Minutes: Food Choices Committee of the Green Neighborhood Council of GOC07 May 2008 – 11:30 am to 12:30 pm – City Sprouts Community House
Facilitator: Vince Furlong
Attendees: Brian Smith, Andy Jameton, Alaina (Andy) Hickman, Jacquie Case, Vince Furlong, Kathy Townsend, Nancy Williams, Katja Koehler-Cole, Mary Green, Pam Berry, Michael Braunstein, Monica Erickson, Trilety Wade

1. Welcome & Introductions
• Wade explained the Food Group is a committee of the Green Neighborhood Council – one of Five councils under the Green Omaha Coalition (GOC).
• Jameton serves as liaison to the GOC Board for both the Green Neighborhood Council and Food Group.

2. Announcements
• Brian Smith – Village Point Farmers’ Market operates every Saturday from 8 am to 1 pm. Producers market – you buy directly from growers. VPFM does not sell any crafts, decorative items, or baked goods – strictly produce, eggs, meat.
• Jameton – City Sprouts is hosting a weeding party this Saturday
• Lauritzen Botanical Gardens is hosting a plant sale May 16, 17, 18

3. Mission Statements
Explanation of Statements
• Five potential Mission Statements – based on prior meetings/discussions – were distributed to the Food Group email list. The Five Mission Statements were handed out at the meeting and read aloud:

1. Encourage the production, preparation, and purchase of local food through hands-on workshops, education, and networking events.

2. Educate individuals and institutions on importance of eating local.

3. Promote the production and purchase of local food through education and networking events.

4. Promote organization among producers and consumers.

5. Promote local food through cooking/preparation classes and networking between producers and consumers.

Results/Discussion via Email
• Some members, not able to attend, voted via email. Wade read (anonymously) opinions received via email regarding specific Mission Statements:

o Vote for Mission #2 via email - “with the rational that it lends itself to a broad base of support, is doable, and I think the goals would flow fairly clearly from it.”
o Vote for Mission #3 via email - “I think it pretty much sums up numbers 1 & 2 and it would benefit the GOC to appeal more to consumers than to try to organize producers because there can be no producers without a hefty supply of consumers.”
o Vote for Mission #1 via email - “from my perspective on all this, it’s broad enough to include everyone’s passions/interests/goals. And I would see it as something that would help begin to address the food desert issues in North Omaha.”

Mission Statement Discussion Among Group
• Furlong – Does anyone “champion” a particular mission statement? – not a vote – just advocating to spur discussion
• Jameton –Mission Statements need tweaking - like a food menu, ie Menu A = “what to promote as a group” and Menu B = “how to promote it as a group”
• Green, Townsend, and Cole champion #1
• No champions for #2
• No champions for #2
• Jameton – in regards to #4 – could simply be stated as “promote & produce”
• No champions for #5
• Williams - #1 may address the glaring holes of “education” and “economic development”

Voting
Members in attendance circled Mission Statement of choice on their voting ballots.

Voting Results
Including the votes received via email – voting results are:
Mission Statement #1 = 12 votes
Mission Statement #3 = 4 votes
Mission Statement #2 = 2 votes
Mission Statements #4 & 5 = 0 votes

Mission Statement Chosen by Consensus: Encourage the production, preparation, and purchase of local food through hands-on workshops, education, and networking events.

• Jameton asked - “wordsmithing” of Mission Statement #1 be sent to Wade
• Wade - concerned any “wordsmithing” of the Voted-on statement could cause a false start w/ the projects/momentum of the group
• Jameton - against emphasizing shoppers/purchasing as an objective – wants to drop the word “purchase” from the Mission Statement
• Hickman - local producers can’t succeed w/out support of consumers
• Hickman and Jameton - words “organic” and “healthy”, respectively, were not included in any of the Mission Statements
• Group - those words important

 TASK: Email any clarifiers for the Mission, ie organic, sustainable, etc to Wade for distribution. Only to clarify – not to alter intent

4. Green Living Workshop – Co-organized by Food Group
Intro/Explanation
Wade & Townsend - background on Green Neighborhood Council’s Monthly Green Living Workshops – held 4th Saturday of every month – practical workshops to promote green lifestyles – July workshop organized/hosted by Food Group @ Village Point Farmers’ Market
Workshop Committee, Tasks etc
• Townsend – organizers of each workshop write an article about the workshop topic – this article is distributed to a variety of newsletters (Flatwater Chapter of USGBC, Midtown Monitor, Neighborhood Newsletters, Omaha by Design, etc).
• Article - due 27 May and can be a collaborative effort among the organizers.
• Townsend sent around a sign-up sheet for those members interested in helping to organize the July 26 Green Living Workshop – 5+ people signed-up

Discussion
• Jameton - “how to grow food for market,” or “how to start a community garden”
• Smith – Co-organizer of Market –great date to host a workshop because Brian O’Malley (Metropolitan Community College) and his culinary students will also be hosting a food prep/demonstration – using only foods purchased at the Market
• Discussion about audience – a mix among shoppers and growers – emphasis on shoppers likely at the market
• Smith – workshop could show people how to “adapt their shopping”
• Green – show shoppers “how to prepare”
• Cole – teach people “what is local? 100 miles? Etc.”
• Townsend – focus of workshop could be three-fold “how to buy,” “how to grow,” “how to prep”

Workshop – Planning
Townsend/Wade will schedule a Workshop Planning meeting

5. Database Update
• Wade – Green Omaha Coalition has a Database Committee – the Food Group can compile a database of community gardens, markets, organizations, etc to provide to Database Committee.
• Wade – Lawse (co-chair of Green Neighborhood Council) hopes to eventually have the database in a interactive/google map format as well
• The Database project – not necessarily a committee project – but an established project that will 1) be updated on an annual basis and 2) distributed to those in need of said information
Vince asked for discussion on the need for a database
• Databases already exist – ie localharvest.org, Buy Fresh Buy Local, USDA, UNL, Douglas County Health Dept, etc
• Williams/Wade – helpful to consolidate all this information into one place – so people can go to one place to find gardens etc
• Berry – at local level this will help people network and learn from each other

TASK: All members are being asked to send to Wade (trilety@hotmail.com) a list of gardens, markets, organizations, databases – after the initial round of information-gathering – the draft spreadsheet will be sent out to various members to fill in any gaps

6. Monthly Meetings
• Food group to meet on a monthly basis – vacillate between evening and lunch-time meeting times – Wednesday evenings are not feasible for most attendees
• June meeting will be an evening meeting. June meeting will not be held at City Sprouts house due to space limitations – Wade will look into availability of Neighborhood Center or another venue
• Wade will send out next meeting date

7. Executive Committee/Leadership – (New Item)
• Jameton - due to size of Group, leadership should be in the form of an Executive Committee. Due to Jameton’s position as Board liaison, he said he can’t serve on Executive Committee
• Wade - an Executive Committee is preferable - one leader not effective or creative.
• No interest was initially shown at meeting by members to serve but Wade will put out a formal request to the Food Group – may be best to have the Executive Committee comprised of people with varied interests – ie production, preparation, purchase, networking, education etc

8. Permaculture Update
• Townsend attended a Permaculture Workshop in Boulder – permaculture - term coined by Bill Mollison – meaning permanent culture – how to create a permanent culture via stewardship, land care, ag, etc – not just peak oil, but peak soil and peak water
• Much interest in permaculture – Group consensus - great workshop to be hosted by the Food Group – Townsend said the workshop coordinators, Bill Mollison, etc – could be sponsored to come to Omaha - need funding

9. What’s Your Focus?
Townsend – whose main focus/passion is permaculture and production – asked “what’s your one main focus/passion w/ local food?” - Answers below can be used to drive projects of the Food Group

• Furlong – Interaction on the Streets – People creating, eating, purchasing, food in public spaces
• Case – agrees w/ Furlong – also working on brining community together in vacant spaces to produce local food
• Hickman – backyard gardening and composting
• Berry – education on how to garden
• Williams – education and economic development
• Green – emphasis on growing local
• Jameton – block-based gardening
• Cole – garden in every yard
• Smith – develop a strategy – food group as facilitator – speakers bureau
• Erickson – block by block gardening – promotes community and discussion
• Braunstein – nexialize – incorporate groups – don’t reinvent the wheel – work w/ others

10. Adjourn - Furlong adjourned the meeting at 12:33 pm