MRFP Board Meeting, Tuesday December 12, 2012, Gunnison
CSU Extension Office
Called to order
No additions to November minutes. Motion to approve. 2nd . Unanimous
Next meeting, Tuesday, January 8th Crested Butte Town Hall, 6 p.m.
New Business:
Thoughts, feelings, reflections, concerns since Waunita planning.
Great. 2nd. Unanimous.
Ellen Petersen, director multi-cultural resource center, on board of food pantry—in
extended leadership network—food bank excited about increasing amount of fresh
food. Opportunity to work together.
From productions, we’ll donate at least 50% of food. We will figure out the other
50% later. In-kind donations and opportunities.
Rose—concept of incubation gardens, to clarify role. Look at them as a grant
organization. Demonstrate standards, through formal application and review board
MRFP could opt to give money, leadership training, gardening training and ongoing
support with our garden manager. In return, they would provide reporting per
standard grant requirements. At end of grant period, the garden can stand alone and
have total freedom. Formal relationship defined by clear expectations on both sides.
Could be a grant requirement that certain percentage would have to satisfy a
charitable donation.
Jonathan worried about complexity and maybe onerous for small community
garden to go through process. Could be one approach. Something to be said for
having all gardens within MRFP have uniform garden consultant, excess food—
more direct involvement by MRFP. Preserving MRFP but maintaining flexibility.
Caution against making a very complex model. Simplest possible model /approach
to bring projects into MRFP while keeping gardens thriving, promotes gardening,
people growing their own food. How can we make it so that MRFP facilitates
University gardens as well? Allows gardens to evolve in own direction while making
sure that they are part of the organization works well for everyone. Mutually
beneficial collaboration.
Action item—Jonathan to talk to Ian to see what that kind of document could look
like for the University and ENVAC.
Rose—Recognize that incubator gardens could suck us dry of management and
resources. Would provide opportunity to have role in those gardens without
overextending our resources.
Zach—Come up with list of things that MRFP is willing and capable to provide
incubator gardens.
Eric—Likes the idea of having a list of services that we could provide and then we
can decide as a board how to help them.
Rose—What’s important to me in establishing relationship is reciprocity piece.
Whether it’s volunteer hours, food produced, etc.
Jonathan—Reciprocity as a concept doesn’t make sense if fully a part of MRFP.
Making sure they meet goals of MRFP.
Rose—what about concern that MRFP is monopolizing gardening in Gunnison
Valley? What about MRFP being an engine for economic growth?
Let’s provide lots of opportunities for people and students to learn how to grow
food. Providing organization, leadership resources for procurement. Liability piece.
Demonstration gardens. Fulfill mission of MRFP.
Holly—Incubating gardening is as important as incubation gardens. Important to
support backyard gardeners with resources or training so that they can go home
with knowledge and then recognize them. That’s how we will start to meet critical
mass. Seeds starts, manure.
CSU Extension master gardener program starting January 31. Needs to fill up. MRFP
could send out information.
5 Year Visioning—
Farm to School and Headquarters as being immediate, pressing issues
Breakout sessions:
Farm to School—Eric, Kristen, Zach, Lisa
Headquarters— Jonathan, Scott, Rose
Farm to School Vision:
Make Farm to School Huge
Functioning gardens at all schools
All items on menu locally sourced if they can be. Or organic or natural. Established
priority order
Food system in Gunnison high school- expansion
Change snack culture with teachers
More teachers educated about nutrition—focused outreach to teachers
MRFP not qualified to teach nutrition, but we could support and train them. Provide
lesson plans
More high school business and marketing classes focused around food
Cooking classes/camps
More nutritious a la carte offerings
Steps to get there:
More dedication to a meal/cafeteria liaison between local farms and lunch ladies
Teacher appreciation night to get teachers on board with nutrition education and
training.
Start discussions to take unhealthy items off a la carte menu and replace with
something nutritious
Support school food production from gardens
Provide curriculum for cooking classes
Design criteria for cafeteria staff as far as selection guidelines ‘if not, then’
Holly—Delta and Montrose interested in sharing personnel for farm to cafeteria
liaison. Momentum for that.
Underappreciated. ‘Love your lunch lady’ invite them to the teacher appreciation
dinner.
Holly- In line with current goals of Farm to School. Need staff, can’t all be done with
volunteers. E3 program? Biggest challenge is that we don’t have staff. Board’s job is
to build infrastructure so that we can have staff to carry these things out.
Rose—recognizing that these plans and visions are in a vacuum—not having 100%
feedback about what community wants and needs
Action item: (Everyone) Talk about mountain roots in community. Really listen and
take feedback about what they want and need. Unofficial survey. Need to gather
outside input
2013 Farm to School budget- $5600 for bare bones staffing model. Staffing needs
not fully a part of budget goals. Looking at 2014-15 budget to really satisfy
recommendations. School year overlaps MRFP fiscal year.
Headquarters:
Step by step plan to realizing shared vision of having centralized location that will
demonstrate what we do and also do our work. Do research on other organizations
that may have employed similar models. What are the models that are out there and
how they are achieved. Looking at opportunities and partnership opportunities.
Pros and cons—site location, who you would be partnering with. One concern- at
what point do you give up short term gain to achieve long term vision? Be cognizant
in the short term that we do have a shared long term vision. Short term things that
can be taken on that can help achieve that long term vision. What would it look like?
Until we have a better sense of opportunities and what goals they serve, those
details might need to wait. Make sure we are meeting all goals of MRFP. Stay in line
with goals, what does community really need? Community food assessment.
Next steps—look at community needs, how all these things tie together to serve
mission and meet all goals.
Eric- Local couple thinking about starting local food retail store. Concerned about
competition with health food stores, farmers markets, LFF. Like Plough Boy in
Salida.
High level next step—staffing, money for person
Research.
To do—holly and Jonathan connect about food assessment. Jonathan may have
student power to facilitate.
Board to do—think of models to have students look into.
Personal fundraising commitments.
Events committee to meet before January 18 to make recommendations to board
before February board meeting. Big fundraising events. Maybe one per season.
Execute 1 before March. Krista, Abby and Austin would like to be involved with
events.
Share button when you donate online
Political stuff with robin cox and Richard Melnick—whether or not we need to make
any kind of official statement acknowledging what happened and addressing the
issue.
Concerns for how this could damage organization. This is why we discussed need
for standards.
Talk to people individually. Take a positive approach, highlight success. Talk
positively to farm to school committee.
Holly—clarified with robin. I think I made a mistake. But that’s why I asked that we
define standards.
We will handle situation on individual level. Moving forward with PR committee
take a positive spin.
Meeting adjourned.