Item 2 - Food Plan Draft Presentation — original pdf

Backup

A Food Plan for Austin-Travis County Asian American Quality of Life Advisory Commission June 18, 2024 Agenda ● Introductions ● What is a Food System? ● What is a Food Plan and why are we doing it? ● How did we create the Plan? ● Who participated in the Planning Process? ● Overview of Vision and Objectives ● Overview of the Goals and Strategies ● Next Steps 2 2 Some Food for Thought Food Production: Where our food comes from, including everything from farming to ranching Food Processing & Distribution: What happens to food from where it is grown to when it reaches your plate, including how food is moved and processed. Food Markets & Retails: Where food is sold, purchased, or provided cost-free. Food Consumption & Access: How we eat our food, who struggles to get enough food, and what impact our consumption has on our health. Post-Consumption & Food Waste: What happens to the parts of food we don’t eat and the impact of food waste on the environment. Food Justice: How systemic racism & colonization impact how the food system works — or doesn’t work — for each member of our community. 4 Creating a Food Plan What is a Food Plan & why do we need one? ● A Food Plan sets clear Goals and Strategies to move toward a more equitable, sustainable & resilient food system ● The Food Plan builds on several other initiatives made by the County, City, and communities to tackle key food system issues. ● The Food Plan centers equity and the lived expertise of those most impacted by the current food system 6 6 Background and Authority ● On June 2021, Austin City Council directed the City Manager to initiate a planning process ● Travis County Commissioners Court approved formal participation in the plan in fall 2022 Link to full resolution 7 7 Project Timeline Phase 0: Planning for the Plan Phase 1: Vision Development Phase 2: Goal & Strategy Development We are here Phase 3: Review and Ground truthing September 2021 - January 2023 March - August 2023 September 2023 - February 2024 February - Summer/Fall 2024 ● ● ● ● Building Community Awareness 📰 Release of State of the Food System Report 📚 Onboarding Planning Consultant⭐ Recruitment of Community Teams🚀 ● Website launch 📶 ● World Cafes ☕ ● ● ● ● Listening Sessions & Tabling at events 📞 Equity Grounding Workshops 🤝 Community Circles 👐 Selecting Issue Area Groups🍽 ● ● ● ● Issue Area Group Meetings 🏘 Develop Goals and Strategies 🎯 Review Goals and Strategies 󰔞 Develop a draft for the Food Plan 🖊 ● ● ● ● Community Review of Plan 👀 Council and Commissioner Review ⚖ Approval 👍 Adoption 🏁 8 Co-creating the plan ● Planning Team: Coordinating and managing all moving parts ○ Includes: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ City of Austin staff Travis County staff Consultant Team Equity Consultants Austin-Travis Food Policy Board Executive Leadership Team (City and County Department Directors) ● Community Advisory Committee: Advisory body overseeing the planning process ● Issue Area Groups: Developing goals and strategies for the plan ● Community Food Ambassadors: Connecting the plan to our communities ● Broader community feedback: Provide input at different stages of the plan 9 9 Community Engagement 10 Food Plan Structure ● Vision: Describes and articulates our shared aim — the kind of future we agree we would like to move toward together. ● Objectives: What the goals and strategies of the food plan aim to achieve. ● Goal: A specific target or desired end result to meet one or more objectives. ● Strategy: A specific action to achieve one or more goals. Implementation plan: A roadmap of how we will accomplish the goals and strategies in the food plan (TBD, when we get there!) 11 Food Plan Vision We envision a just, accessible, and culturally diverse food system, built by undoing inequities, that supports and sustains inclusive, thriving communities, healthy ecosystems, and solutions to climate change where everyone can reach their full potential now and for generations to come. 12 Food Plan Objectives Sustain and restore living ecosystems, including air, soil, water, and biodiversity. Invest in an equitable local food economy and workforce, including strengthening local food production, agriculture, processing & distribution, and food recovery. Improve emergency food distribution preparedness and response. Strengthen food supply chains to support community health and nutrition, the well-being of workers, the environment, and animal welfare. Support health and eradicate food insecurity through equitable access to nutritious and culturally relevant food. Act as a climate solution, considering the food system from field to fork and beyond. Build collective community power and coordination to strengthen the local food justice movement towards the fundamental human right to food. 13 Goals and Strategies The food plan has 9 goals and over 62 strategies that seek to address many of the top concerns identified during the planning process: ● Goal 1 - Land: Increase local farmland for regenerative agriculture. ● Goal 2 - Ownership: Decrease barriers to farm ownership. ● Goal 3 - Livelihoods: Better conditions for food and farm workers. ● Goal 4 - Preparedness: Ensure food during emergencies. ● Goal 5 - Institutions: Strengthen local supply chains. ● Goal 6 - Access: Address food insecurity. ● Goal 7 - Food Recovery: Divert food from the landfill. ● Goal 8 - Pro-Climate/Pro-Health Foods: Decrease our carbon footprint. ● Goal 9 - Empower: Community supporting the implementation of the plan. 1 4 Goal 1: Land | Increase local farmland for regenerative agriculture. ● Preserve land for food production ● Fund the conservation of land for agricultural use ● Integrate, incentivize, and maintain regenerative food production and pollinator habitat ● Provide technical and financial assistance for community food production ● Develop an Austin/Travis County Urban Farm Comprehensive Plan ● Establish community-led regenerative food production on publicly owned land ● Explore use of reclaimed water for regenerative food production ● Expand public education and branding, incentives, and certifications around conservation strategies ● Create a coalition to research and pilot innovative regenerative agricultural practices ● Incentivize farmers who adopt regenerative agriculture, water conservation, and pay livable wages ● Create a seed banking initiative that prioritizes native and adapted species ● Fully fund City and County park plans that include strategies to support community agriculture 15 Goal 2: Ownership | Decrease barriers to farm ownership. ● Help farm owners and workers connect their locally and regeneratively grown food products to institutions ● Support local farmer co-ops by connecting to land and markets ● Create a local farm incubator program to support underrepresented farm owners and workers ● Consult with communities displaced and/or at risk of displacement to allow sites to be legally stewarded by members of these communities. 16 Goal 3: Livelihoods | Better conditions for food & farm workers. ● Define the criteria for a livable wage in the food service industry ● Conduct an annual survey of food workers to assess needs, work environment, and career outlook ● Create a commission or working group of the Austin/Travis County Food Policy Board focused on food worker rights and livelihoods ● Support livable wages for food workers through incentives and rebates ● Establish additional workforce and small business development organizations ● Support food businesses that pay livable wages, support worker ownership, promote fair labor practices, and offer career pathways ● Increase ownership opportunities for food and farm workers through education and access to capital 17 Goal 4: Preparedness | Ensure food during emergencies. ● Conduct a landscape analysis of existing food disaster preparedness efforts ● Develop a food inventory through community surveys and consultations that includes diverse cultural and medical dietary needs ● Develop and fund a coordinated emergency food access response plan ● Launch an awareness campaign on preparing for food needs during emergencies ● Work with partners to implement a real-time inventory management system ● Create a diverse and reliable food supply through partnerships and alternative ● sourcing Improve emergency response and preparedness for major power outages that impact the food supply 18 Goal 5: Institutions | Strengthen local supply chains. ● Develop one or more centralized food hubs ● Support a regional coalition for values-based purchasing ● Adopt a values-based food purchasing policy for all City and County facilities and functions ● Fund of incentives for local institutions to purchase from values-aligned suppliers 19 Goal 6: Access | Address food insecurity. ● Establish affordable, community-backed options in areas facing barriers to food access ● Increase and improve infant feeding education and support strategies ● Collectively implement Food as Medicine and Food Pharmacy programs ● Support community-based programs that provide culturally relevant nutrition and food preparation education and services ● Expand benefits and access to nutritious foods to those facing food and nutrition insecurity ● Increase utilization of public food access programs, such as SNAP and WIC ● Make access to food assistance programs more equitable ● Support technology literacy education to help people shop for food and utilize benefits online ● Mitigate transportation barriers and increase access to markets and grocery stores ● Support food delivery service programs, prioritizing households facing food and nutrition insecurity ● Support Community Health Workers who assist with food access, nutrition, and benefit programs 20 Goal 7: Food Recovery | Divert food from the landfill. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Develop a food rescue protocol and recognition program Convene local compost providers and food producers to develop compost best practices Create a resource to promote edible food scraps for animal consumption Establish base-level organics diversion service requirements by business type Share best practices on food waste diversion Develop educational opportunities around food waste prevention and diversion Explore the creation of community compost drop sites for Travis County residents 21 Goal 8: Pro-Climate, Pro-Health Foods Decrease our carbon footprint. ● ● ● ● Conduct multilingual campaigns to promote pro-climate, pro-health foods Encourage local institutions to increase whole food plant-based meal defaults with the option to add animal products by request Expand programs that increase the availability, affordability, and awareness of pro-health, pro-climate foods in food retail Identify public funding opportunities to support an accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate pro-climate, pro-health food system 22 Goal 9: Empower | Community supporting implementation. ● ● ● ● ● Launch a community-based food collaborative to support implementation of the Plan Support the development of a collaborative to integrate strategies from the plan into regional work Develop a research agenda to evaluate and share progress on the plan Establish a regional Good Food Fund to drive investment in priorities in the plan Develop a process for City and County departments to include food system impacts in planning, contracting and procurement efforts 23 Next Steps ● Present to City Manager’s Executive Team ● Council Work Session on July 16th ● Request for Council Action to Adopt the Plan - Target July 18 ● Travis County Commissioners Court Work Session - August 8th (voting item to follow) 24 Thank you! Amanda Rohlich Food Policy Advisor Office of Sustainability 2525