Board of Directors Regular Meeting
February 23, 2015
5:30 – 7:00 PM
Yolo County Landfill Office
Attending: Suzanne Falzone; Beth Harrison; Jeri Ohmart; Jessica Friedman; Carol Barsotti;
John Mott-Smith; Marissa Juhler; Ruth Coleman
Absent: Randii MacNear; Dorothy Peterson; Gail Feenstra; Marianne Ferrendelli
Welcome, Call to Order 5:40
Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve minutes of 1/26/15; seconded; passed unanimously.
Visioning
Values and beliefs are the basis for our vision/mission statement. Being true to our beliefs ensures our integrity. We know we are doing substantial work.
Answering the following questions will get us to the WHY of our mission:

What do we care about?
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What brings us to the table?
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What do we believe? What is our “heart connection” about this work?
Distinction between vision & mission:
Vision : what we see in the future; why we do what we do and what we see that will have been the results of our work years down the line.
Mission: The mission is how we intend to bring about the vision.
Our current tag line (a mini-mission statement or the beginning of a mission statement?):
Planting the seeds of healthy living
Brainstorming values (unprioritized) of what we care about as an organization:

Preserving our agricultural heritage
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Making more of a connection between farms and schools.
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Preserving our agricultural future and our health; saving what is the essence of Yolo
County.
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Improving the health of Yolo county citizens through agriculture
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We want to fight obesity and effects of bad diets

Knowing who my farmer is important. It creates community
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Sustainability is a value. (But lots of definitions of sustainability AND it may not be a particularly resonating message for the general public.)
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Supporting local farmers Knowing and supporting local farmers
Brainstorming beliefs (unprioritized) : What we believe as an organization:
 Children don’t know where their food is coming from; kids are too influenced by advertising.

Food is related to health.
 It’s important to get back to the cycles of life—the essence of a healthy lifestyle

Our work can influence lifelong choices
—about food. Not limited to schools.

We get so disconnected from the elements that support us —clean air, water. Not knowing where things come from (earth, not grocery store).

We should be informing people on making choices for healthy living (e.g., buy local at the grocery store)
 It’s so much more than just healthy food. It’s very much about building relationships.
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
Building a relationship between YC residents and their food.
 We are limiting ourselves too much by focusing only on our schools. It’s bigger than just the schools.
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The pillars of our organization are connecting farms to schools. How can we articulate that connection?
Another question: Is our goal/mission specific to Yolo County?
Regarding donors/grants/fundraising (Beth):
 What’s our heart connection? That gets us to why.
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Our identified values will to align with potential donors. We need to be able to “speak” to many different potential donors through our mission statement and our core values.

We must ask: How do we want to align ourselves with the values of the organization(s) we are approaching for partnership and/or funding. Connect their values with our values
(if there’s a connection).
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Beth talks about what sets us apart from orgs involved in what are perceived as similar efforts, quality (quality of food, quality of life), lessons that last a lifetime and that we reach the community (kids, families, parents, administrators in YC and with their help, we can reach even more of our community.) Also that everyone “wins” (there’s nothing controversial about what we’re doing). This resonates with people.
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Being concrete via school gardens is the reason we were going in this direction.
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How do we tell donors/funders what we want to do or what we are doing? o Beth is now talking to people & they ask “where do you want to go?” o How do we know when we are successful? o We are going after more funding —need to be careful not to go too wide (all at once) in our ambitions. Or if we go wide, then we need to articulate short term, long term goals, etc., so that others can see that we have the capacity to do what we do and stay sustainable.
Talking about QUALITY in the possible pillars of our work:
 Health o Personal o Environmental
 Community o Knowing farmers and valuing their work o Influencing life-long food choices
 Sustainability o Of our efforts o Of the environment
A question for each one of us: Why do we spend time and energy on this effort? What makes us different and unique?
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Knowing farmers & farmers market; Health and Community
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What we are doing makes a positive difference in people’s lives—They will never unlearn this. They will always have these experiences and lessons with them.
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A win-win. We are supporting local farmers and fostering kids’ health and well-being.
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Building a relationship with our food. Lots of nonprofits are based on helping other people. W e are a bit different. Everyone eats food. We are trying to change people’s perceptions and understanding about food and where their food comes from. Teaching people about the importance of eating local.

Some of the things we value in Davis are not trickling down to the population at large. Ag is not a gene ral part of most people’s lives. We should be proud of Yolo County as the
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producer of so much agriculture. This county is about growing food, very proud of that and wants kids to know what’s growing around them Taking pride in having people understand Yolo County ag.

Crunch Lunch had a big influence on kids. We should be changing the language around food and where it comes from. Connecting kids to food and also preserving ag land. o Changing the understanding about food and ag. Saving the planet through understanding food & ag. Understanding how our choices about food affect our personal, local, regional and planetary health.
 Ag isn’t a part of the life of lots of kids, even if their parents work hard in ag. Many don’t understand ag or see it important. We need to educate the kids so that they will grow up valuing ag. Engaging kids in ag —making it fun and cool—so that they will see it as important in the future.

Life-long learning, skills and abilities, and engagement in knowing how food is produced.
Actively engaging in something beneficial to individuals and the community. YF2F has the ability to do this better than any other org around. Vision to have the lessons gleaned in the garden to be incorporated into every part of the school curriculum. Would eventually love for it to go beyond that —all about the food, the entire cycle.
Which ideas stand out as priorities? We need to agree on priorities.
We need to be able to clearly complete the sentence: “Our mission is “planting the seeds of healthy living by/through …”
Why do people give? (Beth) —The top reason is because people want to make a positive difference —what does this person (a potential supporter) care about that we’re doing or want to do? When we approach funders, we are not just connecting to a business, but connecting with a person at that business that cares about what we do. Our enthusiasm can be “contagious.” o We are g iving the message that “you are/can be a part of making a difference in this way.”
To be a part of something bigger, we can be synergistic when we work together. o We have distinct donor audiences: (1) Individual donors want to be part of something bigger and know they are helping, (2) partners want to help AND to be able to co-market and create something unique/exclusive together, (3) sponsors want to make a difference and also have exposure to our audiences (what’s in it for them, such as being a headline sponsor for an event or program), and (4) grant funders typically want to fund the underserved communities and make a broad change in the community/region.
Need to continue this conversation. We set up a Focus Group meeting just for this topic on
Monday March 16 — 6:00-7:00pm—location TBD.
Adjourn 7:10
______________________________________________ _______________
Suzanne Falzone, President, Yolo Farm to Fork Date
_______________________________________________ _______________
Jeri Ohmart, Secretary, Yolo Farm to Fork Date
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Beth Harrison, Executive Director Report
February 23, 2015
Fundraising / Grant-related
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See attached fundraising meeting notes
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Requested $2,000 (max amount) from Davis Soroptomists to cover the cost of 8 Davis Farm to
School mini grants
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Yolo Farm to Fork logo shopping/grocery totes are available to give and to sell – promoting partnership with National University (they sponsored/paid for the bags)
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Working with Krush Burger (Davis) on fundraising/partnership opportunities; developing a proposal with a menu of funding opportunities for Davis and broader Yolo County
 Applying to Woodland United Way as a “certified partner” (to participate in local campaign presentations, are be eligible to apply for funding through their grant process, and to be listed on their website and campaign materials)
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Big Day of Giving: weekly February seminars in Sacramento to coordinate social media, board and donor engagement, and campaign planning in the region for May 5 event
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Contacting potential donors/partners/sponsors; grant research; preparing for visioning session
Programs, Admin
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Taste Our Garden and Futures: dissemination of grant application and information, communicate with applicants and garden coordinators; communicated with funders on deliverables and provide information to funders to receive funds
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Davis Farm to School Farm Trips: wrote farm trip collateral piece and worked with Tabari on design; developed partnership terms and agreement with Whole Foods (and implementing), worked with WF on all promo pieces and coordination; working with Tabari to improve protocol of classroom and farm trip visits
 Davis Farm to School Garden/Rise and Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Committee meetings
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Continuing partnership development with Heidrick Ag Center
Communications
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February e-newsletter: http://bit.ly/1yFaUdg
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Wrote, publicized on the website, with regional media sources, and on social media: Yolo Farm to
Fork is giving away $15,000 in school garden grants http://bit.ly/1vx5u2M, and http://bit.ly/1vx61lf
 Davis Farm to School’s Farm Visits for 2 nd Graders http://bit.ly/1DvZbmL
 Tour de Cluck’s Eggstravaganza promo piece http://yolofarmtofork.org/tour-de-cluckeggstravaganza/ and solicited Crowers on the Green participation from our partners at Sutter,
Whole Foods, National University
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Working with Tabari to refresh and update Davis Farm to School website (over several months)
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Ongoing website and social media updates; connections with new/potential volunteers
Upcoming
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Score/rank applications, communicate with all Taste Our Garden-Futures applicants; orientation on 3/12; publicize grant winners and program; begin implementation
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Continue Tour de Cluck outreach; Davis Chamber of Commerce luncheon in March with Bobby
Coyote; write and promote California Thursdays and Dominic/DF2S; attend and photograph select DF2S Farm Trips with Whole Foods
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Continue pursuing a variety of funding sources and developing (current and new) partnerships
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Create a plan for our restaurant campaign that will take place in September/October
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