Connect with other small-scale farmers, fishermen, and food business owners in San Diego County.
Share classifieds, resources, funding opportunities, calls to action, dialogue on local issues, and much more.
Already a member? Open the Chat ↗
SD Community Food Chat runs on Slack, a simple group messaging app that helps people stay connected.
The current moderators are:
The community chat is for all who grow, catch, raise, prepare, distribute, and serve food in San Diego County.
This is a dedicated space for small to midsize farmers, ranchers, fishermen, beekeepers, value-added food processors, food distributors, restaurant owners and operators, caterers, retailers, micro-enterprise home kitchen operators (MEKHOs), street and sidewalk vendors, and pop-ups.
Through the chat, local food business owners and workers can connect and share classifieds, resources, funding opportunities, calls to action, dialogue on local issues, and much more.
Community Agreements
We’ve created a set of community agreements to ensure that everyone feels welcome, safe, and respected in this virtual space. We ask folks to agree to the following:
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Be polite, kind, and respectful in your interactions. The Community Chat is meant to be a positive experience for everyone. We do not tolerate racism, hateful language, or discrimination of any kind.
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Opt for respectful, constructive dialogue that emphasizes inquiry, listening, and understanding differences. Ask questions to clarify or dig deeper into a comment. We ask folks to stay curious and show empathy.
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The Community Chat is for people who work in San Diego County’s food system. Use this space to discuss important topics that are relevant for food business owners and workers. We will delete irrelevant advertisements and spam messages.
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Only share information if you are sure it is public knowledge and is not proprietary or otherwise sensitive information. We ask folks to honor confidentiality.
Using Slack
Slack is not a complex platform, and if you’ve ever been part of other group messages (group text, AOL Instant Messenger, WhatsApp group, Facebook Group, etc), you’ll have no problem picking it up. However, Slack does offer more ways to react to and organize messages, and customize your preferences.
Here are a few tips and tutorials on how to start using the platform.
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Joining the chat
In the form at the top of this page, enter your email address and click on “Get my invite.” Then, check your email for an invitation from Slack. Follow the instructions in the email to accept the invite, create a Slack account, and join SD Community Food Chat.
Keeping Slack easy to find on your devices
Pin Slack to your taskbar or dock (Windows | Mac)
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You do not need to customize any preferences in order to start using Slack. The software is ready to go as-is, and requires no setup. However, if you’d like to try making some adjustments, here are a few things you can change:
Customize theme (colors) ↗ and how messages are displayed ↗
Display text larger or smaller ↗
Change your default reaction emojis + skin tone ↗
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For the Community Chat to be a lively, buzzing forum where folks can exchange information and learning, we need more small food business owners and operators to join!
The best way to invite others in your network to join the Community Chat is to share this website with them. Folks simply need to enter their email address in the form at the top of this page to receive an invitation to join the Slack.
About the Local Food Economy Lab
The Community Chat is hosted by the Local Food Economy Lab.
The Local Food Economy Lab is a new program of the San Diego Food System Alliance that centers equity and community ownership, and works to support the viability of small-scale farmers, ranchers, fishermen, food business owners, and the communities they serve in San Diego County.
In addition to the Community Chat, the Local Food Economy Lab is piloting ways to facilitate peer-to-peer learning, share business resources, provide tailored business planning and coaching services, increase access to capital and markets, and organize policy advocacy efforts, all in support of local food businesses in our region.