Food Plan Updates for ATCFPB, Edwin Marty (Item 2) — original pdf

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A Food Plan for Austin-Travis County ATCFPB January 8th 2024 Some Food for Thought What is a food system? The Office of Sustainability defines the food systemas an interconnected networkthat includes everything that happens with food — where and how it is grown, distributed and sold, consumed, and ideally recovered. Developing a Food Plan What is a Food Plan & why do we need one? ● A Food Plan will set clear Goals and Strategies to move toward a more equitable, sustainable & resilient food system ● The Food Plan build on several other initiatives made by the County, City, and Communities to tackle key food system issues. ● The Food Plan will center equity and the lived expertise of those most impacted by the current food system Authority for developing the Food Plan ● 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 Austin/Travis County Food Planning Process Planning Team Coordinating and Project Managing the Planning Process ● ● ● ● ● ● City of Austin staff Travis County staff Consultant Team Equity Consultants Austin Travis Food Policy Board Executive Leadership Team Issue Area Groups Goal and Strategy Development Community Food Ambassadors Community Connections Community Advisory Committee ( CAC ) Advisory body overseeing the planning process Public Engagement General Public and Community Input The Public Engagement Phases We are here Proposed Plan Organization Plan organized by: Objectives/ Goals/ Strategies Goals/ Strategies cut across Issue Area Vision (the future we are moving toward) 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. Objectives (the ends of our work/what we want to achieve) 1. Support health and eradicate food insecurity. 2. Build collective community power and coordination . 3. Improve emergency food distribution preparedness and response. 4. Invest in an equitable local food economy and workforce. 5. Sustain and restore living ecosystems. 6. Act as a climate solution. 7. Strengthen food supply chains. Sustainability & Equity Assessment Tool (SEAT) What is the tool? The purpose of the SEAT is to ensure that equity and sustainability are built into every strategy of the Austin/Travis County Food Plan. Strategies will be evaluated based on twelve values that were developed by the Austin/Travis County Food Plan Community Advisory Committee. The questions within each theme are based on the Four Considerations from Sage Crump’s Cultural Strategy Toolkit - social relations, economic structures, history, and imagination The CAC believes this is a helpful framework for assessing the food plan strategies. How will it be used? The SEAT will be used to guide the development of strategies and evaluate proposed strategies. Issue Area Groups will use the SEAT to guide the development of strategies by answering the questions for each of the themes to assess if the proposed strategy will result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral impact on our community, especially focused on those most negatively impacted by the current, unjust food system. Issue Area Groups will then propose strategies to Community Advisory Committee members, who will review the answers to the SEAT questions for each strategy as a means to to evaluate the strategies. Strategies that the Community Advisory Committee finds to have any negative impact will be reworked before being included in the Food Plan. Sustainability & Equity Assessment Tool (SEAT) Why does this matter? Equity and sustainability are practices, not end games. We must build them into the structure of the Food Plan so we have the practice of continuous examination of the strategies as we work to iterate a new food system. We must do this to have equity and sustainability be foundational parts of our work. If we create strategies for those most negatively impacted by the current food system, it will work for everyone. If we don’t include everyone in the community in our strategies, we will never reach the scale that’s necessary to solve this problem. Impact Score SEAT Scoring Theme Equity and Justice Climate and Environment Labor/Economy Health Culture Resilience/Disaster Response Land Access Generational Impact Community Engagement and Policy Innovation and Education Zero Waste and Resource Efficiency Implementation and Impact Total: No negatives are accepted. If there is a negative impact, then the next step is to revise. Scores could later be used to prioritize or stack the goals / strategies against each other. The overall goal is to ask better questions, and make better goals / strategies, the numbers are purely arbitrary. Next Steps Goal and Strategy Development ● Five Issues Area Groups have been meeting monthly for the last 3 months ● 6 Goals and 65 Strategies have been developed ● Using the SEAT, the Project Team and CAC are revising and editing Goals and Strategies now Draft Goals ● Increase community food production, farmland preservation, and regenerative agriculture • Improve food worker livelihoods through safety and fair compensation ● Improve emergency food assistance and strengthen local food supply chains ● Decrease food insecurity and increase access to nutritious and culturally relevant food ● Rescue food and divert food waste from the landfill more effectively ● Build community infrastructure to support effective implementation of the Food Plan Phase Three Public Engagement ● Draft Plan developed in March ● Share draft with Boards and Commissions, on-line, and through Public Input ● Incorporate feedback with the CAC and IAG’s CAC focus in Winter/ Spring 2024 ● Develop the Plan Table of Contents ● Daft the Introductory Letter for the Plan ● Continue support development of ● Build community support for Plan Strategies Adoption ● Develop Implementation approach Plan Adoption ● Present Plan to City Council and Commissioners Court in Summer 2024 ● Begin Implementation Important Resources and Information The State of the Food System 2022 ● Provides a brief history of the Austin Food System ● Will provide the foundation for the Food Plan ● Each section contains: Overview, Trends and Challenges, Policy Actions, Key Questions & Facts Food Supply Chain Vulnerability Assessment ● describes issues that impact local food suppliers ● assesses the ability to rebound after a disaster for different sectors of the food system ● identifies strategies to decrease chronic vulnerabilities View full report here. Stay involved Read the full State of the Food System 2022 report here! Visit our website to learn more! ● Request a Meeting in a box for Phase 3! ● Join our Potlucks ● Share your feedback online using the food planning website Thank You! www.austintexas.gov/food /austinsustainability