A Day of Connection at the 2026 NEMI Regional Food Summit
From the first conversations of the morning to the final reflections of the day, the 2026 NEMI Regional Food Summit showed what can happen when farmers, food businesses, resource providers, community health professionals, and regional partners gather in one place. The summit offered useful information and practical resources, but its greatest strength was the opportunity to build relationships across Northeast Michigan’s food system.
A Room Built for Connection
Participants arrived ready to learn, share, and meet others doing related work throughout the region. For some, the day created new connections. For others, it offered a welcome chance to see colleagues they usually know only through virtual meetings, reconnect with people they met at last year’s summit, and strengthen partnerships that had continued to grow over the past year or longer.
Attendees especially appreciated the diversity in the room. Farmers and growers joined market managers, business owners, community health workers, economic development partners, and organizations offering technical assistance and funding resources. That mix allowed conversations to move beyond a single perspective. Participants could hear directly from people doing the work of growing and selling food while also learning from organizations prepared to support them.
Learning Grounded in Experience
Throughout the day, presentations and conversations explored opportunities and challenges facing the regional food system. Participants heard personal stories, practical examples, and candid lessons from people working in agriculture, food access, business development, and community health. Participants highlighted the storytelling of Cindi Apsey, Crazy Lady Farm (Spruce)and the experiences shared by Dion Stepansk, Presque Isle Farm (Posen), Cathy Bragg, Bragg Family Farm (Gaylord) and David Coveyou, Coveyou Farm (Petoskey) as memorable parts of the day.
The resource tables and curbside consulting sessions gave attendees another way to turn ideas into useful conversations. These conversations helped participants identify contacts they could follow up with after the summit for technical assistance, market support, cooperative development, agritourism resources, and grant opportunities.
Ideas Became Next Steps
The clearest sign of the summit’s impact was the number of attendees who left with a specific next step. Some planned to explore an MDARD grant, strengthen their financial knowledge, rethink strategies for a produce business, or learn more about agritourism on a smaller scale. Others intended to share new information with customers and community partners, shop more locally, explore community supported agriculture, or continue developing Food as Medicine efforts in Northeast Michigan.
The summit also reinforced the value of regional collaboration. Participants spoke about staying better connected beyond their immediate communities, getting to know more partners across Northeast Michigan, and continuing to support growers with funding and technical expertise. In a time when many issues can divide communities, one attendee described the day as “a reminder of the kinship that can grow through food and farming.”
Listening and Looking Ahead
Participants praised the sessions, beautiful setting, lunch, resource information, personal stories, and pace of the day. Attendees also identified topics they would like to explore more deeply, including grant writing, funding, business planning, farmer income taxes, Food as Medicine, Farm to School, distribution networks, connections between retailers and producers, farmers market development, and the use of technology and social media in production and marketing. This feedback will help shape future opportunities that respond to the needs of the region.
Continuing the Work Together
The 2026 NEMI Regional Food Summit was more than a series of presentations. It was a day of introductions, reunions, shared experiences, and practical planning. Participants left with new contacts, renewed energy, and ideas they could carry back to their farms, businesses, organizations and communities.
Thank you to every presenter, resource provider, farmer, partner, and participant who contributed to the day. The strength of Northeast Michigan’s food system is rooted in the people willing to share what they know, listen to one another, and keep building together. We look forward to seeing how and where those connections will lead us into the future, together.
