Posted June 8, 2026 at 07:52pm by VDW Admin
Request for Proposals for Breakout Sessions at the 2026 Farm to Plate Annual Gathering is Open!
Taking Stock and Quilting the Future: Stitching Land, Farms, and Markets Together for a Stronger Food System
Dates: November 19-20, 2026
Location: Burke Mountain Hotel
Vermont Farm to Plate is excited to invite network members and non‑members who work across Vermont’s food system to submit proposals for our 16th Annual Gathering. The theme this year is “Taking Stock and Quilting the Future: Stitching Land, Farms, and Markets Together for a Stronger Food System”.
As we work towards the goals identified in the 2021-2030 Vermont Farm to Plate System Strategic Plan, as well as other statewide and regional goals, this year’s Gathering is an opportunity to dig into where we are, what we’ve learned, and where coordinated action is still needed to achieve and continue to advance those goals. More than halfway through the decade, our community has navigated a pandemic, historic floods, and shifting political and economic conditions, all while continuing to work on strengthening Vermont’s food system.
We are seeking session proposals that help participants use experience- and evidence-informed approaches to support programmatic and organizational decision-making. We are particularly interested in approaches that help participants adapt, pivot, or go deeper in their work to advance our collective goals of a food system that is just, environmentally resilient, and economically viable.
Sessions should draw from data, lived experience, evaluation, research, case studies, community knowledge, and/or lessons from on-the-ground work to inform discussion and action.
Strong proposals are interactive, clearly aligned with the Gathering theme, and designed with participant engagement in mind. We are especially interested in sessions that help participants reflect on progress, share lessons learned, explore challenges, inspire and foster connection, and identify practical next steps for advancing Vermont’s food system.
Priority Topic Areas
All proposals must engage at least one of the four strategic goal categories of the Vermont Agriculture and Food System Strategic Plan 2021-2030 within the context of the overall theme:
- Economic Development
- Environmental Sustainability (includes land use and access)
- Healthy Local Food For All
- Racial Equity
Desired Session Types
We welcome three distinct—but equally valued—session types. We encourage co-facilitation. The number of facilitators per session is capped at 4.
| Type | Facilitator Role | Participant Experience | Best For | Planned Session Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skill-Sharing | Teacher / Coach | Learn & Practice | Skills, tools, frameworks | 90 minutes |
| Findings from the Field | Sense-maker / Guide | Learn, Reflect, Connect & Inspired | Lessons from practice | 90 minutes |
| Working Sessions | Convener | Explore & Co-Create | Shared challenges without a clear answer | 2 hours |
Skill - Sharing | Findings from the Field | Working Sessions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facilitator Role | Teacher / Coach Actively teaches practical skills and guides learning. | Sense-maker / Guide Interprets and connects common themes, surfaces key lessons, and guides participants in reflection and/or to draw inspiration from real-world experiences. Convenes storytellers, practitioners, researchers, panels, or case-study conversations. | Convener Frames the challenge and guides collaborative exploration. Facilitators should come into the session curious, without a predetermined answer to the challenge they’re surfacing. |
| Participants' Experience | Learn & practice to build confidence using a new skill or tool | Learn, Reflect, Connect Draw lessons, inspiration, and practical ideas from real-world experiences while reflecting on how they may apply to their own work. | Explore & Co-Create Share perspectives, collaborate with others, and help shape / co-create ideas, possibilities, relationships, future collaborations, and/or next steps. |
| Description | Highly interactive session where the facilitator is actively teaching practical, cross-cutting skills applicable across roles and sectors. Facilitators demonstrate approaches, guide practice, and help participants build confidence using the tool, method, or framework. | Sessions grounded in real-world experiences, projects, research, models, case studies, or story-telling that share lessons learned and explore what those lessons might mean for Vermont’s food system, and participants’ own work. Strong sessions will answer “so what?”, not simply “here’s the project we did.” | Facilitated explorations of a discrete real food-system challenge where participants collectively explore barriers, opportunities, tensions, possible next steps, and/or solutions. These sessions are best suited for shared challenges without a clear answer or path forward that benefit from multiple perspectives and shared problem-solving. Facilitators are leveraging the knowledge, expertise, and lived experience of participants. |
| Best For | Teaching skills, frameworks, facilitation methods, tools, or approaches that participants can apply in their own work. | Real-world projects, research, models, lived experiences, or story-telling that offer lessons, insights, inspiration and practical implications for VT's food system. Strong proposals will include intentional opportunities for participant questions, discussion, reflection, application, or connection. | Exploring shared challenges that do not yet have clear answer(s) or agreed-upon next steps. Facilitator(s) may be experiencing this challenge in their own work and seeking input from a specific audience or cohort, or exploring a wider food systems challenge. |
| Example Topics (not an exhaustive list - other topics welcome!) |
|
|
|
| Planned Session Time | 90 minutes | 90 minutes | 2 hours |
Possible Participatory Formats Include:
Fishbowl discussions, scenario planning, facilitated dialogue, collaborative problem-solving, small-group design work, roundtables, or other participatory approaches.
Equity & Inclusion Expectations
Farm to Plate is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI‑B). Proposals must explicitly integrate DEI‑B in both content and facilitation design, and should feature a diversity of voices—especially farmers, farm and food‑system workers, and individuals from historically underrepresented or marginalized communities (race, gender, age, geography, ability, and role in the food system). Additionally, proposals should take into consideration Farm to Plate’s Guiding Principles.
Design Guidelines
- Evidence or Experience Informed: Grounded in data, qualitative and quantitative evaluation, lived experience, story-telling, or lessons learned (how a program used feedback (take in qualitative/quantitative data) from participants/community served to improve their programming/improve decision-making).
- Action‑oriented: Participants should leave with something of value, whether a practical tool, new relationship, fresh perspective, inspiration, deeper understanding, or ideas for future action.
- Interactive & Participatory: Prioritizes participation over lecture. The session type will have different ratios of lecture to participation by their nature.
- Collaboration‑first: Creates opportunities for connection, alignment, and relationship building that either sparks new partnerships or strength:ns existing ones.
- Innovative & creative: Thinks outside the box on session design and facilitation approach enhances collaboration and forward solutions thinking.
Evaluation Criteria
- Proposals will be scored on:
- Alignment with theme, priority topic areas, & design guidelines
- Strength of design & clarity of learning objectives
- Inclusion of diverse perspectives and voices
- Practical relevance and applicability
- Potential to generate impactful action, learning, and/or collaboration
Financial Support for Facilitation
Session facilitators receive complimentary registration and lunch on the day of their session.
Farm to Plate offers a $200 honorarium, plus mileage reimbursement, to any facilitator who will NOT be compensated by their employer or another organization to speak at the Annual Gathering.
Submitting Your Proposal
Applications will be reviewed by a panel comprised of Farm to Plate Steering Committee members and staff. Submissions are due by Friday, August 7th, 2026. Please reach out to Hannah Baxter, Vermont Farm to Plate Network Manager, with any questions: hannah@vsjf.org