Heritage Foods of the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area

The Santa Cruz Valley in southern Arizona is one of our nation’s longest continually cultivated regions, with an agricultural history extending back more than 4,000 years.  To help showcase this agricultural history and better connect the community with it, the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance launched a heritage foods program highlighting the locally produced foods tied to the region’s history and cultural identity.

The heritage foods program has included several projects in collaboration with a variety of community partners. From hosting the region’s first heritage foods symposium and developing a Local & Heritage Foods Directory, to co-sponsoring farm and garden tours and developing a regional food brand, the heritage foods program created new regional partnerships and fostered broader community awareness of the National Heritage Area’s rich agricultural history.

The greatest success of the heritage foods program is the culmination of all these small-scale projects resulting in the 2015 designation of Tucson as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, the first in the U.S. With the City of Gastronomy designation, Tucson joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network –an association of urban areas around the world recognized for their exemplary efforts in using cultural heritage and creativity for sustainable development.  The City of Gastronomy designation increases awareness of the Santa Cruz Valley’s rich agricultural history, food traditions, and culinary distinctiveness.  It also provides an international platform to share best practices for cultural and economic development based on the region’s food heritage and culinary assets.

The success and growth of the heritage foods program, and the resulting launch of a new community-driven initiative with the City of Gastronomy, demonstrates the power of the National Heritage Area framework to foster creative collaborations and new regional partnerships.