Conference held to expand food market

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - Sunday was the first day of the 4th Annual Western New York Connections Conference held at the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute to help expand the local food market.

Keynote speaker Dr. Oran Hesterman, also the President of Fairfood Network said, "It's important to support the local food economy. The more we have local food dollars circulating locally, the more jobs we are creating locally."

Dr. Hesterman is the president of Fairfood Network which is non-for-profit based in Southeast Michigan. He spoke on some of the programs that have been successful there at Sundays event.

"The Double-Up Food Bucks Program allows anyone who has their food assistant card to be able to go to farmers markets. If you spend $20, you get an additional $20 on locally grown fruits and vegetable," said Dr. Hesterman.

This program was used by 90,000 people and brought in $2 million dollars to 700 farmers.

When asked what they hope to gain from the conference, Lisa Tucker, the creator of the conference and co-founder of Field and Fork said, "I would love local food to be the norm and not the exception. I would love farmers market's to thrive but I would love Wegmans, Tops, and all the hospital and schools to source as much food as they can from local food sources."

Field and Fork is researching localy supply and demand and addressing the barriers to make that a reality. Day two of the conference will be geared more for the farmers, chefs, and food buyers. It will start at 9:15 a.m. Monday morning.