COTTAGE GROVE — A local food movement is springing up and resident Beth Pool hopes more seeds will be planted at a Sustainable Cottage Grove and Oregon Food Bank event this weekend.

“We’re not a sleepy town, we’re an active town, and we’re engaged in our own future and food security,” said Pool, a member of Sustainable Cottage Grove and the lead coordinator for today’s FEAST event, which stands for “Food, Education, Agriculture Solutions Together.”

The free community event, held at the Cottage Grove Community Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is a venue for residents to discuss aspects of food security and insecurity in Cottage Grove, such as school nutrition, access to local and organic food, and the community’s rate of obesity and diet-related diseases.

The Oregon Food Bank has hosted FEAST events in more than 60 communities since 2009. The program is designed to help rural communities like Cottage Grove identify their main food security issues and take action to resolve them.

Some rural communities are food deserts far from grocery stores, while others have a high level of low-income residents, which is often tied to a high rate of diet-related diseases.

In Cottage Grove, 25 percent of 11th grade students are overweight or obese, according to the 2012 Lane County Community Health Needs Assessment.

“Just finding out what the issues are, that’s really important,” said Sharon Thornberry, Community Food Systems Manager for the Oregon Food Bank, who is involved in today’s event.

In the past, communities that hosted a FEAST event have gone on to start projects such as farmers markets, incentives for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, farm-to-school programs and food coalitions.

“We’re looking forward to having that same kind of success in Cottage Grove,” Thornberry said.

Throughout the FEAST event, five panelists will speak about schools, local agriculture, food distribution and retail, community health and how the food needs of the low-income community are being met.

Attendees are asked to bring a fresh food item to add to the community soup and salad lunch, prepared by culinary students.

After lunch, participants will break into groups based on their particular interests or concerns for the community. The groups will identify possible solutions to food security issues and set goals to work toward these solutions.

“It literally is bringing people to the table and finding out what they have in common,” Pool said. “There will be some people who don’t know each other, but they will all be there because of food.”

The groups will reconvene in May to see what progress has been made toward increased food security.

“My personal desire is to have Cottage Grovers look at the wealth that is in this community, that we have in ourselves, and tap into it,” Pool said.

Cottage Grove’s food movement really picked up last fall, Pool said, with the opening of the Coast Fork Farm Stand & Buying Club at 90 S. 10th St., across from Bohemia Park, in October. The stand, a permanent, indoor, year-round market, sells products from local bakers, vegetable growers and other area vendors.

Pool said she wants Saturday’s event to inspire even more such community action. “I’m hoping that a number of people come forward with renewed passion to build our community into a more self-reliant, resourceful and locally resilient community.”

Follow Kelsey on Twitter @kelseythalhofer . Email kelsey.thalhofer@registerguard.com .