2026 Annual Food Justice Summit
February 26, 2026
The Wild Center
8:30am-5:00pm
In accordance with this year’s theme, “Community as Nourishment,” AFSN invites proposals that highlight the power of community to support and nourish through innovation, creativity, and a commitment to strengthening our Adirondack home. Recognizing the power of collaboration and the magic in social and community support, we ask for submissions that underscore and inspire our community spaces, using food as catalyst to inspire and drive social change. With the collective brainpower that drives this annual event, we seek to harness and leverage the knowledge, power, and support that our community brings together. When we come together, the seeds of inspiration, resilience, and solidarity are sown in our minds and actions.
Announing our 2026 Keynote
Ken Meter is one of the most experienced food system analysts in the U.S., integrating market analysis, business development, systems thinking, and social concerns. Meter holds47 years of experience in inner-city and rural community capacity building.
His local economic analyses have promoted local food networks in 140 regions in 40 states, two provinces, and three tribal nations. He developed a $9.85 million plan for local food investment for the state of South Carolina, and completed similar studies for Hawai’i, Alaska, Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, and Minnesota. Three of these were commissioned by-state departments of health. He researched the economic impacts of institutional food purchasing for the CDC and the Illinois Public Health Institute, and developed strategic regional food plans for Kansas City, Kansas; Maricopa County, Arizona; Metro Nashville; the San Luis Valley of Colorado; Polk County, Wisconsin; Great Falls, Montana; CentralLouisiana; the ArkLaTex region near Shreveport; Northeast Indiana; suburban Denver; rural North Dakota; the Rappahannock-Rapidan Region of Virginia; the Lakes Region in Maine; Lewiston-Auburn, Maine; and Spokane, Washington.
Meter consulted with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service and Colorado State University to help write a toolkit for measuring economic impacts of local food development. He is currently one of 3 co-editors of a forthcoming international book covering food system assessments to be published by Routledge (UK). Meter is also a member of the International Economic Development Council, and has presented at several annual meetings. He has taught at the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Minnesota.
Hotel Block
Hotel Saranac, located in downtown Saranac Lake, offers a discounted rate to Food Justice Summit attendees. Conveniently located a 20 minute drive from the Wild Center, Hotel Saranac is close to restaurants, shopping, and all things Adirondacks.