City Exchange ProjectRace, Food Justice, and Policy Implications and

Implementation

November 17, 2014

What is the City Exchange Project?• The City Exchange Project idea sprung from a need to be able to

discuss issues and topics on food systems with other organizations

across the US.

• Many times, the only way inter-city dialogue is created between

staff/leaders of different community organizations is through

conference networking.

• The City Exchange Project seeks to electronically convene leaders from

across the country and engage them in relevant and useful

conversations on pressing and pertinent food systems issues from the

comfort of your own office.

Click above for CRFS website

Guiding Questions• Healthy food access projects in participants communities'

• What are the objectives of your project?

• What are some obstacles and successes related to this project?

• Is there a component of sustainability after this project is

completed?

• Do you have recommendations based on findings from your

project?

• Changes and/or future direction

• Are there racial disparities in access to healthy foods?

• Are there policies that affect such disparities?

• Are there examples or experiences with food retail redlining in

communities?

• Examples or experiences in overcoming these types of policies,

disparities, and perceptions?

Guiding Questions

• Does race affect local government action as it relates to urban/suburban ag ownership or access?• Livestock ordinances and other policies

• In some cities -- Detroit is a prime example -- tax incentives and subsidies are extended to large, chain supermarkets to locate within the city or certain neighborhoods. What can be done to leverage this kind of municipal support to local, homegrown food allies?

• Going back to the first question, what is the role of local foods in healthy food access? Local and organic food gets the reputation for being elitist because of higher prices. However, the reality is that the farmers that grow this food aren’t making much money. Does anyone have examples or experiences with projects or initiatives that seek to address healthy and local food access to low-income citizens while maintaining profitable price levels for farmers?

Facilitator• George Reistad

• Assistant Policy Director – Michael Fields Agricultural

Institute

• Communications Coordinator – Community and Regional

Food Systems Project

Cedar Rapids Participant• Sonia Kendrick – Executive Director/Founding Farmer, Feed Iowa

First

Sonia Kendrick

• Sonia Kendrick is the founding farmer, a combat veteran, agronomist, and working towards a masters degree in sustainable food systems but mainly just an informed and concerned mother of two amazing children.

• “Whomever controls our food controls us and our democratic right to rule ourselves is rooted in our ability to feed ourselves.” Sonia Kendrick

Feed Iowa First• Mission: To confront food insecurity today and

tomorrow by growing food and farmers.• Feed Iowa First has 12 farms in Linn Co. Iowa. We grow on underutilized

land around churches and business. We also grow on 16 acres of donated farmland. We do not have total yield numbers yet but it is well over 20,000 lbsof vegetables. We currently only have one beginning farmer but we have worked this season with seven other beginning farmers. All of the produce that we grow is donated to food pantries and shelters as well as meals on wheels. We do not charge for the food that we donate.

• Our current project is building a walipini fish farm next to a low income school. We are planning to take the waste from the school and feed it to black soldier flies then feed the black soldier flies to the fish and have the fish connected to a hydroponic system that will allow us to grow lettuce for the school to have a salad bar.

• Our goal is to get 500 acres of underutilized land turned into vegetable production that would provide the almost 26,000 food insecure in our county with the bare minimum of vegetables a day. We believe that the next generation of farmers are in the city and need to be brought out of the city as a social effort in order to ensure that we are fed into the future. We are also advocates for teaching all children how to feed themselves – A skill that should be as fundamental as writing their names.

Madison Participants• Carrie Edgar - Department Head & Community Food Systems

Educator for Dane County Cooperative Extension

• Chris Brockel – Executive Director – FairShare CSA Coalition

• Michael Gay – Senior VP, Economic Development – Madison

Region Economic Partnership

Carrie Edgar Chris Brockel Michael Gay

Madison Participants• Mark Woulf – City of Madison Food and Alcohol Policy

Coordinator, Co-Chair Madison Food Policy Council

• Margaret Krome – Policy Program Director – Michael Fields

Agricultural Institute, CRFS Project Partner

Mark Woulf Margaret Krome

Carrie Edgar

• Carrie Edgar is the Department Head & Community Food

Systems Educator for Dane County UW-Extension. Her work

focuses on food systems and community capacity building.

Her experience includes community development, grower

education, food & farm entrepreneurship, food policy, and

school & community garden development.

• Carrie serves as staff of the Dane County Food Council and is

a member of the Madison Food Policy Council. Carrie started

the Dane County Food Coalition to bring together food system

organizations to develop a shared vision and work more

collaboratively.

Chris Brockel

• Chris Brockel is the Executive Director of FairShare CSA Coalition. FairShare

CSA Coalition is a non-profit organization working to making community

supported agriculture (CSA) more accessible by linking people who care about

the food they eat to local farmers who grow top-quality food for their local

communities. Through education, outreach, community building and resource

sharing, FairShare is committed to raising the bar on the quality and accessibility

of CSA shares in Southern Wisconsin. FairShare has a network of 50 endorsed

organic farms throughout central and southern Wisconsin and provides farmer

education and support, community education and outreach, and low income

access to CSA through their Partner Shares program.

Click FairShare logo for

organizational website

Michael Gay

• Prior to joining MadREP in May 2013, Michael P. Gay, CEcD, served as the

Director of the Center for New Ventures (CNV) at UW-Platteville from

2011-2013. The CNV was created in May 2011 to help the university and its

expansive educational resources become more entrepreneurial, promote

research, and increase grant relationships. Before his tenure at UW-

Platteville, Michael worked for the City of Madison for over a decade as the

Business Development Coordinator, serving as the official liaison between

city government and the Madison business community.

Click MADRep logo for

organizational website

Food Policy CouncilsCarrie Edgar and Mark Woulf

• As members of the Madison Food

Policy Council, Mark Woulf (co-

chair) and Carrie Edgar help shape

decisions on how the City of

Madison addresses food systems

related issues within the community.

Click photo above for Madison Food

Policy Council Goals and Objectives• The Dane County Food Council is a

committee of the Dane County Board.

DCFC was created to encourage active

collaboration to explore issues and

develop recommendations to create an

economically, socially, and

environmentally sustainable local food

system for the Dane County region. Click above for DCFC

Action Plan

Margaret Krome• Margaret Krome is Policy Program Director for the Michael Fields

Agricultural Institute in East Troy, Wisconsin. She helps develop state and

local programs and policies supporting environmentally sound, profitable,

and socially responsible agriculture and helps the National Sustainable

Agriculture Coalition coordinate its annual national grassroots campaign to

fund federal programs prioritized each year by NSAC’s member groups.

Ms. Krome conducts workshops nationwide on grant writing and using

federal programs to support sustainable agriculture. She sits on the Board

the National Center for Appropriate Technology and writes a bi-weekly

editorial column for The Capital Times in Madison.

Click MFAI logo for organizational

website

Chicago Participant

• Erika Allen – Growing Power – Chicago, Chair – Chicago Food

Policy Advisory Council

Photo Courtesy – Growing a Greener World

Click photo above for Growing Power Website

Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council

• As Co-chair of the CFPAC,

Erika and other board

members facilitate the

development of responsible

policies that improve access

for Chicago residents to

culturally appropriate,

nutritionally sound, and

affordable food that is

grown through

environmentally sustainable

practices.

Detroit Participant• Kibibi Blount-Dorn - Program Manager, Detroit Food Policy

Council

Kibibi Blount-Dorn

• Kibibi Blount-Dorn is currently the Coordinator for the Detroit

Food Policy Council. She has a B.S. in Urban and Regional

Planning from Michigan State University, and a Masters of

Urban Planning from Wayne State University.

• She is a lifelong Detroit resident, and has been a community

development advocate and community gardener since she was a

teenager. She has previously worked with Detroit Summer,

Garden Resource Program Collaborative, Center for Urban

Studies at Wayne State University, Highland Park Development

Corporation, Eastern Market Corporation, and the Detroit Black

Community Food Security Network.

Detroit Food Policy Council• The creation of the Detroit Food Policy Council (DFPC) stemmed

from a directive included in the Detroit Food Security Policy (DFSP)

that the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network drafted.

• Detroit City Council members adopted and approved all the

recommendations in the DFSP in 2008-2009 and the Detroit Food

Policy Council had its first meeting in late 2009.

• One of the largest issues that DFPC and other community-based orgs

and coalitions are working on is equitable access to city-owned land

(about 60,000 parcels)

Click above for more info on DFPC Click above for 2012 DFPC Public

Land Sales Report

Milwaukee Participants

• Marcia Caton-Campbell – Executive Director, Center for Resilient

Cities

• Tatiana Maida – Obesity Prevention Manager, Sixteenth Street

Community Health Centers

• Jen Casey – Director of Development and Communications

Marcia Caton-Campbell Tatiana Maida

Marcia Caton-Campbell• Marcia Caton Campbell, MCRP, PhD, is the Executive Director

of the Center for Resilient Cities. In February 2011, Marcia

published Urban Agriculture: Growing Healthy, Sustainable

Communities, Planning Advisory Service Report No. 563,

coauthored with Kimberly Hodgson and Martin Bailkey

(Chicago, IL: American Planning Association).

• She has previously served on the boards of directors of

Growing Power, the Community Food Security Coalition, the

Milwaukee Environmental Consortium, the Madison Area

Community Land Trust, and the Friends of Troy Gardens (now

Community GroundWorks at Troy Gardens in Madison, WI).

Marcia is also the Center for Resilient Cities organizational

representative to the Milwaukee Food Council.

Center for Resilient Cities

• A 501c3 not-for-profit organization founded in 1996

with offices in Madison and Milwaukee, the Center for

Resilient Cities builds robust and thriving urban

communities that are healthy, just, economically viable

and environmentally sound.

• The CRC has been and currently is involved with

many community-based food system projects. Their

role as experts in a variety of fields offers support,

guidance, and technical assistance, which assists in the

creation of communities that are good for people and

good for the environment.

• CRC is involved with the Milwaukee Food Council

and is working on analyzing, recommending, and

building on some of the food systems findings from

the City of Milwaukee’s “ReFresh Milwaukee” report. Click above for

ReFresh Milwaukee

Food Systems Report

Jen Casey• Jennifer Casey connects heritage foodways to healthier people and

places. She brings her experience as a registered dietitian, writer, speaker, gardener and professional cook to her many health and food advocacy efforts. She had long been a fan, shopper, and supporter of Fondy before joining the team in July of 2014. Before coming to Fondy, she ran the Diabetes and Community Health programs at Milwaukee’s only American Indian Health Center, where she had the opportunity to learn about, and incorporate into programming, traditional foods as a source of wellness.

• She grew up in the Midwest, but spent time in Washington, California, New York and Vermont before moving back to the heartland to relish its wild asparagus, heritage apples, grass-fed dairy, amazing farms and markets and fresh water. Jennifer volunteers her time with several food advocacy efforts; including in her roles as a Slow Food USA Regional Governor and chair of the Slow Food Midwest Ark of Taste Committee. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Natural Gourmet Institute-New York and she now lives in nearby Riverwest with her family.

“The ‘solution’ is not one size fits all—it should

be a quilt of solutions made up of fabric that you

hand on hand and not one blanket woven out of

the same thread. What works in one community,

one place, will not work everywhere.” -Young

Kim, Fondy Food Center, Executive Director

Fondy Food Center’s Mission: We connect neighborhoods to fresh local food

– from farm to market to table – so that children learn better, people live healthier,

and communities embrace cultural food traditions.

Fondy Farmers Market:• Oldest and most diverse

market in MKE

• Located in MKE’s North

Side—a neighborhood with

high rates of hunger/food

insec. & poverty

• 1st Market in WI to accept

EBT

• In 2013 over 50K in food

stamp dollars redeemed at

market

• Celebration of community

& culture are central to

Fondy

Fondy Food Center’s Mission: We connect neighborhoods to fresh

local food – from farm to market to table – so that children learn better,

people live healthier, and communities embrace cultural food traditions.

Fondy Farm Project:

Started in 2011 to support the

primarily Hmong farmers

selling at Market

Farm offers affordable,

quality,long term farm leases as

well as amenities (access to

tractors, irrigation, hoophouse)

and technical support from

farm director

Fair food-from farm to table

Tatiana Maida

• Tatiana works at Sixteenth Community Health Centers where

she developed and currently manages Healthy Choices

department, an Obesity intervention that strives to improve the

nutritional and physical activity environment of Latino and low-

income families through comprehensive family education and

strong community advocacy. Her expertise and passion with

public health, program development, education, community

engagement and cultural competency began in Bolivia, her native

country, where she worked for several organizations dedicated to

rural, indigenous communities. She has a bachelor’s degree in

Communications and a minor in Social Development. She is also

a Nia instructor.

Sixteenth Street Community

Health Centers

Sixteenth Street Community

Health Center has provided

quality health care, health

education and social services on

Milwaukee’s multi-cultural south

side since 1969. The Center is

recognized as a leader in the

community, in terms of the

excellent care provided as well as

advocacy for public health issues.

Click above for SSCHC website

Boston Participant

• Sutton Kiplinger – Greater Boston Regional Director – The Food Project

Sutton Kiplinger• As Greater Boston Regional Director, Sutton oversees strategy,

partnerships, and operations of The Food Project's programming

and agricultural production in Boston and Lincoln.

• Sutton Kiplinger spent her early career at Health Leads, a nationally-

recognized non-profit that seeks to catalyze fundamental change in

how the health care system addresses the social determinants of

health. In seven years there, she served as the organization’s New

York Site Director, its first national Director of Programs, and then

as Executive Director of its flagship site in Boston.

• In 2010, in an effort to better understand the production-side

realities of the food issues she saw at play in the health sector,

Sutton transitioned into full-time production farming. She spent

three seasons at Dandelion Spring Farm, a fully diversified organic

farm in Maine, and at Waltham Fields Community Farm, a 500-

share vegetable CSA farm in Massachusetts, before coming to The

Food Project in October 2013.

The Food Project• Youth and adults, in partnership, realizing a community vision for a sustainable food

system.

• Engages 120 youth employees annually through a nationally-recognized youth development model. These youth, in intentionally diverse cohorts, grow food on our urban and suburban farms, distribute it to mission-driven and revenue-generating outlets, build and maintain community growing spaces, and engage others in learning about food justice through an anti-oppression lens.

• Has incubated a variety of policy, systems, and environment initiatives for local and national roll-out, including the Boston Bounty Bucks matching program and the Real Food Challenge.

• Currently co-leading a community food planning process in Boston’s Dudley neighborhood, in collaboration with the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) and Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE), to elevate residents’ vision for their neighborhood food system and design action steps toward it.

Click The Food Project Logo for website