Healthy Sustainable Food Systems Initiative

Minutes Mayor’s Initiative for Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems July 25, 2014 10:00 – 11:30, City Hall, Room 209 1. Welcome introductions of meeting attendees Mayor Brennan welcomed meeting attendees. In attendance were… 2. Review and approval of minutes from May 23, 2014 meeting 3. Subcommittee Updates a. Enterprise and Infrastructure - Jackie and Daniel had a meeting with Assistant City Manager Sheila Hill-Christian and acting Health and Human Services Department Head Julie Sullivan. They reported the meeting went well and they discussed connecting different groups with the Portland Restaurant Association. b. Food Security – Summer food data is being gathered that represents usage trends and how the food-insecure connect to resources. Megan and Jim hope to make the data tell a story. Discussed briefly the possibility of 25,000 non-categorical Mainer’s losing their food stamp benefits. c. School Food – Phase one report of the Gorman grant is complete on what parents and students like and dislike about school food. The marketing campaign will be built around this report. It appears that wants are aligned with current innovations like more fresh and local foods. Craig will compile findings and present at next meeting. d. Policy – Ben’s group is looking at comprehensive food planning systems within municipalities. There will be a redraft of rules between now and 2015 and there will be a stipend for interns to examine policy. e. Urban Agriculture – The sheep project is moving forward but they need a farm to work with. Urban farming initiative is working with the Trust for Public Land and Portland Trails to identify land. Discussed having a one day “Perma-Blitz” where people can increase knowledge of home gardening and share resources. Urban Ag received a grant for $15,000 to create more community gardens which will probably be in the East End. $2000 will be allotted for scholarships and the rest to infrastructure. There is community interest around bees and tree maintenance for fruit bearing trees in the City. 50 trees were  planting in the last few months. Edible East Bayside also received a grant and there was discussion around the Cooperative Extension getting involved in culling fruit through the Master Gardner program. 4. Portland’s Food Manufacturing Designation – Caroline Paris spoke on behalf of the Greater Portland Sustainable Food Production Cluster or “GPCOG” achieving formal designation as an Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) region. Working with Greg from Portland’s Economic Development Department, the two hope to pursue the following strategic opportunities to grow the local food system:  Scale up 50 home enterprises to food manufacturing operations.  Find markets for 20% of raw food that is wasted.  Add value to 10% of raw food that is now shipped out of state for processing.  Increase global markets for Maine food by 25%.  Replace 10% of imported manufacturing inputs with Maine product.  Replace $100 million in food imported by households, restaurants and institutions with local food. 5. Community Garden expansion – see Urban Agriculture section above 6. Food Day and other community engagement events – Food Day is coming up in October and there is a need for community outreach and engagement from committee members. One possible opportunity for outreach is during Portland Greenfest on September 13, 2014. 7. Confirm date for next meeting: The next meeting is scheduled August 22, 2014 at 10:00am. 8. Adjourn.