A lot on the menu for R.I.’s first food chief

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has its first food chief, a job that doesn’t require cooking but instead preparing a statewide food plan. The new director of food strategy will coordinate existing food plans and draft a new one that brings together all aspects of the state’s farm and seafood sectors, ecoRI News reported May 11.

Sue AnderBois, policy analyst and Rhode Island coordinator for the Boston-based New England Clean Energy Council, is expected to start her new position in a few weeks. Her office will be at the Department of Environmental Management. Her salary will be between $69,000 and $78,000, and is funded through grants from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, The John Merck Fund and Main Street Resources.

The position will be privately funded for two years, with hopes of having it absorbed into DEM’s budget after that.

AnderBois will be working with several growing industries under Rhode Island’s broad $2.5 billion food sector. The state has more than 1,200 farms, an increase of 50 percent in the past 10 years.

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Rhode Island ranks second nationally in the number of farms owned by young and first-time farmers. •

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