Outreach/Food Justice Meeting Minutes Sept 11, 2012
Meeting Minutes - Meeting of September 11, 2012 - 7pm to 9pm Held at the Greene Hill Food Coop store space - 18 Putnam
Item 1: NYCHA update: Kassy Nystrom -Positive presence at Tenant Association meetings -Lafayette Gardens expressed interest in GHFC tours. Some residents expressed interest in creating a NYCHA coop
- what role can GHFC play? Can we also partner with Resident Green Communities? -we should discuss creating Spanish speaking material JOB OPPORTUNITY: We need a liason to attend Tenant Association meetings on a regular basis to create a relationship with interested parties.
Item 2: Brooklyn Queens Land Trust (BQLT)- Visit by President, Demetrice Mills -Synopsis on organization - a land trust of community gardens throughout Brooklyn and Queens
- see here for more info -Demetrice reached out to us to brainstorm some partnership/collaborative opportunities
-BQLT manages dozens of community gardens, holds youth programs, holds a variety of workshops, boasts REAL farmers that teach workshops such as soil testing, extending growing seasons, etc -In meeting discussion: how can we collaborate with them?
- It was decided that we need to learn more about their operations JOB OPPORTUNITY: We need a liason who will attend BQLT meetings, learn about their different operations, and bring back information at Outreach/Food Justice meetings to continue collaborative brainstorming ideas
Item 2B: Youth Programs: Jessica kind schuh -Related to BQLT, but can be programs and/or tours that we at the GHFC run independently - YOUTH PROGRAMS -Instead of just reaching out to neighboring schools, how about reaching out the afterschool/summer camp programs -Jessica volunteered to approach her boss at Bija Kids (an afterschool program) FUTURE JOB OPPORTUNITY: Brainstorm Youth Program possibilities in partnership with Bija Kids
Item 4: Mission Statement: nina.goepfert -The Mission Statement:
The Greene Hill Food Coop is committed to providing food and household products to its members that promote the holistic health of its consumers, producers, and the environment.
The Food Justice Committee provides a space to address and ameliorate the particular challenges that poverty, race, gender, sexual orientation, and a myriad of other identifiers pose to the health of all of us participating in the food system. The microcosm of the GHFC provides a particularly intimate and powerful space to remedy issues of inequality, inaccessibility, and exploitation in the food system through mutual empowerment, both within the Coop and in our communities at large.
-In meeting discussion: Language - work on making it more accessible (layman's terms?) - while maintaining it succinctness and clarity -Where to put this mission statement so that it is accessible to all?
Item 5: Operations Committee Liason: Renée Renata Bergan
JOB OPPORTUNITY: we need a operations committee liason - Food Justice Issues ought to be addressed at Operations meetings and issues relayed back to us at Outreach/Food Justice meetings. We are looking for someone who has a keen interest in how day to day Operations at GHFC are run.
Item 5b: Brought up by Renee in an email before the meeting Job Opportunity: Attend Race and Place in Food and Coop Movements: We can look into sponsoring someone. Attend the event and relay back to us what you learned at the next Outreach/Food Justice meeting
Item 6: WIC update: Rosanna Ho
-After much research, Rachel Costello reached out to an administrator and found that to qualify for WIC, we must not only hold specific items, but the store must be open 7 days/week "to the public." Therefore, WIC discussions will be shelved until GHFC is able to open 7 days a week - a few years from now.. possibly when specific food items on their lists have been changed
-This latest update will be condensed into a message that will appear on GHFC's website. We will discuss with marketing if further literature is needed to make this generally known to all shoppers/perspective shoppers
Item 7: "Job/Project Board" Rosanna Ho
-I want to create an easily accessible google group document (or similar) that will list: 1. all ongoing projects 2. key contact people regarding each project 3. list of jobs that you can search for in order of: urgency, type of project, time commitment needed
-Function of this list: create a quick reference for volunteers in need of hours, keep track of all projects and cross-committee collaborations, act as a key document to give a bird's eye view of the different type of work that we in Outreach/Food Justice are pursuing -Look out for this document in the next month and an update of it at next month's meeting