Salem Food Policy Council

Food Policy Council of Salem, MA November 6, 2023, 6:00 pm Hybrid Participation Present: Johan Arango-Quiroga, Alphonse Wright, Julie Pottier-Brown, Claudia Paraschiv, Flora Cordealoni, Joel Simonson, Allison Caffrey, Robyn Burns, Michaela Short, Kerry Murphy, Councillor Varela, Sara Moore Absent: Irv Perrin Motion to approve minutes: Alphonse motions to approve; Julie seconded. No public comments. Celia Grant, Director of Community Engagement & Programs, Daily Table: They are exceeding expectations in the Salem store. They had a successful launch. Every person they’ve hired except for the store manager (who came from another store) is from the Point neighborhood. Still need help getting the word out beyond the people who are in the food access world. They also need more volunteers. They have had some individuals volunteer and they’re working to increase corporate volunteers. High schoolers are also welcome to volunteer. Sara will connect Celia with Katelyn Adams for the Center for Civic Engagement. Service Saturdays are once/month. There is also a Civic Fellows program. Allison suggested some of the other college sports teams and other groups: Endicott, Gordon, Montserrat. Kerry also recommended People’s United Bank in Vinnin Square - they like to send groups to volunteer in Salem. Celia is in Salem every couple of weeks and would be happy to meet up with any organizations. DT didn’t get much tourist traffic during October - mostly regular customers. Celia asked about status of food insecurity in Salem. Allison responded that she knows the Salem Pantry’s numbers are through the roof and Root is also seeing an increase in food insecurity among their trainees. Root is trying to offer more prepared meals, soups to the Pantry to help them keep up with demand. 98 WASHINGTON STREET, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 01970 ♦ TEL: 978.745.9595 FAX: 978.740.0404 ♦ WWW.SALEM.COM Daily Table will be giving out $5 coupons and can provide them to us to provide to residents. Joel: Salem Skipper might be worth connecting with. Drivers could possibly hand out coupons. Kerry will ask the Salem COA if they might be able to provide transportation to Daily Table. Celia: Daily Table has a great relationship with the COA in Cambridge, would like to connect more with the Salem COA (cgrant@dailytable.org) Alphonse: would like to also get some coupons to share with the Salem Housing Authority City of Salem Update, Kerry: MA Food System Collaborative forum is coming up on Friday, 12/8 at Holy Cross in Worcester. I will send everyone the info to register if anyone would like to go. It’s a great event to learn about other organizations and food policy councils. I will be on a panel on How Municipalities Support Local Food Systems. I also made copies of the North Shore Food & Farming Coalition flyer for their survey. I’m part of this group with The Salem Pantry, Root, and Councillor Varela. Green Beverly put the survey together to help create a regional food plan with Salem, Danvers, Beverly, Peabody, and Lynn. City Council Update, Councillor Varela: The election tomorrow, so the makeup of the council may be different next year. He would like to see a discussion of cottage food laws as a priority for the food policy council next year, specifically home occupations so residents can run food businesses from their homes. Julie: Are the Cottage Food Laws city by city? I’ve been in conversations with people over the years about selling products at Farm Direct coop. Councillor Varela: It is a state regulation, but the barrier here is zoning. Residents would have to go through the zoning board of appeals. This applies to non-potentially hazardous foods. If this is by-right, there won’t be such a burden to do this as an accessory use. Per our urban ag ordinance, we’re allowing people to sell what they grow from their homes, this will help reinforce urban agriculture in Salem. Joel: Might be worth looking into how Somerville is managing this. Andy: Condos may also have restrictions on home occupations. Johan: Does this apply only to homeowners? Councillor Varela: No, this would apply to renters, but there may be barriers for those living in units that are part of a condo association. Johan: Feeding Future: Sustainability & Climate Change: We were selected to present at this event -- we were the only community-based organization presenting (mostly students). The audience really didn’t know anything about food policy councils. Videos of the conference are available online; he will share the links with us. Johan focused on presenting our mission, highlighted the urban ag ordinance, grants for the Mack Park Farm, the two food assessments, and how these projects help build resilience within the community. The Assoc Director of Academic Ventures & Engagement has a fellowship for students where they have funding for interns. Something to keep in mind for the future when subcommittees are created. *This is Johan’s last meeting with us, but he will connect us next spring. Johan will share the pdf of the poster. Subcommittees - updates from last meeting Edits were made to the subcommittee descriptions based on feedback; they were consolidated to one document. Each subcommittee can tailor this to their needs and can be edited as needed. Joel: We’ve also talked about translation and how we disseminate this. How do we promote on social media? Robyn: how will we handle sending out recruitment for multiple subcommittees - we don’t want to overlap or compete. We don’t want to confuse the public. Alphonse: Can we stagger them so that each subcommittee recruitment ad goes out a week apart? Joel: We should have a shared master list so we can coordinate our recruitment efforts. Kerry will be the point of contact. Robyn: For a group like NIAC should we have one uniform pitch for all of them on one flyer? Also what if there is a big response for one subcommittee and not enough for others? Alphonse: It’s a good idea to cap at a certain number, 6-8 is perfect. If there are a lot of applicants for one and not enough for others, encourage overflow applicants to join one of the other subcommittees. Joel: I will be happy to handle managing the applicants. Kerry: I will start working on a flyer for the subcommittees and create a shared Google Doc to track where we’re recruiting. Robyn: Should we set a goal for the start of subcommittees? Possibly Feb? Joel: I think that’s a good goal, but let’s see how the work goes over the next month. Amendments to the Operations Manual: Kerry added in description of subcommittees using the Human Rights Coalitions Bylaws as a guide. Language was changed referencing capacity restrictions for subcommittees at the discretion of SFFA, and language describing the food assessment. Vote to accept amendments to Operations Manual: Claudia made the motion; Sara seconded. MDAR Local Food Policy Council grant: So far, no news on RFR. Joel wanted to discuss the possibility of SNAP awareness outreach as a funding request. There is an information gap for these services, and it gives us some tangible, immediate work. This could be a big council project for all of the subcommittees. Johan: Some of the conversations in the Chelsea community, whenever the community feels that they are being approached by the municipality, they want to see that they are going to benefit - what can we do to benefit community members and build trust? Robyn: TSP has been working with DTA - 14 members have gone through SNAP training; they will be the only place in Salem where they can register for SNAP outside of the DTA office. Hours will be specifically for registration and outreach goes hand in hand with registration. They’ll work with the GBFB too – they have a team that comes here to do SNAP outreach. Asked again about whether there might be an opportunity to offer mini-grants to different projects in the City - for groups that aren’t really 501C3s, but community or youth projects. Michaela: Salem Public Schools is still in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program. Even though the state offers Universal School Meals, CEP is a federal program that reimburses at a higher rate than the state, so it’s an incentive to get more eligible families enrolled in SNAP to maintain the CEP. Alphonse: Laura Assade might be a good person to reach out to as the SPS Family Engagement Manager. Member updates Robyn, The Salem Pantry: Next week TSP they’ll start holiday planning. Right now we’re serving 2700 unique households/month, holidays may add 50% more. TSP just got a new mobile market vehicle purchased with ARPA funding. SSU will be taking the bldg back that they’ve been using for the mobile market. They are looking for another location. Will be working with SHA/Rainbow Terrace and SSU on 3 new mobile locations– one in RT and two locations on campus. These locations will start next week. Motion to adjourn: Robyn motions to adjourn; Johan seconds.