Salem Food Policy Council

Food Policy Council of Salem, MA June 5, 2023, 6:00 pm Hybrid Participation Present: Joel Simonson, Claudia Paraschiv, Sara Moore, Johan Arango-Quiroga, Michaela Short, Julie Pottier-Brown, Allison Caffrey, Robyn Burns, Flora Cordealoni, Kerry Murphy, Lydia Sisson, J. Harrison Approval of minutes: Motion to approve: Claudia; Second: Sara; all in favor, none opposed. New business: None Public Comment: None City updates, Kerry Murphy: Farm to School Night at the Carlton School was a big success. It was very well attended and a great representation from Salem Food for All. Thank you to Joel, Claudia, Julie, Sara and Flora for helping with tabling and activities. The superintendent was there and seemed really impressed. Also, Senator Lovely co-sponsored the Food Literacy Bill after the event and it passed the Senate. Kerry attended the Everett Food Policy Council’s meeting last week to talk about the urban agriculture ordinance. They are using their MDAR grant to host educational workshops for their members and the community to learn more about their priority areas. They want to invite people from other communities who have done similar work and discuss their challenges and successes. They have an organization called Everett Grows that runs 2 community farms, they’re also doing a big push for Farm to School programming. They would like to come to Salem for a “field trip” at some point. They asked if we had encountered any issues with landlords not allowing their tenants to grow their own food, which I don’t believe has been an issue here, but something we may want to be aware of as we do more outreach about the ordinance. Michaela: Are they looking to start a Farm to School program? Kerry: It sounded like they’re building more partnerships with the schools, but I can reach out to them for more info and let you know. Consultants J. Harrison and Lydia Sisson Overview of process to date: J. and Lydia have attended the monthly meetings and meeting bi- weekly with Kerry, Joel and Andy. They’ve been researching best practices from other FPCs and found that the term FPC is very broad and includes many different types of structures, so 98 WASHINGTON STREET, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 01970 ♦ TEL: 978.745.9595 FAX: 978.740.0404 ♦ WWW.SALEM.COM they’ve really looked for ones that are applicable to Salem. They have been working on a draft work plan based on the assessment and recommendations and have draft operations manual and bylaws and recommendations for how to implement them. Tonight they’re going to present the best practices and recommendations for committee structure. Lydia Interviewed 5 other groups across MA and researched FPCs in other states. What every FPC needs is a relatively current assessment of the problem; that’s how they create their recommendations. Food assessments are time-consuming; most are doing them every 5-10 years and using other existing data in between (CHIP, MassHealth, SNAP, Census). J. Some FPCs are doing community food assessments and some are turning them into action plans, Salem is kind of in the middle by having an assessment with recommendations. Lydia CHNAs are published every two years and could be used to keep data relevant and accurate. A lot of FPCs review their recommendations annually to build a workplan and priorities each year. Deliverables should be clear: is the FPC going to be a convener, doing the actual work or responsible for messaging? New members should know what they are signing up for – having bylaws will help new members understand how meetings run. SFFA should also have a means of sharing documents and data with members. Most FPCs have subcommittees/working groups/task forces that are doing the majority of the hands-on work. Bigger group sessions were more for reporting and communicating what is happening in the priority areas. FPCs that didn’t have funding for community engagement had a harder time recruiting members. Cambridge had a hard time recruiting members unless they paid stipends. Higher level strategies were not engaging enough to retain members. Specific actions were more successful. Other FPC best practices: Making food access resources available to the community and acting as an information hub Lift up work already happening in the community – supporting messages from organizations Make sure City Councillors and Mayor know about the work that is happening Michaela: are community members able to serve on subcommittee without being appointed? Kerry: yes, as long as there is not a quorum of FPC members on a subcommittee, but the agendas should still be posted and the location of the meetings should be accessible Lydia: subcommittees are also a wonderful way to understand the realities of the recommendations J.: Denver Food Policy council has a great set of resources and descriptions of how decisions are made on their council. Subcommittees • Propose forming 4 committees, o Organization and Advocacy o Engagement & Assessment o Food Access o Urban & Community Agriculture • Recommend alternating months between full FPC meeting and subcommittee meetings. • Define work and establish goals • Establish working relationship with Mayor • Co-chairs for each subcommittee – one FPC member and one community member • Should plan to be on a subcommittee for at least 1 year • There may be times where one subcommittee may have to refer out to another subcommittee • Goals and priorities should be very clear – this will make it easier to recruit people What would it feel like to bring new people in the group? What can you accomplish with more engagement? Julie: Would be nice to have different perspectives; but also might require more work to keep everyone focused Sara: If we’re really strategic about the subcommittees, the level of focus and investment might be better Kerry: We never had a specific ask of our members in the past which led to a lack of focus Joel: Important to set expectations, esp. for time commitment Johan: Still have questions about stipends and resources to make the subcommittees work – what kinds of things should we be thinking about to make sure we have resources J. : There seems to be an increasing amount of resources available for stipends to pay community members for their time J: You have a role to play in the development of policy and this should be established with the new Mayor. Could have an initial conversation proposing bylaws and propose a process of how we can advise. Clearly communicating how reporting should happen will help prevent conflict and also prevent unnecessary work. Robyn: We’re trying to establish relevance with other city leaders and groups; there’s an aspect that might be different in the early stages – may have to be more proactive and strategic about getting into the conversations when decisions are being made. Before the next meeting, J. and Lydia will send all of the documents to Joel and Kerry to review and share with the group. The City Council resolution might be a good place to start to find out how to adopt bylaws, how they’re approved. They recommend we review these documents before the next meeting and use the summer to decide how and when to adopt these tools and decide which subcommittees to join – or come to next meeting with top 2 choices. Joel: We should be very intentional about choosing subcommittees and consider our expertise/backgrounds. J: The Organization/Advisory Committee should be thinking about the issue briefs/communications with the Mayor. When Committee chairs are decided, we’d be happy to meet with each chair to explain specific tools that we’ve recommended. Member Updates Michaela: Summer Eats kickoff is 7/6 if everyone could come by – there will be food, activities Kerry: I will share the flyer with everyone by email Claudia: I could do the art activity Joel proposes next meeting for 7/10 at 6pm due to 7/4 holiday; all in favor Meeting Adjourned Next Meeting Date: 7/10 @ 6pm