Our Work

Food Education & Workforce

Growing educated stakeholders, informed youth, and a robust food sector workforce.

The Council works to educate Rhode Island’s population to ensure that everyone knows how to be a good food system citizen, and to encourage those who want to find a career in the food sector to explore the opportunities it presents.

We seek to engage every teacher on important food system issues so that every child learns in school about how their food is grown, harvested, and processed. We support high school programs that lead to food sector careers and Associate and Bachelor’s degree programs designed to ensure a robust workforce educated to meet the current and future needs of the state food sector businesses.

We prioritize:

  • Hosting public education events on key food system topics
  • Lead legislative roundtables to inform elected officials about our policy priority areas
  • Support middle school teacher training programs covering our food system
  • High school Career and Technical Education programs in agriculture, culinary, and other food sector-related fields
  • Help create and strengthen existing in-state Associate and Bachelor degree programs
[The Environment, Sustainability and Management] degree program is a perfect example of industry and policy leaders collaborating with higher education to design and implement an academic and career pathway that responds to labor market demands. The green economy continues to show tremendous growth in Rhode Island, and CCRI, along with our partners at URI, RINLA, and RIFPC, is committed to providing high-quality, rigorous academic and experiential learning opportunities that will prepare Rhode Islanders for great careers right here in the Ocean State.”
— Meghan Hughes, president of CCRI