Minutes
Alaska Food Coalition
Special Meeting
Fairbanks, Alaska
July 29-31, 2002
July 29, 2002 - The meeting began at about 11:00 A.M.
as most of the attending members began to arrive at the conference
room. Present were:
Ann Burtness - WIC Coordinator Fairbanks
Sam Castle-Kirstein - Community Food Bank - Fairbanks
Jim Crockett - Bean's Café - Anchorage
Roxie Dinstal - Cooperative Extension Fairbanks
Diane Disanto - State of Alaska DHSS
Katrina Grundahl -Salvation Army - Anchorage
Holis Hall - Fairbanks Food Bank Board
David Hardenbergh - Rural Cap
George Hieronymous - Rasmusson Foundation - Anchorage
Sara Jackson - St. Francis House/CSS - Anchorage
Helen Marie Matesi - Cooperative Extension Fairbanks
Brenda Moore - Christian Health Associates
Peggy Moore - Peninsula Food Bank - Kenai
Susanna Morgan - Food Bank of Alaska
Marsha Munsell - Cooperative Extension Fairbanks
Nancy Napolilli - State of Alaska Food Safety
Ellen Northup - Juneau Senior Center
Wendell Otness - Rescue Misson - Fairbanks
Kathleen Wayne - State of Alaska - Child Nutrition
Mike Walsh - Fairbanks Food Bank - Board
Special Guests: Undersecretary of Food and Nutrition
Services, USDA, Eric Bost, Commissioner Jay Livey and Director
of Public Assistance, Chris Ashenbrenner
Planning Facilitators: Brian Rogers and Sherry Modrow/
Information Insights
Arriving Later: Trevor Jones -Food Bank/Baptist Mission
- Kodiak
Louise Charles - Senior Services - Bethel
8:15 AM July 29, 2002 - the meeting began with introductions
around the table. When Undersecretary Eric Bost joined
us, he gave us a brief overview of his past experiences and
what life is presently like for him in Washington D.C. He
assured us that he is aware that Alaska experiences some unique
challenges when it comes to feeding hungry people, most specifically
in the area of transportation. He said that he was looking
forward to hearing more about our programs. He said that his
guiding principle is that government does not know everything
or know how to do everything. It is important to spend time
with the people who are doing the job to gain understanding.
He talked about some national priorities that include increasing
breakfast and summer lunch programs for children. He noted
that 27 million children are enrolled in the hot lunch program
during the school year and only two million receive hot lunch
during the summer months. There is a major push to increase
summer food programs. Alaska needs the infrastructure to participate.
They are attempting to simplify the requirements for these
programs to make them more attractive to possible food sites,
but they must have accountability and a certain amount of
paperwork is unavoidable. He said that people are hungry for
a variety of reasons up to and including personal choice.
He cannot feed every hungry person. His goal is to make his
programs easy to access for those who are eligible. He also
talked about another serious national health problem, the
flip side of hunger, obesity. Oddly enough the poor also have
increased vulnerability to this condition because unhealthy
food is often cheaper and more accessible. He talked about
the serious need for nutrition education in this country.
When asked if his department was addressing the WIC crisis
in Alaska, he commented that they were reviewing the situation
to see if they could help, but that they would not be able
to correct the whole problem. He noted that the fact that
Alaskans receive permanent fund dividend payments and don't
want to pay taxes results in there being little sympathy on
the federal level for our financial woes. He then gave the
conference attendees an opportunity to introduce themselves
and ask questions. Kathleen Wayne spoke about the difficulty
various groups have had trying to provide a summer food program
for children. There has been improvement, however. The paperwork
has been simplified and she now has nineteen providers. Holis
Hall talked about the important role that service organizations,
such as the Lion's Club can play in food programs. Eric thanked
us for inviting him and urged our group to get any specific
requests for the child nutrition reauthorization package to
him by next week, because he will be working on it. We all
thanked Eric.
Jay Livey started our planning session off on a happy
note by announcing that the state of Alaska had found $65,000
to fund the Alaska Food Coalition for another year. This was
very good news and evidence that we are a valued organization.
Brian and Sherry began our planning session by again
going around the room and asking people what the main thing
they hoped to get out of the day's session.
Nancy wants to help programs succeed in serving safe food
regardless of the challenges that their facility may present.
Wendell wants to learn safe ways to educate policy makers.
Brenda wants to build capacity within the faith community
to work cooperatively with the broader social services community.
Jim wants the AFC to develop a common message - one voice
- relevant to all members.
Kathleen would like to see available child nutrition programs
fully utilized.
Sam would like to see regional balance among the membership
and the appropriation divided among the programs, for
each to choose how to use it to their best advantage.
Roxie, Marsha and Helen Marie are with the Fairbanks Cooperative
Extension and just want to help in any way they can.
David is here to observe and learn. He thinks that Rural
Cap could be more involved and he has expertise in developing
an evaluation system to prove effectiveness - results measurement.
Mike can provide policy expertise.
Trevor wants a greater sense of identity and mission
for the Food Coalition. What is our focus?
Katrina is concerned about advocacy, particularly
to new politicians.
Diane questions how big the food coalition should be. Funds
are limited to support membership. We need to make sure
that something is in place that will outlast us.
Ellen wants to seek alternative funding sources so
that the AFC does not have to rely on government support.
Susannah would like a clarification of the purpose of
AFC.
Peggy wants to educate the public, make people feel it
in their heart not just in their head.
Sara wants to educate the legislators and also the public
who elect the legislators, encourage clients to use their
political voice, and find a source of ongoing financial
security for the AFC.
Brain Storming
Brian and Sherry then led us through a broad brainstorming
session collecting all of our ideas on a wide variety of concerns
so that we could eventually narrow things down to doable objectives
for the next year that addressed the concerns of the majority
of members. I am going to record a lot of these random thoughts
just for posterity and for the benefit of those who may be
reading these minutes who were unable to attend the meeting.
However, eventually we did come up with a list of action items
that we elected to focus on for the immediate future, so feel
free to skip to our conclusions if you so desire.
We looked at our mission statement which at the beginning
of the meetings read: The Alaska Food Coalition is organized
to strengthen public/private food and nutrition assistance
programs to help eliminate hunger in Alaska - we returned
to the mission statement throughout the three days to refine
it.
Some thoughts expressed along the way to decision making:
Should we continue to use a major part of our appropriation
to buy food for programs to distribute?
Using funds for direct service looks good to the legislature.
The food coalition feeds people whether we buy and
distribute food as a group or not.
Is it more cost effective to buy food in bulk and pay the
cost of shipping and handling to remote locations or simply
split the funds and let each location do their own
purchasing?
It does not look good to order food from outside of Alaska
through Second Harvest. It would be much better to support
our local vendors and industry.
We need to set aside some food or money for true emergency
situations.
Building Capacity
Mentors for new food banks
Coalition could fund travel and expenses for new food bankers
to intern at a successful food bank
Professional development of food bank staff
Statewide Hunger Summit
Outreach to faith communities
Grant making
Start up manual
Where do we put our money this year?
David says that it is hard to get grant money to hire staff
We could approach the new administration to get government
backing for a statewide hunger summit
There might be money available for mentors and there might
be money for a Hunger Summit
One year plan for capacity building
Professional Development of community program staff:
Contract with facilitator or proposal writing trainer
Members pay their own way and/or fees for the training.
Each member becomes a member of Foraker and attends two trainings
each year - Sam will negotiate a group rate
Consult with grant specialist to scope AFC as effective organization
for grants
Use summit as professional development opportunity (add on
2 days of training after summit)
Mentorship program
Network to identify needs - regional, food banks, AFC members
Fund activities or solicit funds for travel to established
food bank for internship
Start up manual to help assess genuine interest. List of
questions to help interested parties decide if they can go
forward.
Evaluation
What outcomes are you trying to achieve?
What have you achieved?
How do you demonstrate it?
Informal testimony of programs. Ask what do state folks see
happening?
Formal: Collect survey information from food and nutrition
programs.
Indirect - What is changing for hungry people? Use "It's
a Wonderful Life" test. How would the community be different
if your program did not exist?
Indicators: Communities involved in school food program
Donor community - perception of changes in terms of delivering
assistance to programs.
AFC assist programs to develop their own evaluations and then
use that in evaluating AFC effectiveness.
Ask donors for their feedback.
Bottomline outcomes. Budgets growing for programs. More clients
served require more food and more volunteers.
Memberships
General membership, state and federal
Agency membership
Must have regional representation
Must have bush representation
Change method of decision making for AFC from full membership
to small, more flexible, working board
Mission Statement
Trevor has a problem with the word "hunger ". He
uses "poverty ". He feels that people do no believe
that there is hunger in Alaska.
Sam uses the term food assurance. Susannah uses food security.
Wendell says that the statement should stress nutritious
food.
Education
Continually speak the message
Get community members involved in programs and include policy
makers (legislators carry food boxes)
Educate service providers about all the food programs
Expand regional representation on AFC
AFC regional reps share message with the community
Send the message through youth - get kids involved - 50%
of those served are children
Educate ourselves re: local resources available
PSAs, scanner, as methods of getting the word out, want ads
Use World Hunger Day as opportunity to ask people to contribute
for an ad
Electronic media expand issues
Build relationships with legislators
Get on agenda at meetings (community, tribal, etc.)
Actively inform about, and assist people with getting to,
policy setting meetings - encourage voter registration and
voting.
Hold training on advocacy/lobbying to build understanding
about roles and rules.
AFC provide information about pending legislation to members.
Invite public officials to visit/have a meal (invite them
all)
Translate message to local language
Educate donors
Recognize leaders and donors, awards, letters from Governor,
First Lady Award, AK Fundraising Professional Award, etc.
Information
Gather, evaluate and share information
Unified program data collection
Telephone survey to ask about hunger - clients - public -
agency
AKINFO - statewide information and referral system - 211
Consistent measure
Collect data and compile into a report
Gather info on effectiveness of federal programs
Determine purpose of AK Food Coalition collecting data
- Know our clients - what are their issues?
- Justify what we do.
- Continuously trying to put ourselves out of business.
Data used to show social indicators and trends
Analyze data to spread the message effectively.
Ask for information from the state (information officers)
Poverty cabinet
Client survey - collected by local programs and compiled
by Alaska Food Coalition
Share successful data collection stories among AFC members
Incorporate required data collection into grant process
- Unified data collection and determine what to do with
it.
- Ask for information from the state. Gather information
on effectiveness of federal programs.
- Incorporate required data collection into grant-making
process.
Food Distribution
AFC needs to be a clearinghouse for food distribution
AFC does not have and has no plans to have a storage facility
for food.
Cohesive statewide plan with distribution left to local programs.
Cost effectiveness. Bargain buying in quantity vs. cost of
storage and shipping.
Where will it make the most difference? Identify areas of
highest need/least service for targeted AFC food distribution.
Mentoring can only work if there is local support. Someone
has to be interested in being mentored.
Saving food/money for emergency
Food Bank of Alaska can handle those instances
Trevor is concerned about AFC going away. Funding is diminishing.
Thinks that we must do something very innovative to impress
the legislators. Hot button issues. Use money effectively.
Invent new role for AFC in food distribution. Buy Alaska.
Help on industry. He is working on a plan to salvage halibut
that is usually wasted - this would open a door to working
with fishing industry and raise awareness of AFC.
Sam says we should support local vendors that support us
with their donations.
We could explore opportunities for sharing/exchanging food
with other states, but transportation is always a big barrier
to this.
We need representation from the food industries at the table
Jim says that the industry will give pinks that is what they
want to get rid of.
Peggy says she gets unlimited amounts of chum salmon.
We need to be a clearinghouse for statewide distribution.
After hours of deliberation we agreed upon the following:
ACTION PLAN
I. Information
A. Form a committee
1. Determine the purpose of AFC data collection.
2. Agree on priorities for data collection.
3. Develop procedures and timelines.
4. Develop forms and survey instrument.
5. Agree on methods, such as units of measurement.
B. Gather information on effectiveness of federal/state
programs.
1. Hire a consultant for this.
C. Kitchen Cabinet
1. AFC develop a consistent statement of need (one voice)
to speak to legislators and candidates. Send spokesperson
to meet with governor on this issue.
D. Incorporate a requirement for data collection into the
grant making process.
II. Education
A. Educate ourselves about local resources.
1. Be sure that our program and any others that we know
of are listed on AKINFO.
2. Use the AFC website to share information.
3. Bring and share written materials to AFC meetings.
4. Keep in touch with members and other interested parties
by email.
B. Continually speak the message.
1. Memorize our mission statement.
2. Create a simple slogan or motto.
3. Send a consistent message.
4. Develop case stories.
C. Educate service providers about all the food programs.
1. Get on agenda at Alaska Children's Health and Mental
Health Authority.
2. Commit to attending four service provider staff meetings
each year to carry the Alaska Food Coalition Message.
D. AFC members share info in own community (forums, meetings)
1. Commit to presenting 2 community forums each year.
2. Media
E. Know about Federal Nutrition programs and spread the
word.
1. Hire consultant to research and keep us up to date.
2. We tell others.
F. Hold training in advocacy to understand roles and rules.
1. Sara and Susannah will contact Alliance for Justice
and APOC to see if we can schedule two trainings- one
in Anchorage and one in Fairbanks and bring members in.
We can sell tickets to other agencies to offset expense.
III. Food Distribution
A. Invent new role
1. Trevor will explore Halibut project further.
2. Research and consider other opportunities that support
local industry.
B. Plan for emergency distribution of food or money to
programs in desperate need.
1. Submit grant request to Rasmusson for grants for programs
with small capital needs like storage space or freezers.
2. Food Bank of Alaska can handle food emergencies.
3. Encourage all regions to develop an action plan for
a food emergency. Find out if there is FEMA money for
this purpose.
4. Target food distribution to area of highest need/least
served.
a. Form a committee to determine.
C. Develop a clearinghouse for food distribution requests.
1. Get all programs listed on AKINFO?
Follow up to our conversation with Eric Bost
We would like for his department to get rid of free/reduced-price
income statement applications. Develop a single, unified verification
process.
Tell us who the free, reduced or paid children are. Have
universal feeding programs.
Grantees all have separate regulations, application and requirements.
They need to be unified and simplified with generic rules.
50% poverty rates determine community definition - need regulations
at 30% to fit Alaska demographics where summer food programs
operate.
Competitive foods and nutrition education. Elimination of
competitive foods doesn't work without nutrition education.
Reimbursement rates: COLA in Alaska $312.00
95% of schools subsidize school lunch programs. Also WIC
(AK doesn't match - relies on local subsidies).
Full funding for WIC
32% of kids in Hooper Bay are anemic compared to the national
norm of 8%. Want approval to use UHT iron fortified milk with
vitamin C.
Katrina moved that at the discretion of the Exec. Committee,
the Alaska Food Coalition send a letter to Eric Bost concerning
child nutrition issues in Alaska. Sara seconded. Motion passed.
Business
Susannah gave the budget report that showed that we
have a $13,000 balance from last year's budget to encumber
and add to this year's appropriation. We also have an unsettled
debt from last year. Food Bank of Alaska had not charged the
coalition anything for the cost of freight to ship food to
rural programs. FBA was afraid to tap into the remaining funds
in event that we received no new funding this year. Now, that
we have been blessed to receive $65,000 from the State, FBA
asks for a minimal compensation of $.02 per pound of food
shipped. That would equal $3,000. Sam moved that we accept
FBA's gracious offer of a $.02 per pound shipped reimbursement.
Jim seconded. Motion passed with Susannah abstaining.
There was a discussion concerning travel expense to
the annual face to face meeting. Are we going to continue
to cover this expense? Most programs felt that they could
pay their own way, however, we know that there would or could
be some that would be deterred from attending due to the cost.
Sam moved that we commit up to $400.00 per program to facilitate
travel to the annual meeting. Jim seconded. Friendly amendment1:
scholarships available as needed. Jim seconded. Friendly amendment2:
Budget $8,000 to cover up to 20 attendees. Jim seconded. Motion
carried.
Sam told us that she had heard from Dennis and the best deal
that Forraker could give us on a group membership was $500
per agency. She proposed that AFC designate $250.00 per agency
to go toward membership in the Forraker group, and that someone
from each program would attend at least two trainings per
year. Sam moved to reserve $3,000 for professional development
that could include $250 per agency for Forraker and other
professional development or training and consultation as desired.
Jim seconded. Discussion: Susannah thinks $3,000 is not
enough. For all of our goals, we need 10% of our budget dedicated.
Katrina agrees with Susannah. Sam made a friendly amendment
to increase the amount dedicated in the budget for professional
development to $9,000. Jim seconded. Motion carried.
Trevor would like to bring in a professional presenter for
a training day at each annual meeting.
We discussed whether or not we can continue to designate
funds for small capital grants to programs. It was not felt
that we had the capacity to do that this year out of the existing
funds.
Trevor told us more about his negotiations with the fish
processing plant in Kodiak. Sam moved that we designate
$37,500 to purchase 150,000 lbs. of Halibut at $.25 per pound
including shipping to all locations. Trevor can make this
offer, if it does not work we come back to the table. Trevor
seconded. Discussion: Peggy says if we go with this much
food we eliminate the possibility of hiring staff. Sam says
that we could use the $18,000 that is left to hire a grant
writer to look for additional funding. Susannah would like
to include some program duties along with the grant writing.
Susannah asked Sam if we could table the motion until we have
a better picture of what else we may need. Sam wanted to go
ahead with the vote. The motion did not pass.
Peggy moved to hold $3,000 aside in the budget to be sure
that we have the expenses for this meeting covered. Susannah
seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Susannah moved to reserve $20,000 for consultant fees for
fundraising or other activities as agreed upon by the coalition.
Ellen seconded. Susannah made a friendly amendment to change
fundraising to grant writing. Ellen seconded. Motion passed.
Susannah moved we reserve $15,000 for special grant projects.
Louise seconded. There was a tie. Trevor voted against. Motion
did not pass.
Louise moved we table the rest of the decision on the budget
until tomorrow after we have had time to discuss among ourselves
and think things over. Peggy seconded. Motion did not pass.
Susannah moved that we reserve the remaining $35,000 of the
budget for an Alaskan based food distribution project, purchase
and shipping. Jim seconded. Motion passed.
Trevor moved to adjourn for the day. Everyone was ecstatic!
Same Place Different
Day
Membership
Regional representation. Susannah suggests unlimited membership
- governing board of 20 with regional representation. Sam
says we need to maintain a membership of at least 20 with
regional representation.
We need to put great energy into attracting members from
unrepresented regions.
How do we determine regions? Sam suggests that we look at
how FEMA determines regions statewide. Katrina is on the FEMA
board and says that regional designation changes frequently
at FEMA due to federal formula. Peggy suggests that we put
off setting regions. Sam moved that we use six designations
- Southeast, Southcentral, Interior, North, West, and statewide.
The $8,000 we have budgeted would provide for $400 each for
up to 20 representatives with a goal of equal representation
from each region. Three and one-half people each. Peggy seconded.
Motion carried.
Louise will try to interest Allen Joseph from the Yukon Kuskokwim
area to join the coalition.
Discussion of board size. Trevor thinks that the board should
not be more than 13 people.
Susannah feels that a large board is appropriate because
of the large scope of the coalition.
Katrina says that she will ask her boss to encourage someone
from the salvation army in rural areas to get involved.
Louise says that the areas of Emmonak/Hooper Bay/St. Mary's/and
Alukanuk are areas of great need.
Are we ready to become a 501C3? Peggy says no until our funding
is stabilized. Louise says no. Sam says no. Susannah says
no, but worries how we will supervise staff. Not appropriate
yet, but may be if we have staff. Peggy talked about Bridges
- an organization whose sole purpose is to umbrella other
community organizations. We can also use Annabelle and Dennis
for ideas on this. Sam moved that we do not establish a
501C3 this fiscal year. Peggy seconded. Motion carried.
Katrina suggested that the Executive Committee write job
description, hire and supervise the grant writer.
Discussion of Hunger Summit Sherry Modrow believes
that we can make a strong case for financial support from
the Alaska Children's Trust and the Alaska Mental Health Trust.
She suggested that we ask for $10,000 in seed money from the
children's trust and transportation money to bring people
to the summit from Mental Health Trust.
There was lengthy discussion of the idea of a Hunger Summit.
Sam is not very interested and does not know what purpose
it would serve. Trevor is afraid that it would be superficial
and only attract people that work in the field.
How many people will come? How do we attract people? Who
do we want to attract? Susannah says its purpose is to convince
people that there is hunger in Alaska. She would like to get
serious commitment in writing from state leaders who attend
to use for leverage in the future.
Sara feels that it would legitimize the hunger issue and
bring it to the level of concern with other serious social
issues in the state.
Katrina moved that a committee be appointed to do a feasibility
study to see if it is valuable and doable within two years.
Sam seconded. Motion carried.
Katrina nominated Sara, Susannah, Peggy and Brenda to be the
Hunger Summit committee. Ellen seconded. Motion carried.
Final version of the Mission Statement:
The Alaska Food Coalition strengthens food and nutrition
assistance programs to eliminate hunger and fight poverty
throughout Alaska.
Katrina moved to accept the mission statement as written.
Brenda seconded. Unanimously approved.
Katrina moved that we take money out of the $9,000 designated
for professional development to keep the website going. Peggy
seconded. Motion passed.
Meeting adjourned.
Members went downtown and ate Thai food.
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