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the purpose of acting as conveners of disparate groups that come together to achieve common goals <br /> centered around food — be it nutrition , access , economic development, sustainability, etc . When <br /> brought together in the same room , these different groups find that many of their individual efforts <br /> help accomplish the goals of another group ( Ex . A public school 's desire to serve local , fresh food in the <br /> cafeteria can work in concert with a farmer 's desire to sell more of their product locally and survive as a <br /> family farm . The gap in the supply chain of scaling up produce grown by local farmers to supply that <br /> school with enough product could be filled by a local entrepreneur ) . The new- ness of the food council <br /> model in this state means that the learning curve is steep , and the various councils have much to learn <br /> from each other to capitalize off of other 's successes and anticipate pitfalls . We plan to collaborate with <br /> other councils to engage in this learning process and better serve the residents of Orange County. <br /> Learning best practices and collaborating with other regional resources will help OCFC better <br /> accomplish all of the mentioned program goals . <br /> c ) Describe the community need or problem to be addressed in relation to the Chapel Hill <br /> Human Services Needs Assessment , Orange County BOCC Goals and Priorities , Town of <br /> Chapel Hill Council Goals , Carrboro Board Priorities , or other community priorities ( i . e . <br /> Council / Board Goals ) . Reference local data ( using the provided links , i . e . Chapel Hill Human <br /> Services Needs Assessment) to support the need for this program . <br /> Orange County has over 15 , 000 residents living in low- income/low food access areas with <br /> 15 . 4 % of residents experiencing food insecurity. The rate is even higher among children in <br /> Orange County ( 20 . 1 % ) . There is a disparity between north and south Orange County with <br /> children receiving Free and Reduced Price Lunch (43 % vs . 28 % ) . A further challenge to our <br /> county food system is that the average age of a farmer in Orange County is nearing retirement <br /> age ( 58 . 6 years ) . (US Census; US Ag Census data) These statistics provide evidence of <br /> community need for all four of our proposed goals . <br />