Led by Lilian Brislen and Tim Woods, and assisted by Emily Spencer and Jairus Rossi, the University of Kentucky led a national team of university partners, community practitioners, and USDA AMS representatives in a project uncovering and addressing the needs of local food systems stakeholders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts by the University of Kentucky resulted in the following:

• Detailed Impact Assessments from August 2020 and May 2021 from 17 different local food systems stakeholders, from Farmers Markets to CSA and Agritourism operators to restaurants and commissary kitchens.
• 20 Listening Sessions with local food systems stakeholders
• 15 published Innovation Briefs, detailing innovations that local food systems stakeholders made during the COVID pandemic that they plan to continue on, beyond COVID
• 12-part webinar series about various aspects affecting the local food system in the midst of COVID
• a 2.0 project grant from USDA AMS to support our efforts moving forward