State of the Plate: February 8, 2013 Springfield, MO
3:00– 3:45 Call to Action: Next Steps - Group Discussion
a. What needs to change in southwest Missouri to make an impact on the current
nutritional/health status of our food system?
 Attitudes need to be toward both use and cost for personal and institutional use of organic
foods.
 Change expectations that kids only eat chicken nuggets and French fries
 We need to make local food a bigger deal- in order to do so, we need to purchase locally
and encourage others to do so. We also need to encourage restaurant to purchase local
food to increase demand (and maybe decrease the price?)
 We need to make food more accessible to those who are food insecure especially in the
food desserts of Springfield.
 Education- children and adults
 Make resources more available
 Educate the public
o Teach them how to cook
o Facts about organic foods
 Influence children and parents to change their attitudes toward fruits and veggies
 Continued collaboration between professionals
 Educate more people on benefits of consuming locally grown foods
 Basic cooking skills
b. What ideas have you heard in today’s sessions that should be explored further for
possible implementation?
 Start with the children
 What about a restaurant run by high school/ tech programs based on high end restaurants
using local foods… Showing “if you cook it they will come” ?
 Increase demand for local/healthy foods in our health institutions
 Ask restaurants to buy local foods! If we all do so, they’ll realize that there is a demand
and maybe they’ll start buying local.
 Cooking from scratch resources
 If want the parents to learn, teach it to the children-gardening classes for families
 Have “locally grown” labels in grocery stores
 Longer lunches- were teaching children to eat fast, not to enjoy and savor their food .
 Define local-signage
 Expand organic resources
 Cooking classes
 Expand community gardens
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Educating health professionals on resources available in the community
“Bag” gardening
Church/mission gardening
Local food cooperative mentioned by Paul Tinlin
c. What are the most critical 2 or 3 actions you would like to see occur as a follow-up to the
State of the Plate conference?
 Stronger cooperation between organic growers
 Use marketing “taste testing” at unexpected places. i.e. ball games, cultural events, or
PTA to help answer the why should be eat it questions.
 Increase the general public’s awareness that local food is more nutritious not just more
expensive.
 Create a local food coalition with representatives from health care agencies to work
together
 Longer lunches for children- they need to learn the importance of meal time
 Locally grown labels in grocery stores
 Would like more information about growth hormones and antibiotics
 Policy changes
 Get more farms on board for organic certification
 Teaching children where food comes from
 How to cook and how to grow food
 Disseminate powerpoint presentations so participants can have data, references
d. What resources/networks with organizations can you help bring to the table to help
implement your suggested next steps?
 Get your seniors to teach
 Literature from 1930s on extension food helps up through 1940s info on using home
grown foods
 Springfield Urban Agriculture coalition-The Dirt Project
 The Women’s Center- Cox Health
 Local Sprouts
 HomeGrown Foods Springfield Public Schools to try and get local foods into
Springfield Public School system
 Writing ejournals for MSU about local foods
 Working with local income families, a majority of them are on government assistance
programs such as Food Stamps. Through my experience, several clients I work with are
not aware that their food stamp benefits can be used at local farmers markets. Perhaps
more public advertising to low income families can increase awareness of local produce
than can be obtained by people their Food stamp benefits.
 Working at WIC, clients have access to large super markets. We can educate them on
local foods, starting their own gardens.
 Suggesting gardening to my clients and becoming more familiar with resources that I can
refer them too.
 Have the local large church organizations been contacted? Second Baptist church has a
large garden that provides the harvest to Victory Mission and other organizations to help
feed the poor.
If you would like to receive a summary of all of today’s comments, please include your contact
information:
Name: Denise Vaughan
Organization: The Women’s Center Cox Health
Phone: 417-766-2232
Email: Denise6686@att.net
Name: Rachael Wolf
Organization: MSU Dietetics
Email: Rachael012@live.missouristate.edu
Name: Jessica Ramsey
Organization: WIC
Phone: 417-851-1580
Email: jramsey@springfieldmo.gov
Name: Adrienne Olah
Organization: WIC
Phone: 417-851-1581
Email: aolah@springfieldmo.gov
Name: Tara Williams
Organization: WIC
Phone: 417-844-6947
Email: TWilliams@springfieldmo.gov
Name: Jareane Myhre
Organization: Nevada Regional Medical Center
Phone: 417-840-5377
Email: jmyhre@NRmchealth.com
Name: Addy LeVall
Organization: Fulton State Hospitals
Phone: 57-592-3331
Email: Adrienne.LeVall@dmh.mo.gov