Rebecca Timm, Co-chair, Saint Paul – Ramsey
County Food and Nutrition Commission
Maggi Adamek, Consultant to the Commission
for organizing and capacity building
Julianne Seiber, Commission Coordinator and
SHIP staff Saint Paul – Ramsey County Public
Health






Stakeholders from diverse food-related
sectors:
examine how the food system is operating
develop recommendations to improve it
educate officials and the public
shape public policy
improve coordination between existing
programs
Appointment resolutions passed by city
council and county board
Citizen appointments vs. leaders of food and
hunger organizations and businesses
Maggi Adamek, food systems capacity building
consultant
Principal of Terra Soma Consulting Services



Change – what are systems, policy and
environmental changes? What are we here to
do?
Collaboration – how do we work together
effectively across difference? Approaches?
Agendas? Scales?
Content – what is a food system? What is a
food policy council? What are types of
changes we could undertake?

Create a sense of community
◦ Personal stories shared in pairs – why do I care?
Who are you?

Foster productive collaboration
◦ Learn to work together on ‘accomplishable’ tasks
 Develop vision statement
 Define our shared roles and responsibilities

Build a culture of learning
◦ What is food systems ‘change’?
◦ What do food policy councils do? Not do?
◦ What are examples that we can learn from?






How? - Organizational structure for change
What? - Focus of change
Who? - Strategies for engagement
Know what? - Use of evidence base
Know how? - Learning from others;
identifying what we need to learn
Integrating what we know
St. Paul and Ramsey County offer a
wide variety of affordable, healthy
food available everywhere that
contributes to the physical, cultural,
and economic well-being of
residents and their families.








Reflective Inquiry
Small group work
Mix max input sessions
From the front of the room to the back of the
room
Communications
Organizing
Partnerships
Capacity Building/Strategic Thinking
Network “Powered by NING” with almost 100
members currently
www.ning.com
Dropbox to share documents
www.dropbox.com
Developed working draft of
recommendations
1. Assess the local food system to ensure that
all residents are adequately served, it
maximizes business opportunities, and it is
sustainable
2. Integrate local food production, processing,
distribution and retailing into land use
planning, including comprehensive and redevelopment plans.
3. Participate with other metro-area groups in
regional food system development
4. Analyze city and county policies to ensure
that they are appropriate for current
practices and promote a healthy and just
food system. Assist local policy makers
with guidance on how future legislation and
policy at the federal and state level affects
SP-RC food production and distribution.
5. Development of food-related businesses
has the potential to increase job
opportunities and financial well-being of
the city and county.
6. Integrate the value of a healthy food system
and the availability of healthy food to the
residents of the city and county into
government operations wherever possible.
7. Gather information and resources related to
the food system and disseminate to
organizations and the public



Craft overall food policy to present to the City
Council and County Board in the first quarter
of 2012
Develop work plan for implementing the
recommendations
Develop background documents to support
the recommendations