Oregon Food Trails
The Oregon Food Trails program aims to cultivate innovative partnerships between culinary and agricultural businesses, strengthen local food economies and create unique experiences for visitors and locals alike.
Program implementation provides communities a way to package and showcase their local farm, ranch, seafood and other agricultural assets, as well as local culinary businesses that feature locally-sourced products.
The objectives of the Oregon Food Trails program are to:
- Drive visitation to agricultural and culinary businesses in destinations that offer high-quality and locally-sourced consumable products in a compelling way
- Deliver excellent visitor experiences by increasing business engagement and collaboration
- Inspire visitors to explore businesses that they might not find on their own
- Encourage visitors to stay in destinations longer, visit in shoulder seasons and consider repeat visitation
Learn more and apply to develop a food trail in your community.
Learn more about what the Oregon Food Trails are doing for communities
Oregon Food Trails: Featuring the East Gorge Food Trail
Basic Requirements and Community Commitments:
Travel Oregon is committed to advancing the Oregon Food Trails program in partnership with tourism destinations across Oregon. Each participating destination must have a locally-based lead organization that is responsible for developing, executing and maintaining the food trail throughout its lifespan. At minimum, these lead organizations must make a commitment to serve as program manager during the first three years of the food trail. In return for this commitment, Travel Oregon will provide initial program funding, brochure development and design support and business engagement workshops and trainings.
The lead organization must also commit to putting the following components into place:
- Action Team: A group of three to six people, that generally represent a range of culinary and agritourism interests, will provide direction and support to lead the project. The action team will volunteer their time and provide other resources to help develop, implement and maintain the food trail.
- Budget: Travel Oregon estimates a budget of approximately $12,000 to develop a food trail in the Oregon Food Trails program in the initial year. Travel Oregon may cost-share the initial program costs with the lead organization. Beyond that, annual or biannual costs are estimated at $6,000 to cover updating and reprinting the brochure. A detailed sample program budget will be shared with communities applying to the program.
- Workshops: The lead organization is required to co-host the following two workshops in partnership with Travel Oregon.
- A full-day community-based development workshop fulfilled either by a Culinary and Agritourism Studio workshop or by a stand-alone Food Trails Development Workshop.
- A half-day Business Engagement Workshop meant to bring together the businesses along the trail prior to the launch of the food trail.
- Content: The lead organization is responsible for updating food trail content at least every two years.
