afpc events & conferences, partner spotlight & events
2025 Alaska Food Festival & Conference Planning Partner Highlight - Kodiak Archipelago Leadership Institute
By Sundance Visser, Operations and Finance Director, AFPC
It’s conference planning season! The Alaska Food Policy Council’s Conference Planning Committee is busy organizing the 2025 Alaska Food Festival & Conference. This will be our eighth conference, occurring every 18 months, and it’s our first time taking the event off Alaska’s road system. We’ll be convening in Kodiak on March 28-29, 2025, with some pre-conference programming on March 27th. Registration is open, and our Session Proposal form is live. We invite you, our food systems supporters, to participate!
AFPC’s goals for the conference are to:
- Increase awareness of Alaska food issues among the general population;
- Provide training, resources, and networking opportunities to increase involvement in local food issues by community members and decision-makers; and
- Increase connections and build community between the public, Alaska food businesses, NGOs, governmental entities, Tribal entities, and others to support local economic development and innovative solutions.
We are excited to build upon this year’s theme – Community Table: Collaboration for a Sustainable Food Future. Planning the conference is a collaborative process, and AFPC relies on the energy, ideas, and connections of our Alaskan food systems community. This year, we have four strong planning partners: Kodiak Archipelago Leadership Institute, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Kodiak Area Native Association, and Kodiak Harvest Food Co-op. Over the next few months, AFPC will highlight the inspiring work of these organizations. We are grateful for their engagement and honored by the support from Kodiak.
The Kodiak Archipelago Leadership Institute (KALI) is a community-based and Alaska Native-led non-profit based in Kodiak, Alaska whose mission is to “support the long-term sustainability of our region’s coastal communities of Alutiiq heritage”. KALI has been a valuable collaborator on many AFPC projects and working groups. AFPC staff has learned from and is inspired by KALI’s Rural Regional Leadership Forum (started in 2005) with its regular in-person community meetings that involve deep listening and discussion. KALI’s staff members bring accountability to AFPC’s Conference Planning Committee with ideas around respect of place and following up on their suggestions.
KALI’s Alutiiq Grown program supports soil, hydroponic, and mariculture farmers in six communities (Ahkiok, Kodiak, Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, Ouzinkie, and Port Lions) around the Kodiak Archipelago. Alutiiq Grown is a regional learning community for Alaska Native and rural farmers to exchange information, participate in training, and plan for long-term regional food sovereignty. KALI also operates the Qik’rtaq Food Hub which supports equitable food distribution to rural and Alaska Native families in the region. KALI will share this wide-ranging view of regional food security that prioritizes feeding their people “from seed to stomach” at the conference.
“The Alaska Food Policy Council’s Food Festival and Conference is an amazing opportunity for our region’s farmers and tribal leadership to learn from and network with producers from around the state as we all work towards Collaboration for a Sustainable Food Future. Our region’s Alutiiq Grown farmers are looking forward to being part of this exciting opportunity and we thank AFPC for their efforts in bringing the conference to Kodiak,” Robbie Townsend Vennel, Executive Director of KALI
We are so grateful for the energy our partners bring to the planning process and the deep care they have for their communities. AFPC engages with community organizations to ensure that each conference represents the place-based priorities and values of those living where we are hosting events. The 2025 conference is particularly impactful as we travel to an island community. Having so much community input as we build this conference collectively is invaluable.
