Santa Fe City and County Advisory Council on Food Policy

Santa Fe City and County, Advisory Council on Food Policy Thursday, November 13, 2025, 9:00AM-11AM A. CALL TO ORDER 9:04am​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ B. ROLL CALL Nate Crail - Excuse Maria Sanchez-Tucker - Excused Eric Renz-Whitmore - Present David Sundberg - Present Susan Perry - Present Emigdio Ballon - Not present Tejinder Ciano - Present Said Assali - Present Jasmine Meyer - Present Peter Ives – Present Coy Maienza - Present We have a quorum. Staff: Helen Henry Pam Roy Guests: Harrison Gibson Catherine Nolte, Advocacy and Policy Specialist at The Food Depot Marko Alarid White, NM Center on Law and Poverty JoDee Powers James Martinez, SF County ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ C. APPROVAL OF AGENDA –November 13, 2025 [ACTION]​​ ​ ​ Prioritization and Agenda Order Adjustments to the agenda: ●​ Move the approval of next year’s meeting calendar to after the acceptance of the minutes. ●​ Add the Council’s legislative resolutions to the City and County for this year to the “Initiatives and Actions” section. Sue moved David seconded All approved ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ D. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES – September 11 and October 9, 2025 [ACTION]​ ​ David moved Sue seconded Approved ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ E. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE FLOOR​ None​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ F. INITIATIVES AND ACTIONS​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 1. Federal Updates David spoke about Veronica Griego’s program and recognized that the Department of Health, through the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, during the shutdown and in response to people not having their SNAP benefits - they supplied $25,000 to be able to do vouchers at 3 Santa Fe farmers markets and 4 mobile markets. The total number of people that impacted. The feedback from people was just incredible because they felt relief from the situation created by the federal government. Action: Peter suggested a thank you letter to the Governor, the Senate and House leadership, and all involved for stepping up to support food access programs, cc city and county, also include the railyard farmers markets in Abq. David is happy to help with drafting the letter and said that they are collecting data on this situation, so they can include that. Action: Sue suggested a deadline of getting the letter out by mid December. Marco gave an update on the status of the SNAP benefits. There are two pending lawsuits over the distribution of SNAP benefits and during the most recent NM special session it was decided that the state would cover, in the immediate, any lack federal funds so that there are no gaps in people’s benefits. Action: Peter asked that Marco keep the Council up to date with information about SNAP funding and policy for housing issues and food issues. Discussion around WIC. 2. Critical Timeline of the impacts of Federal funding cuts in the state. [Action] 3. Update to the Food Plan -summary comments[Action] Said sent out a reminder, but there hasn’t been any additional information. Action: Helen will send out a summary of the changes before the next meeting. Action: Pam/Helen: Send out the NMFAPC’s Report Card when it is ready. (Peter wants a pdf.) Also send the link to the Dashboard and the orange infographic. Pam explained more about the Report Card and the state’s Dashboard which is used for reporting purposes about the NM Grown program. Future planning: Peter asked if we had any endorsements about the Food Charter by any NM legislators. Pam: We can also ask the city and county for endorsements. We also need to ask the city and county to approve our resolutions and we could present both at the same time. This might also create a pathway to link to our Food Plan. Peter suggested that we could then use this to convene a gathering around the Food Plan for policy makers. Action: Pair up the resolutions to the City and County with the information from the Report Card. Peter suggested getting these out to the city and county in the next two weeks. Pam went over the updated infographic about the impact of federal funding shortfalls. David had questions about SM 19 (50% beef, cheese and produce in schools), and Pam explained how this might work, including how milk is aggregated in NM, which except for Creamland, is not entirely locally-sourced. Cheese is also produced in NM but not cut and wrapped in NM. Pam: With SM 19, the thing to focus on and one of the major recommendations, is to stick to the values of the New Mexico Grown Program, the approved supplier program and the approach that is set up already with the Public Education Department, with aging long-term services department in Early Childhood Education Department as well because it's a good process. James shared information about purchasing from Creamland for the senior centers. While they wanted to support the local purchase of milk, the Creamland cartons were often damaged and they were also not able to be re-closed so that seniors could take the milk with them, so they switched to another source. James said that the Sweet Mercy Farm in Abq is able to provide them with local beef. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ G. PRESENTATIONS: Santa Fe County Connect​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ( Invite sent, waiting for confirmation) Action: Coy will follow up on having a presentation from the Connect program for the county in December. ​ H. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 1. 2026 Calendar of meetings [ACTION] (Moved to right after the approval of the minutes so that there could be a vote since several Council members had to leave early.) The 2026 Calendar of meetings was sent out with the meeting notice. Jasmine moved David seconded Approved 2. Website re-build and transfer- Update from Helen Henry and Sue Perry We will have something for the next meeting. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ I. ITEMS FROM THE COUNCIL​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Member check-in Jasmine said that the Presbyterian’s Northern Roots produce prescription program, which serves pregnant people and households with minors, is now open for referrals through the Connect Network. Any community partner can refer community members to Connect. Action: Jasmine will send out information about this to the Council. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ J. ITEMS FROM THE CHAIR​ Action: Sue, Peter and JoDee to review the resolutions to the City and County. Action: Peter asked Sue to put a placeholder in the calendar for August or September, to remind us to start the process of getting the resolutions to the City and County. The resolutions will pair up with the NM Food & Ag Policy Council’s priorities. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 1. SFFPC progress Reports to City Council and County BCC-start date?​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 2. New member update​ We have some open spots; Sue has reached out to some people. Sue, Peter and Pam will be meeting about this after the meeting. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 3. Next Meeting: December 11, 2025: Hybrid​ We need to decide if there is a new place where the meetings can be held. Sue asked Catherine if it would be possible to use space at the Food Depot. Action: She will follow up. 4. Topics for future presentations K. ADJOURNMENT 10:28am These notes were taken contemporaneously and may contain errors and omissions. Signed by ___________________________ Helen Henry. I verify that these notes have been approved by a quorum of members of the Santa Fe Food Policy Council. Signed by Susan Perry, Co-chair or, Peter Ives, Co-chair _____________________________________________________