I wanted to update the Farm to Table community on the progress that has been made since my initial post on taking the site in a new direction.

First of all, I was overwhelmed at the outpouring of support, enthusiasm, and inspiration that came my way in the wake of that post. I have made more friends in the past two weeks than I made in two months at college, and while I haven’t met any of you face-to-face, I already feel a strong connection borne of our mutual passion for promoting local food and all the things that go with it. The willingness to band together and help shoulder the burden is truly inspiring to me, so I want to thank everyone that has offered to help out as well as all our loyal readers who have stuck by as we work through this transition. 

So, what have we accomplished in the last two weeks?

My main goal has been to gather a group of committed authors to write either intermittently or regularly on a wide range of topics. We have received two offers for regular columns, several interested guest posters, and a large number of bloggers willing to cross-post. There will be no shortage of interesting and relevant content once the articles start coming in, and we will be covering a lot of ground. Furthermore, the sheer level of experience and knowledge that we have brought together already is pretty impressive. As we continue to develop as a community, I can only see our influence growing even more. A number of people have also agreed to take on leadership roles, which will enable us to reach out to more farmers, restaurants, artisans, and regular foodies than just one of us could have done alone. I must admit I was worried I had bitten off more than I could chew when I first signed on for this, but I’m confidant that we’ve got a great, dedicated team of people that will turn Farm to Table into an amazingly productive and collaborative community.

On the more technical side, we have registered and set up our new domain. We will be taking some time to make the transition, so everyone can update their links and RSS feeds. Pay attention to upcoming posts and messages from us for more information on that. We will be using a new layout as well, which I’m excited to implement.

And if you’re still wondering what you can do to help, simply to spread the word. Let people know about us: farmers, restaurateurs, anyone interested in the local and sustainable foods movement. The biggest help to an aspiring online community is visibility and traffic, so let your friends know. Post our articles to your Facebook and Twitter feeds if you don’t already. E-mail, share, whatever it takes. I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but sometimes a reminder helps. Let people know that we’re taking a new direction as well.

So that’s what I’ve been working on: solidifying the goals and aims of the new Farm to Table, gathering and coordinating a team of people to lead the new site, and sorting out our technical requirements. We are expecting to have new content and articles coming up soon, so stay posted. We are just a voice of the larger sustainable food community, so again I will thank you the readers, our contributors, and all the other bloggers out there who share ideas and keep the movement going.

Image source: greenhem on Flikr