Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

Austin/Travis County Food Policy Board MEETING MINUTES October 20, 2025 The Austin/Travis County Food Policy Board (ATCFPB) convened on Monday, October 20, at the City of Austin Permitting and Development Center, 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Dr, Room 1406, Austin, TX 78752. Board Members in Attendance: Lisa Barden, Joi Chevalier, Beth Corbett, Hilda Gutierrez, Kacey Hanson, Matt Simon, Andy Smith, Andrea Abel, Natalie Poulos, Marissa Bell Board Members Absent: Nitza Cuevas, Erin McDonald Staff in Attendance: Edwin Marty (City of Austin), Angela Baucom (City of Austin), Yaira Robinson (Travis County), Johanna Arendt (Travis County) CALL TO ORDER Chair Joi Chevalier called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. PUBLIC COMMUNICATION None APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Board Member Andrea Abel motioned to approve the meeting minutes from the Regular Meeting on September 15, 2025, with Board Member Hilda Gutierrez, seconding the motion. Minutes passed on an 10-0 vote. STAFF BRIEFING 2. Briefing on Food During Emergencies and Disasters, Eric Carter, Chief Emergency Management Coordinator, Travis County Office of Emergency Management. In alignment with Goal 4 of the Austin-Travis County Food Plan, Travis County works across strategic partnerships, provides coordination across agencies and areas during emergency response, and works toward resilience through ongoing preparedness efforts informed by prior event and response experiences. (see backup materials for presentation) 3. Briefing on Austin Emergency Management, Food During Emergencies and Disasters, John “Donny” Cummings, Mass Care Coordinator. The Mass Care office began in 2023. Shelter, Food and Water coordination and the Austin Resilience Network all fall under the Mass Care umbrella. a. Three activations for 2025: February cold weather sheltering, end of May microburst of severe weather, and the July floods encompass. Hot washes were completed after each, which helped identify priority areas to direct focus through end of this year. Food and Water feature heavily in those priorities. b. There will a be a process to identify contractors who can meet a need to activate to deliver more feeding options rapidly. A contract should be going out for bid in the near future. AEM has established a working group that includes city, county, and regional government and non-governmental partners to discuss sheltering needs, which will include information to feed into food and water related topics. c. The focus of the Austin Resilience Network is to create an awareness and inventory of entities involved in community resilience work. AEM has identified a little under 150 organizations in the area that are involved in supporting community resilience of various scales and scopes. d. Mission Ready Package program allows for storage of surge need supplies, primarily in Austin Parks and Recreation facilities. MRP sites and warehouse storage are going through refresh and restock, which involves consideration for diversifying meal resources and types with consideration toward medical and cultural needs where possible. e. There are training resources currently in development. There is movement towards a new centralized platform for emergency response information sharing, to ensure communication, education, and consolidated messaging to partners during activation. f. Lisa Barden asked about anything in the communication tools that would make it transparent to the community who is doing what. Donny Cummings responded that the new platform will provide internal clarity, but AEM recognizes the need for access to real-time information, which is a long-term priority when the right tool is identified. g. Kacey Hanson asked about how citizens are being engaged in the work to be involved in response. Donny Cummings responded that AEM is currently working towards engaging with the public using a grant for a pilot program to find out how to best create this program with existing bandwidth and funding. There are also popup fairs that included preparedness education about how to prepare and where to look in times of need. 4. Briefing on Austin-Travis County Food Plan Implementation, Edwin Marty, Food Policy Manager at City of Austin and Yaira Robinson, Assistant Director of Environmental Programs at Travis County. Edwin Marty shared that the City of Austin won the Global Governance Award for Leadership in Building a Resilient and Equitable Food System for the Austin-Travis County Food Plan. (see backup materials for presentation) DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 5. Discuss and take possible action on the recommendation: Support for investing in farmland preservation and access in Austin and Travis County. a. Hilda Gutierrez moves to approve the recommendation as written, Beth Corbett seconds. Motion passes on a 10-0 vote. 6. Follow-up from Strategic Planning Discussion a. Discussion of Work Group creation Beth Corbett left the dais at 8:02 pm. 7. Review Board Member Assignment a. Board Members will send follow-up questions for Donny Cummings and Eric Carter to City of Austin staff. b. Edwin will send out a link with more information about the MUFPP Awards. c. In the Strategic Planning notes, there were four buckets of activities. Amanda Rohlich will send those four buckets out to board members and allow board members to sing up for work in activity areas. 8. Approve the 2026 Annual Meeting Schedule for the Austin-Travis County Food Policy board. a. Kacey Hanson moved to make 2026 meeting schedule the second Monday of every month with meeting time of 5pm to 7 pm. Marissa Bell seconded. Motion passes on a 9-0 vote. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Discuss board member selection of activity areas from strategic planning session and discuss potential for the creation of Working Groups. ADJOURNMENT Joi Chevalier adjourned the meeting at 8:13 pm. Minutes were approved at the November 17, 2025 full board meeting on Board Member Marissa Bell’s motion with Board Member Lisa Barden seconding. Minutes passed on a 10- 0 vote.