Thursday   |  17November 2016   |   9am to 11am

Body & Soul Healing Arts Center|   3617 N.48thSt.  |   Milwaukee, WI  53216

Notes Approved on December 15, 2016 at MFC Board Meeting

The Milwaukee Food Council is a coalition of diverse stakeholders committed to building a food system that is healthy, ecologically sustainable, economically vibrant, culturally relevant and socially just. Using collaborative action and collective impact, we bring our stakeholders together to increase the capacity to make real change.

QUICK LIST

Agenda Action Items                                                                Contacts

Other Announcements:

• Martha – bus going to march on Washington day after inauguration – leaves Friday night and gets to d.c. on 21^st – costs $ 205 each person
• Martha – Body & Soul space –boiler went out again – facebook campaign on gofundme for people to donate to this space – gofundme themselves donated $1000
• Kelly – Victory Garden Initiative – Contest for five free orchards given away every spring, food leader certificate program is starting in January
• Wisconsin Green Muslims – Transportation Equity Summit, transportation is important for food access – Saturday Dec 3^rd 9am to 5pm but if you can’t go all day, try to make it to plenary at 10:30am – breakfast and lunch provided
• On Wednesday Tricklebee – 1^st pay what you can café in Wisconsin – collecting from people who have a surplus of sellable items – also seeking volunteer workers –
• Antoine – Looking for people to do presentations to Community Gardeners

November 17 Meeting Detail

8:30 to 9am Networking and Orientation for New Members. Stephanie Calloway

9:00am Meeting begins with introductions. Stephanie Calloway

Stephanie Calloway lead @ 9am

• Brief intro to food council – short meeting time, 12 hours per year, limited time together and very packed agenda – reminder to be time conscious
• Food council is a networking body
• Meeting is 1/3 networking – intros at beginning, announcements at end, 1/3 business, 1/3 presentation or workgroups – focus topic
• Overview of principles for creating a culture of inclusivity

III. MFC committee updates and engagement.

9:16 am Board Election. Tatiana Maida

Board nomination process overview:

• Election will take place in January, six seats available – consider self-nominating and encouraging others who make good board members to self-nominate –
• Job description is on web site. Overview: be active, participate in meetings, join or lead subcommittees, minimum of 6 hours per month, food council has lots of momentum right now, need to be an active member to be on the board and
• at least 18 years old,
• no compensation

Stephanie – Application process:

If interested, send email by December 15^th along with membership application – to foodcouncilmke@gmail.com

• include name,
• picture optional,
• affiliation / awards / accomplishments that are relevant,
• describe history / relationship with food council,
• why you’re a good candidate, and availability – 250 words or so, it does not have to be very long

Voting in the Election is open to members and you can become a member on voting day.

9:24 Executive Committee. Stephanie

We have been accepted as a 501c3 organization

• bylaws are on our web site – working on creating various policies – last month we voted on policies regarding structuring agenda
  • if you’d like to have a spot on the agenda, contact us, need two weeks notice – email a board member or the main food council email
• Working to create a budget @9:27 – annual meeting takes place in January – elect board officers and provide financial report – have no paid staff right now but do have administrative expenses – may be hiring staff in the future
• Fundraising @ 9:29 – working to create fundraising policy – food council will continue to be a networking organization, at least for the present – any funds or staffing we seek in the future will be for those efforts, not to provide on-the-ground programming
• Advocacy Processes Policy @ 9:30 – City of Milwaukee connections, looking at policy as very important piece of Collective Food Council Activities – also, policy for putting name behind, or endorsing, projects and activities

9:35 Membership Committee. Martha

• all are welcome, but it does cost a little to keep all this stuff going – price is $25 – helps to solidify and unite this table – not a common table quite like this in all of Milwaukee – encourage you to think deeply about being a member
• David Drew – do you accept tax deductible contributions? – Martha yes, as of today
• Bruce Wiggins – 501c3 – tax exempt – donations are tax deductible
• Martha – if we go after a grant it would be about collective impact, networking and building coalitions
• Realizing that not everyone is here, and realizing not all board members are here… how many members are there, is $25 enough to cover all the expenses?
• David Drew – offer different levels of memberships

9:40 Bonnie Halvorsen

• One-page,new literature – passed out brochures – provided overview – primarily created as something to leave with common council members when visiting them and to begin building board materials – also going to be improving the brochure over time, including more on our purpose – thank you Bonnie for working hard on the brochure and donating design and printing
• Bruce Wiggins – if you care to make a donation to the food council, if you make year end donations, they would be gratefully accepted and put to good use

1. City of Milwaukee.Tim McCollow

• City started organics recycling pilot – 500 households are subscribed – compost crusaders won bid on contract and is collecting organics right now from them – the city has actually started to do it!
• Rainey passed resolution on healthy food access on north side – why aren’t there more supermarkets? – Got extension on initiative, still working on it, very deep and thorough study on the issue – other cities are taking actions on this, usually find it costs “millions” – hundreds of man hours are being put into this
• DPW doing major effort about planting trees this fall and into spring – actively going around and planting trees – shade trees, many are maples, a couple of different varieties, let us know if you need trees in your neighborhood, contact Tim
• ECO Office – Environmental Collaboration Office – 4 person office – Tim full time on food and neighborhood issues since late 2013 – he is “mayor’s food guy” – contact tmccol@milwaukee.gov major announcement coming but not ready yet, doing lots of work on North Ave greenscaping
• MKE United Project – City wide project as to how the huge amount of economic activity going on downtown can be pushed out into neighborhoods
• If you have questions about health department rules, contact Tim or Carly. We’re trying to make rules and regulations regarding food easier to understand, such as distilling information down to one-pagers, to help spur economic development. Yes there are lots of rules and permits, but please call us, we will help walk you through all of that, that’s what we’re here for.
• Teens Grow Greens is looking for youth to participate in their program.
• Plugging facebook on Milwaukee Food Council, HOME GR/OWN pages
• New restaurant in Lindsay Heights
• Stephanie – Was composting pilot written into city budget?
  • Tim – yes, part of DPW’s budget – incremental cost to city but residents also pay for it too – $12.50 for homes or apartment buildings under 4 units during pilot. You get a container and a compost kit, some still haven’t gone out yet.
  • Bonnie Halvorsen – uses city program to compost table scraps and bread, etc while still doing own veggie scraps composting
  • To get compost back from the city program, buy compost from Blue Ribbon Organics – can order on Victory Garden Initiative web site
• Bruce Wiggins – when DCD finishes Rainey study, can they come present here?
  • Tim – direct interface with Rainey north side food project contact Ed Richardson – richardson@milwaukee.gov
• Mention about recycling – need pickups more frequently
  • Stephanie – can request more recycling bins
  • Tim – no cost to add additional recycling bin, just call the city and ask for it
• Mention at community gardens – could use trash bins at the gardens
  • Tim answered à For non-trash compost on-site – and for trash, carry it off the lot – logistics of sanitation are complex and expensive, if there was a suggestion to put trash bins on the garden lots answer would immediately be no.
  • Any other city questions, please contact Tim

10:10 MFC Food Insecurity Initiative. Nya Taryor, Jr

Looking at five focus areas, need to do some action – facilitating events on each focus area

• Dec 3^rd – Promoting programs that work @ Summerfield United Methodist Church 10am to 12pm
• Dec 10^th – Economic development @ Summerfield United Methodist Church 10am to 12pm

If you have skills to contribute in these areas, please let me know via email nyataryorjr@gmail.com

Stephanie – gatherings are to help create common goals in each of the areas.

• Stephanie is presenting a teleseminar on Wed Nov 30^th in partnership with Wisconsin Green Muslims regarding Collective Impact

MFC and City of Milwaukee Connections. Bruce Wiggins, Stephanie Calloway

1. MOU Update Stephanie Calloway

• Food access and food security are big part of city sustainability plan created in 2013, and we are continuing to look at what that relationship between the food council and the task force will be. Initially we were working on a task force, and we’ve also been looking at an MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) describing our cooperative relationship. MFC is looking to establish strong bi-directional communication with the city. We’re still in those conversations with city health department and eco office, leading the effort. Any comments or concerns?
  • Paulette Flynn – have you executed the MOU, is there a timeline for that?
    • Stephanie – MOU was drafted but has not been adopted yet, it was just a first draft

1. Common Council Visits and preparation. 10:21 Bruce Wiggins

• many new common council members elected, some may not be aware of city’s refresh Milwaukee plan and food council – please sign up and volunteer to visit council members – we need training for teams regarding visiting council members so we are presenting a unified message
• Training @ 5:30pm to 7:00pm will be on Dec 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, and/or 8^th
• Having regular communications and contact with Common Council Members is very important
• Intention is to do training, then do one-on-one visits

VII. Announcements. 10:28

1. Hospitality Committee: Paulette Flynn
   • thank you to hospitality committee team –
   • soliciting additional members – help with setup and cleanup –it is coordinated via email
   • Two times a year we have these meetings at alternate locations – if you want to host, we welcome that, need space to seat 50 to 60 people all around a single square / rectangle, needs to have appropriate restrooms, helps if you have coffee, tea, water pitchers. Don’t need very robust kitchen facilities. Need access to building by 7:45am and someone to help us find what we need.
2. Milwaukee Public Museum coffee talks 10:34 Martha

• major museum exhibit for the year is food – wants to engage community more than ever before on a topic they have never taken on before – it’s a snapshot, not fully comprehensive, but very well done – MFC can be host of “coffee talks” at the museum and the museum will promote it – free to come but need to buy coffee there if you want it –
• need volunteers that are experts or leaders on a particular topic that people would like to learn about, narrow down dates, would like to try to have one per month – dates of exhibit is March 3-July 9 – so three or four talks
• Bruce – maybe each talk would have two or three people and talking about interchange / overlap of different elements
• Bonnie – suggested five talks based on five focus areas
• Martha – need people who feel confident in each of those areas to lead discussions or presentations – talks would be promoted by both MFC and museum – museum wants to promote everything happening across the city in the local food system
  • Possibility of film in imax theater and discussion afterward
• Contact Martha – mdaviskipcak@gmail.com
• Suggestions to leverage Milwaukee County Chamber of Commerce network, hotel and convention bureau

1. SARE Composting Project 10:45 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

Greg Lawless – grant going back 4 years, regional, one of 11 funded – Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education – multi-sector – agenda two major items –

• find ways to get affordable, appropriate compost into north and south sides of Milwaukee where it is wanted and needed and
• build up infrastructure in Milwaukee to be able to compost more food waste. David Johnson 30^th and Brown farm focal point for compost trials – MSOE design composting system near peace park.
• Hunger task force shifting to USDA “My Plate” so they’ll have healthier food.
• Question about digester size – focus is on decentralized maybe about 50 yards or so, neighborhood size
• Contact Ryan Schone schone@cs.uwex.edu with questions.

1. Friends of Milwaukee’s Downtown Forest- Barbara Richards

working on creating food forest on last remaining piece of hilly downtown land which hasn’t been developed – suggesting 15 guilds as models of permaculture and 10 community garden beds – call it 1510 Milwaukee Ave – asking for liking and following on facebook – creating models for bioretention with community garden, and also if developed to show contrast – needs people to sign names for sending in forms – this is on county owned land  fmdfbar@gmail.com

Others Announcements: 10:28

• Martha – bus going to march on Washington day after inauguration – leaves Friday night and gets to d.c. on 21^st – costs $ 205 each person
• Martha – Venice Williams – keeps Body & Soul space – a lot happens here – boiler went out again – facebook campaign on gofundme for people to donate to this space – gofundme themselves donated $1000
• Kelly – Victory Garden Initiative – Contest for five free orchards given away every spring, food leader certificate program is starting in January
• Wisconsin Green Muslims – Transportation Equity Summit, transportation is important for food access – Saturday Dec 3^rd 9am to 5pm but if you can’t go all day, try to make it to plenary at 10:30am – breakfast and lunch provided
• On Wednesday Tricklebee – 1^st pay what you can café in Wisconsin – collecting from people who have a surplus of sellable items – also seeking volunteer workers – seating capacity is 25 people – accepting extra food we grow as donations also
• Antoine – Looking for people to do presentations to Community Gardeners – also, still in M Magazine

@11:10am meeting adjourned

VIII. 2017 Calendar of Meetings. Bi-Monthly Third Thursday. 9:00am-11:00am

1. Thursday, 19 January, 2017 -Body and Soul Healing Arts Center
2. Thursday, 16 March, 2017 –Body and Soul Healing Arts Center
3. Thursday, 18 May, 2017 –Body and Soul Healing Arts Center
4. Thursday, 20 July, 2017 –TBD
5. Thursday, 21 September, 2017 –TBD
6. Thursday, 16 November 2017 –Body and Soul Healing Arts Center