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Sacramento Hunger Commission: February 2002 Minutes

  1. The meeting was called to order by Vice-Chair, Sharon Eghigian at 11:40am
  2. The November 20, 2001 meeting minutes were approved unanimously (Brown/Wilson).
  3. Panel on Federal Child Nutrition Programs in Sacramento County-- A panel of Commissioners addressed questions and comments concerning federal child nutrition programs in Sacramento County. Janet Talsky represented the Sacramento County WIC program. There are currently about 30,000 WIC clients (mothers and kids) in Sacramento, served by two agencies: the nonprofit Community Resource Project and the County. Janet noted that lack of available transportation to WIC related appointments and families not connecting consistently with the program are the two biggest challenges for WIC. In addition, she answered questions concerning available funding to provide services to all eligible families and why families are required to purchase specific foods. Ms. Talsky said that although Sacramento County is at about 102% of capacity and all eligible families are currently being provided for, there may be a time when limited funding will force WIC staff to prioritize new participants. She also reported that WIC participants must buy certain foods because WIC is a nutrition education program.

    Nancy Alexander (SCUSD) represented School Breakfast and School Lunch programs. Ms. Alexander stated that the biggest challenges facing School Breakfast is the image problem that it is a program for "poor kids", and bad timing with bus and bell schedules. She reported that a pilot project is currently underway at one local school that provides school breakfast for every child during class while attendance is being taken. Ms. Alexander also reported that of the 81 schools in the district, only 6 do not currently offer School Breakfast, but the remaining 6 will have School Breakfast next year. She said the biggest challenge facing School Lunch is the expense in providing healthy food and recommends that individuals advocate for increased funding for the School Lunch program.

    David Mitchell and Sabrina Stewart (City of Sacramento) represented the Summer Lunch Program. Outreach and more sites in specific low-income areas are the two most needed areas of work this summer. Albert Mills asked if the city could help individual sites with outreach. Sharon Eghigian offered to help make calls to media outlets to generate more outreach opportunities. Nancy Alexander said that an article can go in the Sacramento school district newsletter. Sabrina Stewart encouraged Commissioners to all work with other school districts on outreach. Janet Talsky offered to take a master list of Summer Food sites so that WIC staff can refer participants to the Summer Food program. Stephanie Wilson offered to provide a copy of the master list of Summer Food sites to anyone interested in using it for referral.
  4. Policy Update- Sharon Eghigian provided a summary handout and reported that the state will have at least a $12 billion deficit, which will make it very hard to find funding for new projects. However, advocates are still creating a list of issues to address this year, including pushing for an end to monthly reporting for food stamp participants, changing the auto resource limit for food stamp applicants and finding funding for the food bank network, which has seen a 40% increase in people needing food. Ms. Eghigian also reported that the Farm Bill is still being finalized and that advocates are fighting for the strongest provisions concerning food assistance programs to be added to the final language.

    Re local advocacy issues:
    • Bill Maynard asked the Commission to approve a letter to be sent to Supervisor's Nottoli's office (County Board of Supervisors) requesting that a community garden located at Mather in a county regional park should not be eliminated. The Commission unanimously voted to support the garden (Wilson/Eghigian). Judie Wilson asked if there was a formal sub-committee to deal with policy issues (there is not) and offered to work on creating such a committee.
    • Stephanie Wilson reported that a Farmers Market is scheduled to open in North Sacramento in April, but that there were still some issues regarding permits that needed to be resolved. She recommended that the Hunger Commission write a letter to District 2 Councilmember Sandy Sheedy supporting the Farmers Market and encouraging her to help make the opening of the market successful. The Commission unanimously approved this recommendation (Villalobos/Yniguez) and asked staff to handdeliver it to Councilmember Sheedy.
  5. Follow-up on Asset-Based Commission Development (ABCD)- Stephanie Wilson passed out a handout summarizing the findings of the ABCD exercise conducted at the January retreat. Ms. Wilson explained that the handout will be used by staff to determine which Commissioners will be asked to work on specific projects and also encouraged Commissioners to help each other in their own projects based on the skills and experiences the Commissioners have offered.
  6. Old Business- selection of an alternate CAB board member has been tabled to the March meeting. Stephanie Wilson provided an update on webite activities. The Hunger Commission website is scheduled to be ready by the end of March.
  7. Commissioner Reports and Announcements- Jan Romero reported a 12% increase in the total number of people being served at Loaves and Fishes currently as opposed to last year and a 121% increase in the number of women and children being served.
  8. Evaluation- Peggy Roark asked Commissioners to comment on the structure of the meeting and to make recommendations for future meetings. It was recommended that announcements be placed at the beginning of the agenda. Panels should include a maximum of two projects, possibly have a moderator to help with the flow of conversation, and ideally begin with a brief description of the main challenges or issues as panelists see them.

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