HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 06032008 - PR.2 u
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TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS - �- Contra
-A.
FROM: g Commissioner wF_ s
Costa
Vincent L. Guise,.Agricultural Commission �
~~
DATE: June 3, 2008 � �°S�� ng`� County
SUBJECT: STATUS REPORT ON THE "BUY FRESH, BUY LOCAL" PROGRAM
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATION:
ACCEPT the status report on the "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" program connecting local growers and
agricultural food products to consumers throughout the County.
AUTHORIZE District I and District III Supervisors to continue working with county staff and the
Agricultural Advisory Task Force and continue outreach efforts to local growers and consumers.
REAFFIRM the Board of Supervisor's April 1 decision to declare the month of June 2008, "Contra
Costa County Buy Fresh, Buy Local" Food Awareness Month.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There are no fiscal impacts at this point.
BACKGROUND:
There is an identified convergence of interests concerning agricultural products. County residents
would benefit from fresh produce and education regarding nutritional values and local growers are
concerned with market and fiscal viability. On April 1, 2008 the Board of Supervisors directed that:
1. The Health Services Department and Cooperative Extension integrate the value of locally grown
and fresh foods into existing education curricula.
2. The Contra Costa County Agricultural Advisory Task Force work with loca''I farmers and farming
groups to develop a teaching program in schools and county facilities.
3. The Agriculture Department, Health Services Department, and Cooperative Extension provide a
status report and recommendations for further action.
Additionally, the Board of Supervisors officially declared the month of June 2008, "Contra Costa
County Buy Fresh, Buy Local" Food Awareness Month.
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: ,
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RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECO ENDATION OF BOARD CO MITTEE
✓APPROVE OTHER
SIGNATURE(S):q�,�—,,�,�,—,')
ACTION OF BOR ON ,�., 3 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I '!HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT
COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED ON MINUTES OF
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN.
UNANIMOUS(ABSENT �1 )
AYES: NOES:
ABSENT: ABSTAIN: /
Contact: Agriculture
cc: County Administration ATTESTED
Health Services LIHNCUIIEN,CLERK OF THE BOARD OFSUPERVISORS
Cooperative Extension
BY: Q DEPUTY
The Contra Costa Agricultural Commissioner and Agricultural Advisory Task Force hosted a meeting
on May 14t". The meeting gathered a diverse group of Contra Costa agencie"s, nonprofits,
community-based organizations, and grower representatives to consider the issues addressed by the
April 1, 2008 Board of Supervisors resolution. A subcommittee was formed that consisted of the
Agricultural Department, the U.C. Cooperative Extension Service, The Health' Services Department,
and the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust.
The committee met on May 20th and discussions resulted in the following initilll l findings and progress
based on the Board of Supervisor recommendations for the "Buy Fresh, Buy ,Local" food awareness
program:
• The County Agricultural Commissioner developed a detailed month-to-month report of
agricultural products that are currently grown in Contra Costa County ;and the seasons of
potential availability
• Initial contacts were made with the Orin Allen Youth Rehabilitation Facility, the county hospital
and West Contra Costa School District to discuss their current food services program;
• Established a workingrelationship with the Green Purchasing Institute that will seek funding to
support efforts to develop and implement a local food purchasing policy;
• Discussions with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties on their facility
capabilities and limitations in regard to food distribution;
• Identification of existing food awareness educational curriculum and efforts by the U.C.
Cooperative Extension Service, the Health Services Department, the Contra Costa Farm
Bureau and nonprofit organizations such as the Richmond Children's Foundation, the
Community Alliance of Family Farmers, and Eco Village;
• The Health Services Department is providing information booklets and pamphlets that are
promoting a county-wide message of eating healthy to reduce childhood obesity, diabetes and
heart disease.
Next steps identified by the subcommittee include:
• The Agriculture and Health Services Departments to continue workingl'iiwith Contra Costa
County's Agricultural Advisory Task Force to develop a food purchasing policy to maximize the
use of locally grown, fresh foods at the County hospital and other appropriate facilities or
programs; to work with local farming groups to develop or expand existing distribution systems
to deliver local agricultural products to consumers throughout the County; to consider making
county facilities available for such distribution as appropriate and; to identify ways of working
with existing distribution efforts such as the Farm 2 Kids Program that'is operated by the Food
Bank of Contra Costa and Solano counties.
• The Agricultural Advisory Task Force to continue to work and support the Green Purchasing
Institute in their pursuit of grant funding and to develop a workable food purchasing policy that
maximizes locally grown fresh foods.
• The Agricultural Department, the Health Services Department, the UCIICooperative Extension
Service, and the Agricultural Advisory Task Force to work with the Richmond Children's
Foundation and other partners to seek government and foundation funding to support efforts to
build local food- friendly food distribution systems in Contra Costa County.
• The Agricultural Advisory Task Force and the Departments to continue to explore local
"friendly food distribution systems".
• The Agricultural Advisory Task Force, the U.0 Cooperative Extension Service and the
Agricultural Department to continue to encourage local growers to be involved, where practical,
in a "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" and Community Supported Agriculture programs.
• The U.C. Cooperative Extension Service and the Health Services Department to continue their
good work in the area of food awareness education and curriculums. ,I
Attached is a copy of the Status Report as requested on April 1, 2008. Also attached is a graph of
Contra Costa County's fresh market crops grown in 2007'indicating the potential months of crop
availability.
June 3rd, 2008 Status Report to the Contra Costa County Board of
Supervisors
Regarding their April 1St Recommendation to explore a "Buy Fresh, Buy Local"
education and locally grown fresh food products to consumers program
Background: On April 1, 2008,the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors'adopted
recommendations:
1. Directing the County Agricultural Commissioner and County Health Services
Department to develop a food purchasing policy.
2. Directing the County Agricultural Commissioner, the Health Department and the
County Agricultural Advisory Task Force to develop and expand existing
distribution system to deliver East County produce to consumers throughout the
county.
3. Suggesting that the Health Services Department and Cooperative„Extension
integrate the value of locally grown fresh foods into existing educational
curriculum. .
4. Direct the County Agricultural Commissioner, the Health Services Department
and UC Cooperative Extension to provide a preliminary report to,the Board of
Supervisors at the June 3, 2008 Board of Supervisors meeting.
5. Declare June"Buy Fresh Buy Local Food"month.
Summary: The Contra Costa Agricultural Commissioner and Agricultural Advisory
Task Force hosted a meeting on May 10. The meeting gathered a diverse group of
Contra Costa agencies, nonprofits, community-based organizations, and grower
representatives to consider the issues addressed by the April 1, 2008 Board of
Supervisors resolution. A subcommittee was formed that consisted of the Agricultural
Department, the U.C. Cooperative Extension Service, The Health Services Department,
and the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust. It met on May 20th.
The meetings resulted in the following initial collaborations based on the Board of
Supervisor recommendations:
1. Develop a food purchasing policy that maximizes the use of locally grown
fresh foods at the County hospital and other County facilities.
Representatives.of Supervisor Gioia(Luz Gomez), Supervisor Piepho (Karyn Cornell)
and County Wellness and Prevention (Charlotte Dickson) attended the meetings. During
the meeting, the group suggested that future discussions should include the Contra Costa
School Districts. Contacts had been made with the hospital and school district food
service personnel to see where they currently purchase fresh foods. An example is West
Contra Costa School District that feeds over 22,000 children per day. Some of the fresh
produce items currently used by food services at this school district includes tomatoes,
onions, zucchini squash,corn;apples, carrots, celery, and packaged lettuce products. The
Contra Costa Regional Medical Center serves 3,000 meals per day that includes some
fresh fruits and vegetables. It was also suggested that future discussions should include
Page 1 of 5
I.
ADDENDUM to PR.2
June 3, 2008
On this day the Board of Supervisors considered accepting the status report on the."Buy
Fresh, Buy Local"program, connecting local agriculture food growers and products to
consumers throughout the County.
Supervisors Piepho and Gioia presented a status report onp the"Buy Fresh; Buy Local"
program and noted many steps have been taken in a short period of time. "Supervisor
Piepho said as the county is growing the interface between the urban growth and the rural
atmosphere in protection of open space is critical.
Supervisor Gioia said the idea was to bring the Supervisor from far east part of the
County and the Supervisor from the west point urban area work together to form a
partnership so that people, and especially children, that do live in the agricultural area
understand the value of agricultural lands and understand where food comes from.
The Chair invited public comment. The following person spoke:
• Kathryn Lyddan, Brentwood Agriculture Land Trust, thanked the Board for its
leadership on this issue and noted a huge movement is taking place outside the
County with the same issues being addressed. She added this kind of government
leadership in the County motivates people and resources. She also noted Green
Purchasing is seeking grant funding to provide technical expertisel to the County
on local food purchasing.
Supervisor Uilkema referred to item number 3 and encouraged the Task'Force to arrange
a bus trip for second- and third-grade students to see a live farm and all the amenities.
She asked the Task Force to continue to make outreach to,many of the service groups that
provide funding for those children's tours to provide an inopportunity to ;pick an apple or
see what a farm looks like.
Supervisor Piepho informed the Board through the road'impact fee reduction for winery
and grape processing facilities, sticks are in the ground for the Hannah Nicole Vineyards
for their processing facility and wine tasting room near Brentwood. She said the action
taken by the Board saved the applicant $88,000.
By an .unanimous ,vote, with all Supervisors present, the Board accepted all the
recommendations on the Board Order.
J
the juvenile detention facilities and Orin A1len.Youth Rehabilitation Facility. The Orin
Allen Youth Rehabilitation Facility that additionally runsia culinary program that could
be included in a Contra Costa County Buy Fresh Buy Local program.
The County Agricultural Commissioner provided the group with a detailed month-to-
month report of agricultural products that are currently grown in Contra Costa County
and the seasons of potential availability.
Kari Hamerschlag, of the nonprofit Green Purchasing Institute, also attended the
meetings. Last year, the Green Purchasing Institute received a grant from the San
Francisco Foundation and the Ramsay-Merriam Fund to explore a sustainable food
purchasing policies for county and local governments. Green Purchasing Institute is
currently working with Marin and the cities of San Jose and San Francisco to institute
local government food purchasing policies. Green Purchasing Institute would like to
work with Contra Costa County next year. Green Purchasing Institute will seek funds
from the San Francisco Foundation and other foundations to support our efforts to
develop and implement a-local food purchasing policy in Contra Costa County. The
Green Purchasing Institute can:
• Provide research to understand the key issues, constraints, budget
implications and promising opportunities for implementing local and
sustainable food purchasing in Contra Costa County;
• Draft language for local and sustainable food policies for Contra Costa
County, as well as for funding requests and contracts that cover institutional
food service and concessions
• Assist with convening stakeholder groups and'public officials to seek input
into food policy processes;
• Develop and provide resources and hands-on technical support to help public
and private institutional purchasers in Contra Costa County and concessions to
increase and track their purchasing of local and sustainable food.
2. Explore ways to develop or expand existing distribution systems to deliver
local agricultural products to consumers throughout the county.
Developing and expanding a distribution system will be challenging but all participants
agreed it was an important step to creating a food connection between East County and
West County. Many crops are grown in Contra Costa County and many more can be
grown. Some of the crops are less perishable such as apples, winter squash,
pomegranates, onions and potatoes. Crops that are highly perishable require extensive
infrastructure including cooling, washing and packaging facilities, a knowledgeable and
steady labor force, and immediate transportation if they are to be grown in large
quantities for West County markets. Currently, in East County, we have eight grower-
owned packing facilities. Four handle sweet corn only, one handles sweet corn and
apples, and one that handles organic fruit, one that handles asparagus only and one that
handles walnuts and other nuts.
Page 2 of 5
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The County Agricultural Commissioner also noted that most of the crops that are
currently grown in significant quantity are seasonal summer crops. The notable
exceptions are asparagus, winter squash and walnuts. With assurances of fair market
value compensation,,growers may be willing to grow other crops during the winter
season.
The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano has a 10,000 square foot refrigerated food
holding facility in North Concord that distributes donated'items. Most of the produce is
from the Central Valley and consists of less perishable items such as oranges, potatoes,
onions and melons. Occasionally, the Food Bank receives corn and apples from
Brentwood. The grower is sometimes compensated a few cents per pound. However, the
growers also save on transportation costs since the Food Bank picks up the produce. The
Food Bank currently distributes over 3 million pounds of'food mostly through the "Farm
2 Kids"program to Solano County and the Bay Point area of our county.
While the Food Bank facility is large, they do not have the current trucking capacity to
expand the program to further outlying areas of the County though they would like to
expand to West County. They have delivered occasional pallets of food to the Richmond
Civic Center.
The Richmond Children's Foundation is very involved in nutritional education. They are
interested in exploring a CSA(Community Supported Agriculture)program for West
County. The Federal Farm Bill, if passed, has in it a dedicated $33 million dollars to
develop direct farmers marketing including CSA's.
Janet Caprile, our Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor, is currently on sabbatical. One
of her sabbatical projects is to explore food distribution systems to support our local
agriculture.
The Community Alliance with Family Farmers has a nonprofit Growers Collaborative
that distributes local'food to institutional purchasers like hospitals and schools. Kathryn
Lyddan of the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust and Janet Caprile have met with David
Levin of the Growers Collaborative about sourcing from East County farmers. The
Growers Collaborative may provide an existing mechanism for distribution East County
produce to the County hospital and detention facilities.
3. Develop curriculum to educate children about local agriculture and the
benefits of healthy eating: create connections in teaching programs with
farmers, farming and children in schools and county programs
The meetings hosted by the County Agricultural Commissioner revealed that there are
many existing programs in Contra Costa County directed at teaching children about local
farming. The educational programs in classrooms, after-school programs and during
farm field trips are ektensive and expanding.
Page 3 of 5
Examples include Eco Village in Richmond that provides a direct connect between
school children and urban agriculture. Eco Village provides children K-12 and at risk
youth(ages 16-24)marketable skills in horticulture, environmental and agricultural
discipline. They grow organic fruits,vegetables, herbs and flowers that are sold to the
community through a local farmer's Market in West County. Eco Village has a small
CSA that provides local families seasonal produce at a reasonable price. Eco Village is
interested in developing a larger CSA program.
Other CSA activities that exist in the county includes direct shipments from East County
growers to consumer sales by Frog Hollow Organic Farm, Knolls Organic Farm, Kelsey
Farm, and Wolfe Family Farm.
Another example is the Contra Costa County Farm Bureau. With the help of growers, the
University of California Cooperative Extension and the Agricultural Department conduct
"Ag in the Classroom"days at the Mangini Agricultural Museum and Garden at the
Antioch Fairgrounds. Over 270 children from pre-school through fifth grade attend this
program. Many of the children that attend are from low-income communities. Half the
cost of the busing ($400 per school) is paid by the Farm Bureau through fund raising and
private donations. Children interact with farm animals, learn about gardening, crops and
are involved in other agricultural-related learning activities.
The Food Bank of Contra Costa Solano also runs a half day agricultural event for fourth
graders done in partnership with UC Cooperative Extension,the County Fairgrounds, and
Mangini Agricultural Museum. They call it the "Day of Nutrition and Physical Activity."
This year, 257 4th graders from two Pittsburg elementary schools (Stoneman and Foothill)
attended on May 19th and May 20th. The event has 8 interactive stations where the kids
visit the agricultural museum and the garden, listen to information about the health
benefits of differently colored fruits and vegetables and do relay races and physical
activities that involve selecting healthier food options.
Crow Canyon Garden in San Ramon is a seven acre site that grows organic fruits,
vegetables and herbs. This San Ramon Parks and Community Services program offers
educational opportunities to K-5th grade children. Another San Ramon Parks and
Community Service program involving learning opportunities for the same age group is
Forest Home Farms. In addition to gardens, has animals and a San Ramon Valley
agricultural museum.
Cooperative Extension staff have been training teachers throughout the County in the use
of agricultural curriculum integrated with the state standards. Curriculum,examples
Land include"Food, Lanand People', "Kids in Gardens", and the "4-H Junior Master
Gardener Project". Every effort is made to incorporate the value of local,foods into
existing curricula.
The Cooperative Extension Service has trained over two hundred Master Gardeners,
many of whom who do their volunteer hours in school and community gardens. Training
of new volunteers is ongoing, as is continuing education. There are many active school
Page 4 of 5
gardens found throughout the County,and the concept is growing as new volunteers are
brought on board.
A new(2008), 4H project in Bay Point is reaching out to'1600 students encouraging them
to start school and community gardens with donated seeds and volunteer expertise
Cooperative Extension's Nutrition Advisor, Marissa Neelon,works with students and
parents in underserved communities offering resources and expertise in the use of fresh
local foods.
The Health Services'Department Nutrition Program, funded by the USDA through the
Network for a Healthy California,provides nutrition education workshops, activities and
materials in Spanish acid English to low income residentsthroughout the County as well
as to the providers who.work with them. The Nutrition Program reaches over 10,000 low
income residents per year with a message promoting the consumption of'fruits and.
vegetables. Its infrastructure of relationships with community agencies, after-school
programs, schools,health providers, social service providers, educators, childcare
providers and communities is extensive and could well serve the goals of a Buy Fresh
Buy.Local policy.
4: County Agricultural Commissioner's Status Report and Recommendations.
The County Agricultural Commissioner, the Health Services Department and the
University Cooperative Extension recommends that the Board authorize continued work
by county staff to implement the Board of Supervisors April 1 recommendations. The
County staff, UC.Cooperative Extension, the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust, Green
Purchasing Institute, the Richmond Children's Foundation and other partners will seek
government and foundation funding'to support efforts to build a local food system in
Contra Costa County.
Page 5 of 5
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