Food Systems – Meeting Notes
10/21/10
Work plan developed.
January 27, 2011
Other group ideas:
Have Ferd come back and update and help identify gaps and roles for us in farm bill
Connect with John Gullick to come to our group and help facilitate getting USDA resources to
the communities to work on distribution and access
Food security: how are we defining access? Sustainable healthy food systems—with existing
farm bill, the farmers who want organic and produce etc are not getting security through
commodity
Dept of Ag contact: Tony Anderson?
David Ross thoughts: big money in organic; trying to get farmers out of commodity crop trap of
having a “sure thing” but barely the cost of living
David working with churches in KC have 20,000 acres of farmland and he wants 300 acres
Point: trying to increase supply –can MOCAN help develop supply through policy
Looking to help farmers scale up and sell to regional markets
Good food movement:
Amish and Mennonite food producers: produce auctions –five throughout the state
MOCAN Meeting
April 28, 2011
Attendance: Mary Hendrickson, John Gulick, Annette Triplett, Kimberly , Jenny Brooks, Amy Stringer
Hessel
Dept of Agriculture – Jenny Brooks is a new member!
Dept of Ag can help with Workgroup Actions 5 and 6.
Action: Jenny providing a list of commodity groups interested in healthy foods—that will be sent to
Message Group for who they should contact: Jenny will provide a name and contact- due date: May
conference call
Explore ways to use AgriMO as a communications tool http://agrimissouri.com/ check out the sitegreat stuff!
John Gulick, USDA –new member!
Sustainable Ag Coalition – Ferd Hofner represented at a previous meeting – connecting with him to
determine how MOCAN can be a part of the Farm Bill
KC: David Ross looking to get church owned farm land to produce veggies; he is looking to help farmers
to scale up production—he is representing KC Healthy Kids
Let’s Move:
USDA, Dept of Ag, MU, DHSS, MFH---list the programs that would work for the two pillars in the Let’s
Move
Get together for the next phone call in May. Send to John Gulick via list serve
Name, description, contact person and contact info---send to via the listserve by May 18
Next step: work with Beth Love and get a meeting with Judy Baker to discuss Let’s Move
Next calls: May 25 and June 29 at 10am—conference calls; Beth Lowe will try to get Judy on the call
Food systems Workgroup Conference Call
May 25, 2011
Continue to send John Gulick other contacts and projects that make sense to link with: due June 2:
Name, description, contact person and contact info---send to via the listserve-Judy Baker: 10am on June 29 call is tentatively scheduled
Will give John’s list to Judy that highlights programs and resources we have available and could offer for
mayors
What do we want need to discuss with her:
Overview of MOCAN and our workgroup: Mary Ellison
Amy: opening of how we can be helpful and link through Let’s Move
Will call David Noble: http://www.letsmove.gov/blog/2010/10/27/300-communities-andcounting-update-let%E2%80%99s-move-cities-and-towns
Can she help us public
Questions for Donna:
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MOCAN overview materials that we can provide to Judy prior to our call
Consider inviting her for the fall for general meeting
Robin: Maps where the overlaps are and what are the strengths of the gap analysis—connect with John
Gulick
Inventory: Federal, state, private tree and create a diagram to show the linkages and where they are
and be and if not why not—John has start of the inventory
Analysis: where are the valuable connections and where should connections be made and here are the
gaps and here are potential conversations
John will help him think through what to do with info
Cultures of organizations, agencies and types of funders: need to figure at barriers of what
stands in the way of people getting together
An outcome could be identifying some real outcomes such as matching USDA and MFH private funds
Part of this is just figuring out the best ways to organize the information
MoCan Food Systems Workgroup – July 28, 2011
1) Monthly Meetings; August 25 and September 22 at 10 am. We will ask Stacey for call-in
numbers.
2) Reported on the phone call with Judy Baker. She will help facilitate a meeting with Jose Bellardo
(sp) of HHS who is working with the Let’s Move Communities. We hope to schedule this meeting
for the week of August 29.
3) Website for Work Group: Mary Ellison will take things from our workplan to put into the website
and submit the form. She will add all of our email addresses to the contact part of that website.
She will take out the dates off our workplan and submit that for the website as well.
4) Discussed the following ideas spurred on by the presentation from the lobbying firm and policy
group’s desire for a bit of direction/purpose on policy
a. Policy group wants a clear direction on policy arising from other work groups – how do
we develop food systems policies for the policy work group? Is that what we want to
do?
b. Could we work with the Farm to Institution Advisory Group to help develop policy?
c. This led to the discussion of two ideas that could help MOCAN membership, policy and
promotion needs:
i. Hold regional meetings to develop “Healthy Food Advocates” networks that
enhance access to healthy foods through policy and systems interventions
ii. The first regional meetings would be held with the Let’s Move communities to
bring together the farmers, local health agencies, educators etc that make up
MoCAN or could be recruited into MoCAN to help promote Healthy Food Access
policies/interventions. Talked about how to organize such a meeting – can we
use the example that Trevor is using with livable streets with “charrette”
process
iii. Let’s Move communities could be interested in a number of things – increased
production opportunities (e.g. community gardens) that they could help provide
access to land and water, zoning protection etc. Or they might be interested in
farm to school and helping educate/promote with school boards etc.
iv. Another possibility is to hold these regional meetings in conjunction with the
Farm to Table Advisory commission that could really focus on what’s going on
around farm to institution in particular areas. We would still want to have
farmers, local agencies, educators and the like at the meetings.
v. August phone call will also devote time to developing these ideas
vi. Will use the maps/inventory provided by Jenny, John, Amy’s intern etc to figure
out how the regional meetings could come about
5) Agenda for August 29 Meeting:
a. Report from the July 29 meeting.
b. Report from Amy Stringer-Hessel’s intern on gaps and opportunities among food
systems groups in Missouri
c. Update from John Gulick on inventory of federal, state and private resources in the state
d. Develop food systems education session for the October general meeting
e. Develop the regional meeting idea/policy development concept further
Food Systems Workgroup Meeting
October 27th, 2011
This group is interested in holding regional meetings with local food systems as the topic.
The meetings could have the following content:
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Policy
Education
Funding Sources
MOCAN would be a sponsor (partner of these meetings).
Springfield, MO has a big interest in local foods and have several different groups promoting this issue. A
regional meeting in this area could be very successful.
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What do participants need?
Who to invite?
What is the timeline for this meeting?
Need to use the right advertising
Structured meetings with goals and take home information
Identify any barriers and how to get passed those barriers
There is a risk of overlapping with what the Farm to Institution meeting accomplished. Make sure to
promote other areas.
Jose Belardo works with the Let’s Move Campaign. We should look into who the Let’s Move
Communities and become partners with them.
The next two meetings will be: 1) December 1, 2011 at 10:00am-11:00am via conference call, 2) January
5, 2012, 10:00am-11:00am via conference call. At the next meeting discuss further pursuing regional
meetings and report on the Let’s Move Communities.