BY PEPPER FISHER
Olympia – Washington State has declared September 2025 ‘Eat Local Month’. Officially, it’s a declaration that “affirms and honors the diverse and vibrant community of farmers, fishermen, and food artisans who provide fresh, healthy, and sustainably produced food for us all to enjoy.”
What does that mean here in Clallam County? Jessica Gillis, the Food & Farming Program Manager at sustainableconnections.org, says it’s about supporting the people in your community whose job it is to feed us good, wholesome food.
“Exactly. It’s all about supporting local farmers and food producers. And while we want folks do that year ’round, September is just a wonderful time to shine a light on local food, because it’s the beautiful part of the harvest season. So, we’re at the end of summer and we’ve, you know…around here in the Pacific Northwest, it takes a while to warm up. So finally by September, we’ve got all those beautiful tomatoes and peppers and eggplants, and we’re coming then also into fall harvest. So you start to see pears and squash and other things that remind us of fall. So, just a lovely time of year to focus on local food and bring a little light to it.”
Gillis’ organization, Sustainable Connections, works with the WSU Extension offices and other organizations to promote local food producers, partly through their Washington Food Finder web page. It connects to not just local farmers, but fishmongers, egg and meat producers, local food festivals, farmers markets and more.
Gillis acknowledges that doing all your food shopping with local producers is not an option for most of us, that really isn’t the message behind “Eat Local Month”.
“I think people sometimes get a little caught up in the “all-or-nothing”. They think, “I can’t afford to buy everything local.” And that’s okay. You don’t have to buy everything local. You can choose, you know, if you happen to know a farmer that does eggs, and that’s the thing you choose to put your money into, great. Do that. If a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is affordable for you, go for it. Look also for opportunities with SNAP benefits, and EBT, at farmer’s markets, where you can use those services to buy local food. So, there’s a lot of ways to interact with the local food system.”
There are a lot of ways to savor the bounty around us during Eat Local Month. Go on a farm tour. Pull over to that fruit stand or egg stand along the road. Find a fishmonger on the Washington Food Finder website. Or enjoy a meal from one of the many farm-to-table restaurants featuring local ingredients.
Explore Eat Local Month opportunities at eatlocalfirst.org/eat-local-month/