Salem Food Policy Council

Food Policy Council of Salem, MA October 2, 2023, 6:00 pm Hybrid Participation Present: Joel Simonson, Sara Moore, Michaela Short, Irv Perrin, Allison Caffrey, Claudia Paraschiv, Alphonse Wright, Julie Pottier-Brown Kerry Murphy, Councillor Andy Varela Absent: Flora Cordealoni, Johan Arango-Quiroga, Robyn Burns Approval of September minutes Claudia motions to approve; Julie seconds. All in favor, none opposed. Public Comment No public comments. Introduction of new member: Alphonse Wright Alphonse is the Chair of the Salem Human Rights Coalition (formerly No Place for Hate) and the Vice-Chair of the Salem Race Equity Commission. Alphonse was introduced to the food policy council through discussions with Councillor Varela and Councillor Merkle about food waste. Alphonse is interested in joining the Food Access Subcommittee and working on ways to recover and redistribute food and has shared food recovery legislation adopted by California and introduced in Boston. City of Salem update, Kerry Murphy Kerry gave presentations at both the MA Food Policy Council meeting and the MA Food System Collaborative’s Food Policy Council meeting this month on how we spent our MDAR grant. There were several other food policy councils presenting. It was both an opportunity to talk about the successes of the funding and to discuss challenges. The main challenge that most councils experienced was due to the shortened timeline of the grant (April-June 30). City Council liaison update, Councillor Varela Councillor Varela is still working on the language for the food truck ordinance. After October, he will also restart work on the composting ordinance. New Business Subcommittee meetings Organization Subcommittee 98 WASHINGTON STREET, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 01970 ♦ TEL: 978.745.9595 FAX: 978.740.0404 ♦ WWW.SALEM.COM Recruitment: Joel would love for a member of a community or an institutional stakeholder with planning, project management, and/or organizational experience who can assist with creating timelines and an annual calendar, help with staying on top of budget cycle, setting agendas, etc. Sara: We don’t want the description to sound too much like a job description with “preferred qualifications”, more like, “this subcommittee seeks people who have experience with….”. Engagement & Assessment Claudia: We want the description to feel very accessible, would like to have the engagement bullet points first, giving examples like community tabling and events. We would like to reach out to groups like Witch City Action, and possibly having a high-school student involved. Sara: Engagement would include supporting social media, making sure the data informing our work plan is consistent, timely and accurate. We will be engaging with the community to get them interested in the work we’re doing and also engaging with institutions to help support the work. Joel: We should also be using social media platforms to recruit members. Having a high- schooler help with social media might be beneficial. Urban Agriculture Subcommittee Julie: talked more about how we find community members and how/if we vet candidates. Irv: Manny Cruz helped with recruitment for SPS Food & Nutrition Services staff – may be able to help get the word out about this too. Kerry: The volunteer descriptions should help with vetting candidates by outlining the expectations. Alphonse suggested renaming the “job descriptions” as “collaborator descriptions”. Food Access Allison: We narrowed the focus of the subcommittee, removing health equity language and keeping the focus on food access. Are there goal numbers for how many people we want on the subcommittees? Kerry: We had discussed 6-8 people total on subcommittees including appointed members. There can’t be more than 5 appointed members attending a subcommittee meeting. Kerry will reformat the descriptions to have one version that includes all the groups and another version where they can be sent out separately. Joel: Subcommittee chairs and co-chairs should feel free to share any additional ideas on structure and recruitment for their own groups. Operations Manual Joel and Kerry met with Mayor Pangallo the day after our last meeting and shared the Operations Manual with him. The Mayor was very impressed and thought our manual could be used for other boards and committees in the city. He did recommend against having term limits, which we took out. He also prefers that we not publicly take positions on any policies or issues, but rather make recommendations to him and City Council. Joel: Just a note about reappointments – members do not have to go back before City Council for reappointments. We will give members 30 days notice before their term is up and they can decide whether they would like to continue. This information will be submitted to the Mayor’s Office who will notify City Council. Joel asked for a motion to adopt the Operations Manual. Sara: Two questions: Should we include the job descriptions in the Operations Manual? Also we reference the food assessment, but should we have language that we’ll be reassessing every 5 years and use the most recent assessment as our guide? Alphonse: The Coalition just revised their bylaws and they have a section on ad hoc committees. He will share that with the group. Joel read the Coalition’s section on Ad Hoc committees. Alphonse: the Coalition spent a year writing their bylaws, would be happy to allow us to borrow their language on ad hoc committees. Kerry: Will also add in language about the goal to do assessments every 5 years and using the most recent data to guide the work plan. Joel asked for a motion to vote on the Operations Manual as it is today, with a future vote for an amendment about ad hoc committees and assessments to be taken at a future date. Claudia made a motion; Sara seconds. All in favor. MDAR Grant Joel: Do we have a sense of what other food policy councils have done with their funding Kerry: Many have used them for assessments, one was using theirs to do the opposite of what we did – transition from a municipal council to an independent coalition. Some are brand new and are using funding just to get started. Joel: Are there any budgetary needs that our member organizations have for programs or services? Farm to School? Events that we might be tabling at but could also help support? Alphonse: In addition to MDAR funding, are we eligible for ARPA? The Coalition received funding for operational costs. Kerry: we received ARPA funding for the Mack Park Farm but not for Salem Food for All specifically. I will look into that. Our MDAR grant was for just over $17,000 and that went very quickly and had a very short timeline. Claudia: We could also apply for a spring Mack Park Farm event. Member Updates Joel, Project Bread: Started new fiscal year 10/1. Very busy in schools focusing on implementing Universal School Meals. Funding is set aside for school grants. PB has been working on a healthcare integration model, where patients get tailored programming depending on their needs: transportation, SNAP support, cooking classes, kitchen equipment, etc., which will be reimbursed by Medicaid. Data from last year showed that patients were eating more produce, food security was increasing, and health indicators were improving based on this program. Also launching their Council of Experts with Lived Experience. Project Bread is looking for collaborators if any members are interested. This Council will help inform Project Bread’s Work. Irv, SPS: Working on procuring equipment from the Food Security Infrastructure Grant they received. Also working on digital signage in all cafeterias that will help promote their food, local vendors, produce and Harvest of the Month. Michaela, SPS – Has a dietetic intern from UMass Lowell. She helps with menus and making sure they’re in compliance and that meals are reimbursable because they’re up for review. She’s also helping with improving the salad bars, coordinating nutrition education and taste testings for Harvest of the Month (baked pears at 2 elementary schools). Nat’l School Lunch week is 10/10-13. Also working to improve Breakfast after the Bell participation, specifically Collins and SHS. Will connect with Joel and Project Bread about this. Allison, Root – Root just launched the 21st cohort. Started strategic planning today. Many of you will be asked to do stakeholder interviews. Kerry: Just submitted a Childhood Obesity grant that will fund a school garden position at SPS for two years. It will be announced in January. The Mack Park Farm event was very successful and well-attended. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Mayor Pangallo both spoke. Our volunteers made a cookbook as a fundraiser which we sold at the event. Joel: Also want to mention that Councillor Varela was involved with getting raised beds built at Salem Common by the Girl Scouts. Future Agenda Items • Recruitment for subcommittees • Amendments to Operations Manual • Continued discussion of MDAR grant • Celia Grant from Daily Table to give an update Meeting Adjourned Motion to Adjourn: Claudia; seconded: Alphonse Next Meeting Date: November 6, 2023 @ 6pm