Local farmers and ranchers, along with the community are expected to come together today at Beaufort County Community College for a public forum on Beaufort County’s local food system.

The Beaufort County local food system forum is from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. tonight in Building 8 Auditorium on the campus of Beaufort County Community College.

Today’s forum is for anybody who grows, fishes, processes and sells food in Beaufort County. This event is open to the general public and free to attend.

This is a chance for the community to come together and strengthen the local food system, according to Lindsay Lassiter, intern for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association.

In the fall, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association did an assessment of local food, with the assistance of the Mid-East Commission in Beaufort County. What they found, according to Lassiter, were challenges and assets for people’s ability to purchase food within the local food system.

“One way people are trying to overcome the challenges across the whole state of North Carolina is by developing policy councils,” Lassiter said.

The goal of the CFSA is for every county in the state to have a council or a food network. Lassiter would like to see people from public health, the school system, nonprofits, emergency food pantries, farmers and restaurants turn out for today’s public forum.

“Everyone has a stake in our local food system,” Lassiter said. “This is something we want everybody in the community to be a part of.”

At the forum, the CFSA will give a background on the health of the community and what they did during the assessment last fall.

One of the hopes for Lassiter is for the attendees of the forum is to form a task force that will develop into a council and take leadership in Beaufort County.