The North Olympic Resilience Initiative (NORI) is designed to strengthen food system and climate resilience on the North Olympic Peninsula in response to increasing climate, economic, and infrastructural instability. Drawing on decades of local food system experience and ongoing informal survey of farmers, agencies, nonprofits, and community leaders, the proposal identifies critical vulnerabilities and capacity gaps that threaten regional food security, and potential solutions.
Why NORI, Why Now
The Olympic Peninsula is highly dependent on external, just-in-time food supply chains, with approximately three days of food on hand in the event of disruption. Climate change, extreme weather, economic volatility, pandemics, political uncertainty, and the looming risk of catastrophic events (e.g., Cascadia earthquake) expose the region’s limited ability to feed itself during crises. While many food access and conservation efforts exist, long-term coordination, infrastructure development, and climate-adaptive planning capacity remain insufficient, especially within under-resourced rural agencies.
What NORI Is
NORI is envisioned as a long-term, non-agency-based hub—a think tank, strategy center, and action collaborative—focused on regional food system and climate resilience. It serves as a home base and clearinghouse for research, education, funding coordination, infrastructure development, networking, and emergent modeling, collectively referred to through the acronym REFINE.
Grounded in systems thinking and “polycrisis” awareness, NORI emphasizes inclusive, place-based, and adaptive solutions that strengthen food & climate security while delivering broader ecological, economic, and civic benefits.
Core Functions (REFINE)
Research: Food system audits, vulnerability and capacity mapping, supply chain analysis, climate-adapted production modeling.
Education: Regenerative agriculture, farm-to-school programs, workforce development, waste reduction, and farmer succession planning.
Funding: Microgrants, subsidies to improve equity and access, grant coordination, and foundational planning for larger funding opportunities.
Infrastructure: Food hubs, cold/dry storage, processing facilities, land access, soil amendments, electric farm equipment, and emergency food systems.
Networking: Leadership development, cross-sector collaboration, and strengthening regional civic relationships.
Emergent Modeling: Systems mapping, demand-supply alignment, staple crop production, and adaptive planning frameworks.
For now, NORI is incubated by the Community Wellness Project. But the intention of the initiative is to be far-reaching and mycellial, and it may one day need to grow into an independent organization…we invite you to reach out with thoughts, reflections, insights, and ideas! shelby(at)jccwp.org