by contacting your insurance company). We need this certificate in hand ASAP after your farm is confirmed as a stop.

Yes, I can meet the above requirements for the Certificate of Liability

8. Staffing/Volunteers: You will need to have adequate staffing to accommodate several hundred people on the day of your tour. You agree to arrange your own greeter and have staff on-site to answer questions, direct parking, guide activities and conduct sales.

Yes, I can provide adequate staffing for the day of the tour

9. Sanitation: It’s your responsibility to ensure that pathogens don’t get transferred between humans, animals, or crops. We encourage you to have a hand wash station, or at least have sanitizer available. You may also consider having a place to sanitize shoe soles.

Yes, I understand I am responsible for providing appropriate sanitation

10. Parking: Farms can anticipate an average range of 200-500 visitors on the day of the farm tour and should be able to accommodate 40-50 parking spots at any given point in the day (10AM-4PM). Also consider this as you appropriate your staffing needs, whether or not your location will need a parking attendant/guide.

Yes, I understand I am responsible for providing appropriate parking space and attendance.

If you have any questions about Farm Tour participation, please don't hesitate to call or email Jessica Gillis at | 360-647-7093 ext. 115 | JessicaG@sustainableconnections.org

Yay! We're so glad you want to be a FEATURED RESTAURANT during Eat Local Month!

We pour our hearts and all of our resources into making Eat Local Month successful. We just need a few things from you to make it all jive! Please read through mindfully, and check the boxes to acknowledge your role as a featured restaurant / food business:
*Feel free to call/email Jessica G. if you have any questions about this application!

Eat Local Month Specials

Featured restaurants need to be current Sustainable Connections members, and commit to feature one or more Eat Local Month menu items composed of 50% or more locally sourced ingredients for the whole month of September.

We know you are proud to serve locally sourced food! We also want to make it easy for people to recognize the extra effort you put into local sourcing!

Your Eat Local Month menu items should be accompanied by the Eat Local First Fork icon which is a symbol (similar to a gluten-free or vegan icon) to identify an item that contains 50% or more locally sourced ingredients. We will provide the graphics if you do not already have them.

Yes, I commit to offering one or more special Eat Local Month menu items, composed of 50% or more locally* sourced ingredients.

Yes, I commit to including the Eat Local First fork icon next to menu items that are composed of 50% or more locally* sourced ingredients, and promoting farms/local sources whenever possible.

*We define local food as products that are grown, raised, harvested or made in Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and Island counties.

Promotion

A huge portion of the success of Eat Local Month is directly tied to our local Producers and Buyers actively promoting one another. We know that farms are proud to be featured in local restaurants, and local restaurants are proud to be able to tell their local food seeking customers exactly where the kale in their salad came from, or that the cheese on their pizza was crafted within a 20 mile radius! We need our participants to be committed to telling the story of their local sourcing in the following ways:

I commit to having something on each table for the month of September that tells the consumer where we sourced the local ingredients in our Eat Local Month specials. This can be on your menu and/or a table tent.I commit to making sure all of my staff are aware of the Eat Local Month Specials, and will be able to tell customers the farms we are featuring to create them (i.e. "We have two Eat Local Month Specials going! A caprese salad with basil and tomatoes from Twin Cedars Farm, and Mozzarella from Ferndale Farmstead..." etc. We commit to using our social media channels to co-promote our featured farms, and Eat Local Month at least once a week for the month of September. (i.e. one post a week to Instagram/ facebook to tell consumers about your locally sourced menu items, and/or highlights about why you source from the farms that you do "Look at these bright tomatoes delivered to us fresh from Rabbit Fields Farm just this morning - these beauties will be featured in our #EatLocalMonth Special - caprese appetizer for just $8!")

Please know that the Food & Farming team will be generously supporting you in the months prior to, as well as during the entire month of September. We will provide plug & play content and examples for you so that you don't have to spend time creating content if you don't want to! Most businesses report a huge sense of value and connection when they make the effort to co-promote each other - It's pretty Special! (Click here to see some previous examples from Eat Local Month promotion successes)

Set up a time for us to come in and brief your staff

We’ll pop in for a short and sweet 15 min meeting with your staff at the end of August to give them the Eat Local Month rundown! You'd be surprised how far this brief interaction goes to boost your team's pride and ownership when they feel connected to the story of our local farmers - it truly adds more meaning to their work, and adds value for your customers!

Yes, I commit to scheduling a meeting with a Food & Farming team member in August to brief my staff on the purpose and play-by-play for Eat Local Month!

Let us know what Days / times will work best to gather your whole team for a meeting (we've had best success scheduling to pop in during all-staff meetings - and we are happy to accommodate!)

What Day of the Week is best to meet with your staff?

Time

If you have any questions about Eat Local Month, please don't hesitate to call or email Jessica Gillis at
| 360-647-7093 ext. 115 | Jessicag@sustainableconnections.org