Food Policy Council (FPC) Meeting on Mon, December 17, 2018 - 6:30 PM

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Meeting Information

  1. Action Item: Administrative Items
    • Determine quorum of members, agenda approval
    • Approval of October meeting minutes (No minutes from November due to lack of quorum)
    • Review and approve regular meeting dates and locations for 2019
    • Budget overview (FPC $394.71; Harvesting Opportunity: $2924.40; KAW $9915.67)
  2. Public Comment
  3. FPC Bylaws Updates – Approve Recommendations

Action: Consider proposed bylaw changes for approval and recommendation to City of Lawrence and Douglas County Commissions to consider in January.

  1. FPC Bylaws Transition

Action: Designate members to form working group to draft options for implementation of bylaw changes following Commission approval.

  1. 2018 Reflection for Annual Report

Action: Discuss Council work from 2018 and anticipated in 2019 to include in annual report for City of Lawrence and Douglas Co. Commissions. Identify FPC members to present to Commissions.

  1. Staff Report
    • Common Ground community garden Program Strategic Planning
    • Kansas Alliance for Wellness Grant – Implementation 
    • Kansas Leadership Center Transformation Grant

 

  1. FPC Member Updates

Action: Members share about events, happenings, exciting developments, conference or training opportunities, new articles/videos/other media of interest to the Council and its efforts.

 

  1. Adjourn

 

**Next Meeting: January 14, 2019 @ 6:30pm – 8:30pm | Douglas County Courthouse @ 11th and Mass.

In attendance: Marlin Bates, Elizabeth Burger, Jason Champagne, William Vesecky, Tamara Cash, Jill Elmers, Connie Fitzpatrick, Ashley Jones-Wisner, Jennifer Kongs, Christine Ebert, Michele Dillon, Michael Steinle, John Pendleton, Scott Thellman

 

Absent: Kim Criner, TK Peterson, Inti Hirt, Olivia Taylor-Puckett, Lee Broyles, Aundrea Shafer

 

Staff: Helen Schnoes, Jasmin Moore

 

Public: Megan McGuffey, Christina Ostmeyer

 

 

Food For Thought for Today’s Meeting:

“When learning is purposeful, creativity blossoms. When creativity blossoms, thinking emanates. When thinking emanates, knowledge is fully lit. When knowledge is lit, economy flourishes.” 

― A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Indomitable Spirit

 

  1. Action Item: Administrative Items
    • Determine quorum of members (6:43pm), agenda approval (Steinle, Jones-Wisner—all approved)
    • Approval of October meeting minutes (No minutes from November due to lack of quorum)
      1. Dillon, Bates—all approved
    • Review and approve regular meeting dates and locations for 2019
      1. Jason asked if a presentation is needed – Helen clarified it’s not necessary and just about community learning if the host would like to give an informal presentation or group tour.
      2. Elizabeth noted that Tom Sloan offered to host on-farm when new lambs are there, so spring may be better. She and Helen will work with Scott Thellman and other hosts slated for spring 2019 to augment locations.
      3. Helen will send procedures to all meeting site facilitators in early 2019.
      4. Motion to approve dates and general framework for meeting location with acknowledgements of some edits in location necessary as outreach to sites begins: Elmers, Bates – all approved
    • Budget overview (FPC $394.71; Harvesting Opportunity: $2924.40; KAW $9915.67)
      1. Helen reported that rollover for agritourism project is being considered by County Admin. Members were encouraged to begin thinking about 2019 expenditures from county allocated budget and Kansas Alliance for Wellness Capacity Building grant). 
  2. Public Comment
    • Megan McGuffey gave an update on her dissertation research for a  PhD at University of Nebraska Omaha. She is focusing on Midwest Food Policy Councils for her research and their role with local government. She is reaching out to council members to interview if they’re interested. Research will be qualitative. Outside of her academic work Megan is a grassroots coordinator in Lincoln, NE, for community food systems work.
    • Christina Ostmeyer – Communications and Digital Advocacy Director with Kansas Appleseed. Ashley Jones-Wisner reached out to Christina to consider serving on Food Policy Council. Christina began working for Kansas Appleseed as a summer meals advocate. She’s originally from Western Kansas so has lots of connections to agriculture. She took great food systems class with Paul Stock at KU when getting her undergraduate degree in journalism.
  3. FPC Bylaws Updates – Approve Recommendations

Action: Consider proposed bylaw changes for approval and recommendation to City of Lawrence and Douglas County Commissions to consider in January.

  • Jennifer went over the work of the council since the Food System Plan was adopted in 2017 and why it initiated a bylaw review summer 2018. Since July an ad hoc group of FPC members has been meeting, with a facilitated meeting by Marilyn Hull with the full council in October. All led to a suite of recommendations before the Council tonight.
  • Helen went over the proposed changes and Council discussion ensued. A note was made for concerns that members voiced that, given possible changes, should be considered for new process/procedures. For each bylaw article considered, the group reached consensus on everything except changing quorum to half of Council membership (rounded up if not a whole number).
    • Major changes considered and with consensus:
      • New purpose statement with focus on advising local officials on food system policy and providing community forum for local food system development.
      • Align goal language to reflect evolution, accomplishments of Council’s work and reflect adoption of Food System Plan.
      • Reduce and clarify membership: change voting members to 16 (from 23) and broaden some sector-based requirements for membership, while more explicitly establishing connections with other groups.  
      • New section on Council recruitment from diverse perspectives and life experiences (across types of agriculture, racial and ethnic identity, etc.)
      • Minor changes to attendance and executive committee.
    • Membership concerns: How will we ensure that the intent of diversity is being achieved if some member positions are less narrow? Whose job is it to ensure and monitor that? How? Does the council lose anything by reducing its membership? (What is gained?) What can the Council do to mitigate loss?
  • Motion to approve for staff to present for City and County Commissioner consideration in updating Joint Ordinance-Resolution for Council establishment – Burger, Steinle—All approved

 

  1. FPC Bylaws Transition

Action: Designate members to form working group to draft options for implementation of bylaw changes following Commission approval.

 

  • To support the transition of the Council to reset after approval by City and County leadership, Connie, Michele, Michael agreed to work with Kim (FPC Chair) and staff to develop transition plan to present to Council in January.

 

  1. 2018 Reflection for Annual Report

Action: Discuss Council work from 2018 and anticipated in 2019 to include in annual report for City of Lawrence and Douglas Co. Commissions. Identify FPC members to present to Commissions.

 

  • Council members broke into small groups, mixing working group membership. They reported out their major takeaways from the year.  
    • Group 1 (Marlin, Jill, Tamara, Connie, Scott ​​​​​​​

      • Continued engagement with City Master Plan for Downtown

      • Transit signage

      • Food waste work progressing

      • KAW grant moving forward

      • Collaborating with health dept on food recovery

    • Group 2 (Jason, Christine, Micahel, John, Ashley)

      • ​​​​​​​KU architecture class explored FM designs for downtown

      • Transit signs for summer meal programs + Double Up Food Bucks

      • Agritourism work – this year accomplishment for starting work and 2019 project to complete

    • Group 3 -- Michele, Willaim, Elizabeth, Jennifer

      • Snazzy output about Agritourism will help explain county regulations

      • Explosion of awareness about food waste and diversion -> excitement in 2019 with KU students

    • Harvesting Opportunity in Kansas Symposium! Everyone had this at the top of their list!​​​​​​​

  • Jennifer asked who would like to help prepare the annual report for the Commission. Kim will take lead – Michele, Elizabeth, volunteered; everyone from the Council will be invited once the date is set. John Pendleton remarked on how impressive past presentations have been, and encouraged members to attend if they can.
  1. Staff Report
    • Common Ground community garden Program Strategic Planning – ongoing with update in January
    • Kansas Alliance for Wellness Grant – Implementation – submitted with notification of approval likely in January
    • Kansas Leadership Center Transformation Grant
      1. Received by Douglas County for scholarships to Kansas Leadership Center trainings in 2019. Team of Food Policy Council, Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Heritage Conservation Council, plus Board of County Commissioners and some County staff.
      2. Let Helen or Kim know ASAP – Connie, Jason noted their interest  

 

  1. FPC Member Updates

Action: Members share about events, happenings, exciting developments, conference or training opportunities, new articles/videos/other media of interest to the Council and its efforts.

  1. The meeting ran out of time, so Jennifer encouraged members to think about their updates and bring them to the January meeting where this sharing can be a greater focus.

 

  1. Adjourn  (Steinle, Fitzpatrick—all approved)

Time and Date

Location

Baldwin City Library
800 7th Street, Baldwin City, KS 66006