Food Access and Community Wellness Notes from July 19 2022

The FSC-GNV met on July 19 2022. The topic for this meeting was Food Access & Community Wellness. Contact information for the attendees below may be provided upon request. Please email foodsystemscoalitionGNV@gmail.com for assistance connecting to FSC-GNV participants. To download and share these meeting notes, access the PDF version HERE.

Partner News and Updates for July 19 2022

City of Gainesville

• Joint City-County Food Systems Policy Board
  • The board is currently in the administrative process of switching the chair of the board from County to City, as it has been on year since the board’s inception.
  • The last official meeting was in February, as the most recent meetings have not had a quorum and have been hosted as workshops.
  • The next meeting will be in August so we will get updates on projects at that time.
• Urban Agriculture Ordinance
  • The policy went into effect June 2nd. 
• Partnership for Reimagining Gainesville –
  • Jordan Wilson – Family Food Night Program
    • Jordan is an elementary school teacher who teaches culinary classes in addition to his regular class.
    • He is creating a program for kids to go on field trips to see different stages of food system – restaurant, farm, etc.
    • The goal is for students to know where their food comes from and how it is prepared. Jordan wants them to experience each area and learn culinary skills.
      • Morningside and MK Rawlings facilities were suggested as places to learn about gardening.
• Community Resource Paramedicine Program – Gainesville Fire Rescue
  • Overview
    • The goal of the CRP program is to reach high users of 911 and address their social determinants of health to ultimately decrease 911 calls.
    • CRP takes referrals from providers.
    • They also work with the GPD co-responder program. The co-responder team handles the crisis at hand and CRP takes the follow–up steps with the client.
  • Food Access Work
    • The team has found that food access initiatives are a great way to build relationships with neighbors.
    • Many of the folks they work with have lots of transportation challenges or are home-bound.
    • CRP partners with Gator Dining and the Food Recovery Network to divert leftover food to their clients and those who were in need.
    • Partnership has slowed down with the transition of UF’s contract, but they are hopefully it will pick up again soon.
    • They are working on getting a fridge to keep food separate from everything else on their trucks.
    • The CRP team is also hoping to get some staff trained in food safety and handling to properly provide meals.
• Community Refrigerator Project
  • A UF student recently submitted a proposal for a community refrigerator project to the Brown Center for Leadership and Service microgrant program.
  • They were awarded the funding, so the student has been in touch with Free Grocery Store at Civic Media Center and with GFR, as both places have space to store food and have food access programs.
    • The project is very aligned with the GFR CRP mission. The building just south of the MLK Center already has an alcove that used to have a vending machine and has the appropriate outlet needed.
  • Feel free to share knowledge and ideas around community fridge best practices!
  • Discussion:
    • Suggestion to have a fridge at Helping Hands Clinic, however that is not outside and only available at certain times.
    • Suggestion to talk to impacted community members, specifically people experiencing homelessness to get their input on the potential challenges and successes of the fridge idea.
      • In the Grace Grows Community Food Project, a public refrigerator was not a commonly expressed need. However, many of those folks who completed the surveys were not unhoused.
    • GFR is exploring alternative scheduling options so someone may be there 7 days a week in the future to assist with the refrigerator.
    • It could be helpful to get connected to local restaurants or businesses who are able to divert food to keep the fridge stocked so it’s not empty and sucking out energy.
      • Suggestion to utilize the new Zero Waste policy to get that food diverted there.
        • Since grocery stores will be affected first, maybe a smaller store that has pre-prepared meals that are grab and go could be a good contact.
        • Local businesses may already be diverting. We could get in touch with them. Holy Trinity Episcopal Church is involved with diversion from Leonardo’s Pizza.
    • Some members expressed concern with the refrigerator capacity and the food needs not aligning.
    • Ice is also a huge need in the transient community, as it helps folks get food back to where they are going.
      • Ice machine and fridge would be the best combination at one site.
        • Bags of ice would be better – ice machines can breed mold if not kept climate controlled.
        • UAA would have a lot of extra ice from games, the stadium, and events.
        • Gainesville Ice is a local company and may be willing to donate.
    • It will be important to build relationships with businesses to keep the food stocked. Wawa is nearby and has a lot of grab-and-go food that goes bad quickly.
      • There is concern about litter with single-use containers. Maybe there could be a return bin at the fridge site to put containers through a sanitation process.
      • There could be a partnership with GRACE for dropping off and picking up containers for those who will use both services.
      • Probably a public health concern with using already used dishes.
      • Compostable containers would be the best option.
    • There may be interest from Krishna to divert food.
    • Overall, the group wants to make sure that food safety and maintenance of the refrigerators is planned out. Specifically, the frequency of cleaning and restocking. Suggestion for daily cleaning.
      • The student group is doing some more research and processing through the logistics pieces.
• Comments:
  • Excitement and praise about Zero Waste Ordinance going into effect!

Grace Grows Community Food Plan

• Team is doing a deeper dive into the data gathered through the survey created by impacted community members.
• The goal is for this deeper dive to be focused around different topic areas – access and availability, places to shop, community gardening, transportation, community engagement, and education programs.
• They will be creating 1 report for each topic area.
• Gardening and transportation topic reports done and being finalized.
• The access and availability analysis and report are in progress now.
• This work will avoid taking a one size fits all approach to the solutions by using informed programming. Grace Grows also wants to be able to share the information out for different areas of expertise to take the lead on implementation. With the data, the implementation can be done in a way that the community believes in and knows will be effective.
• Comments:
  • Would love to get the data and group to present to JCCFSPB at an upcoming meeting. Maybe October – the team can pick 2 topics after data analysis is complete to share with the Board.
  • There is the possibility of co-locating food access initiatives in the East side Urgent Care space.
  • Gainesville Fire Rescue’s Community Resource Paramedicine Program is also doing food access work.

UF Field and Fork Farm

• The team is starting up a collaboration discussion with ACES in Motion.
• The Field and Fork Garden would love to have Jordan’s students come out for the Family Food Night Program.

Citizen Climate Advisory Committee

• The CCAC is currently developing a draft of the climate change plan.
  • One item of the plan is food security during a disaster situation. The goal of this item is to address residents in various areas and how they will get their food in a hurricane, weather, natural disaster, etc.
• Food scarcity solutions are also included in the plan.
• To aid the development of the plan, the FSC was suggested as a source of information. The group will have an opportunity to contribute.
• Comment:
  • The Rural Concerns Committee has also discussed the FoodShed map. Many groups in the community are having similar conversations about food access. Making the resources available for everyone and standardizing those things could be helpful for all the groups. Sharing the resource with those in local governance would be good to get them acquainted to what is happening in the community.
    • FSC did contribute to FoodShed map.
    • It is a challenge to maintain and keep the lists updated on a regular basis.
  • Could FSC house the resources and be the point of contact for food systems related things locally?

Alachua County Public Schools

• Gardening Program
  • ACPS is upgrading local gardens as well to increase gardening programs.
• Composting
  • New composting system getting up and running as well.
  • Comments:
    • Beaten Path Compost and Grow Hub could help donate compost.
    • August 15^th @ 6:30P – Beaten Path Compost speaking at VFW
• ACPS would love for Beaten Path to come out and speak to students.
  • Suggestion to speak with Mike Heimbach at the City about composting.

Grow Gainesville

• Meeting information HERE.