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Sacramento Hunger Commission: March 2003 Minutes

1. The meeting was called to order by Rebecca Fuller, Chair.
2. Minutes approved M/S (Schroeder, Caruso)
3. Reports and announcements
• Executive Committee-Rebecca Fuller, Chair, announced that the Executive Committee, a standing committee of the Commission, consists of the past chair, current chair, 2 vice-chairs and staff. Hunger Commissioners have term limits of 5 years and 3 of our executive committee members will time out at the end of 2003. Please send Peggy an email if you are interested in being on the Executive Committee (they are especially looking for someone to fill the position of secretary). It is not a large time commitment (usually one extra meeting every other month) and a good way to become more active with the Commission.
• Food Resource Mapping/Neighborhood Outreach Project-Nina Nelson, Commissioner, gave an update of her work on this project. There are many services out there for individuals who need food assistance, and these folks may not always know all of their options. Nina showed two large maps (one of Sacramento City and the surrounding urban area and one of the outlying areas like Citrus Heights, Arden/Arcade) that she has been working on with assistance from the County. Colored dots represent locations of food bag programs, senior nutrition meal programs and farmers markets in the areas. Flyers will eventually be distributed to laundromats, schools and churches within the communities listing all of the sites on the maps within the local neighborhood. It was suggested that this information could be posted on the HC web site in a format that policy makers could use. Alicia Olfield, Commissioner, has all of these sites in a database and she indicated that it would be easy to put it up on the web as a pdf file. Major grocery stores could also be added to the list of food resources. It was suggested that a sub-committee be formed to help Nina with this Project. Janet, Gary, Kevin, Bill, Rebecca and Franklin all volunteered to be on this Committee. Juan Yniguez, CSPC Board Member, will be sure to communicate on this issue with the other Board members. It was suggested that the large maps be reduced to give out in flyer form.
• SETA Hearings re community needs for Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funds - There is $1 million dollars/ year that is allocated for locally directed needs. $650,000 goes out to fund programs that provide services to work towards unmet needs that are root causes of poverty in Sacramento County. Two dates are set for hearings to learn of possible community action areas: April 9, 2003, from 10 AM-Noon and May 14th 10 AM- Noon. Both will be held at the new SETA Building, 925 Del Paso Blvd. You can also submit suggestions in writing. Community Gardens was identified as a need last time, but we definitely need to continue to speak up and support issues we think are most important.
4. 2003 Program of Work - The major addition to the original draft program of work is Nina's mapping project. The new Program of Work was approved with the addition. M/S (Yniguez ,Little).
5. Hunger Hits Home 2003 Update - We are hoping to have funding for a temporary person to work on the update from April through the middle of the summer. Interested Commissioners are encouraged to participate in a short-term Hunger Hits Home oversight committee. It will have several functions: to guide the research and writing of the report, provide input and assist in rolling it out (presentations to Board of Supervisors, City Council etc.) and finally, discuss how it will continue to be used. It has been 11 years since the most recent update. This time we are also looking at the possibility of developing a Food Charter for Sacramento, based on the Toronto Food Charter.
6. Policy Update
• State Level -After some discussion, the Commission voted to support AB 231, the Save Money, Cut-Hunger food stamp bill by Darrell Steinberg. M/S (Bananno/Talsky). As this bill moves forward, it will be important to show HC representation and to testify at the hearings. Personal stories as well as statistics are both important to present. The HC voted to support the tax check-off option (SB 43) in support of food banks M/S (Magana-Alexander, Nina Nelson). The Commission also voted to support CHAC's position on the Protection of Vulnerable Californians from Program Cuts M/S (Fuller, Bond).
• Local Level- Bill Maynard, Commissioner, reported that the City of Sacramento has recently made efforts to include community gardens in the Sacramento City Parks Department Parks Master Plan. It is very important to the future of community gardening in Sacramento County, that Community gardens be an integral part of the Parks Master Plan. However the City still lacks a community garden policy and Bill wanted to find a way to put pressure on the Parks and Recreation Department to develop such a policy to take to the City Council. The question was asked: what is holding them back? They are lacking staff and liability is also an issue. It was suggested that the Hunger Commission/Sacramento Area Community Garden Coalition might come up with a draft policy to present to the City Councils. It is also crucial that we have a council member to champion this issue; Council Member Dave Jones would be a good option.
  
7. Plus/Delta Meeting Evaluation -- There was a heated discussion about where to have the next meeting. It was finally decided that the Commission would continue to meet at Mather for the first half of the year and then move to the SETA building, 925 Del Paso Blvd, for the rest of the year.

The meeting was adjourned by Rebecca Fuller, Chair, at 1:06pm.

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