Item #3 Austin/Travis County Food Plan Presentation — original pdf

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A Food Plan for Austin-Travis County Hispanic/Latino Quality of Life Advisory Commission August 27, 2024 Today’s Topics ● Background ○ What is a food system ● How we Created the Austin Travis County Food Plan ○ What did Plan co-creation process look like? Who participated? ● What’s in the Plan and What’s Coming Next ○ Plan vision, goals, and strategy highlights ○ Next steps 2 2 Background 3 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. 5 Some of Our Food System Challenges Disasters and severe weather events: Winter Storms Uri and Mara Rapid community growth and planning for land use Supply chain disruptions: COVID-19 pandemic The climate impacts of the food system 6 How We Co-Created the Food Plan 7 Origins • • In June 2021, Austin City Council directed the City Manager to initiate a planning process. In December 2022, Travis County Commissioners Court approved formal Travis County participation in the plan. Why a Food Plan? • Sets clear goals and strategies to move toward a more equitable, sustainable, resilient food system. • Builds on existing plans and initiatives from the County, City, and community to tackle key food system issues. • Centers equity and the lived expertise of those most impacted by the current food system. 8 8 Project Timeline Phase 0: Planning for the Plan Phase 1: Vision Development Phase 2: Goal & Strategy Development Phase 3: Review and Ground truthing 2021 – Jan 2023 Mar – Aug 2023 Aug 2023 – Feb 2024 Mar – Aug 2024 ● Website launch 📶 4 World Cafes ☕ ● ● ● ● Building Community Awareness 📰 Release of State of the Food System Report 📚 Onboarding Planning Consultant⭐ Recruitment of Community Teams🚀 ● ● ● ● 4 Listening Sessions & Tabling at events 📞 Equity Grounding Workshops 🤝 Affinity Healing 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 Commissioners Court Review ⚖ ● Approval 👍 9 Co-Creation Through Stewardship: Who Wrote the Plan and Guided the Process? Project Team Summary Consultants & City/County staff Design & Implement Community Advisory Committee Guide & Approve City/County Executive Leadership Team Review & Course Correct Austin Travis County Food Policy Board Support & Advise 10 ● Guiding body empowered to oversee the food planning process ● Provided overall direction for, and final approval of, the Food Plan ● Unique features and successes: ○ Made up of a blend of community members, reflecting the community’s diverse geography, demographics, and food system experience ○ ○ Used a consensus-based decision-making process Participation was resourced (members were compensated, transportation supports available) ○ Developed a Sustainability and Equity Assessment Tool (SEAT) to guide goal and strategy development for the plan 11 CO-CREATION THROUGH COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: LISTENING SESSIONS, WORLD CAFÉS 12 CO-CREATION THROUGH COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: TABLING ACTIVITIES & MEETING-IN-A-BOX 13 CO-CREATION THROUGH COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: ISSUE AREA GROUP WORKSHOPS 14 Community Engagement Data Summary 1,399 2,226 Demographics Additional participants are estimated to have been involved in tabling events and presentations Participants were involved in the Community Advisory Committee, Community Food Ambassadors, Issue Area Group workshops and other formal food plan meetings 46% identified as having been directly impacted by the food system, e.g. having current or past experience of hunger, using public benefits, or struggling to meet basic needs 19% were engaged from Travis County areas outside City of Austin boundaries 13% engaged in a language other than English 15 15 Major Themes Two themes emerged across all community feedback: 1 2 Access to food and affordability 59% of all comments (1,647 total comments) Local food production and agriculture 52% of all comments (1,452 total comments) 16 Miriam Alvarez and Julian Maltby Co-owners of Sin Nombre You know a tortilla on a plate or a tortilla off the plate is also a vehicle for change …. When people ask, “Where do these tortillas come from? Where does this corn come from?” it opens up a window of vulnerability to have an honest conversation. Regardless of who the person is and who you are, now you have a common road to talk about something that connects you to them. 17 What’s in the Plan 18 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. 19 Strategy Highlights • Preserve land for food production (1.1) • Provide technical and financial assistance for community food production, farms and ranches, including for rainwater harvesting and composting infrastructure (1.4) • Incentivize farmers who adopt regenerative agriculture, water conservation, pay livable wages (1.10) 20 1: LAND Expand community food production, preserve agricultural lands, and increase the amount of farmland dedicated to regenerative food production long-term in Austin Travis County. 12 STRATEGIES Strategy Highlights • Create a local farm incubator program to support underrepresented farmers who practice regenerative food production (2.3) • Support farmer co-ops in accessing land and connecting to local food retail and distribution markets (2.2) 21 2: OWNERSHIP Increase access to and stewardship of land for regenerative food production by increasing the number of Austin/Travis County farms that are owned by economically disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. 4 STRATEGIES Strategy Highlights 3: LIVELIHOODS Improve farm worker and food worker livelihoods by ensuring a safety net, defining career pathways, expanding training opportunities, and strengthening opportunities for advancement for workers across the local food system. 7 STRATEGIES • Support workforce and small business development organizations to strengthen employment and career advancement opportunities and worker organizing across the food system (3.5) Increase ownership opportunities for food workers and farm workers through education and access to capital to start cooperatives and other businesses (3.7) • 22 Strategy Highlights • Conduct a landscape analysis of existing food disaster preparedness efforts (4.1) • Develop a coordinated emergency food access response plan (4.3) • Work with partners to implement a real-time inventory management system (4.5) 23 4: PREPAREDNESS Establish and fund a resilient, inclusive, and accessible emergency food provision system that ensures all community members, regardless of cultural background or medical needs, have access to safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food during disasters and emergencies. 7 STRATEGIES Strategy Highlights • Develop one or more Food Hubs (a central aggregation, processing, and distribution facility) to supply regional institutional purchasers with local agricultural goods (5.1) • Explore adopting a values-based food purchasing policy that integrates practices from the Good Food Purchasing Program and others (5.4) 24 5: INSTITUTIONS Create more resilient and sustainable local supply chains through the adoption of values-aligned distribution and purchasing frameworks and increase in the percentage of institutional menus sourced locally. 4 STRATEGIES Strategy Highlights • Establish affordable, culturally relevant, community-backed retail options in areas facing food insecurity or barriers to food access (6.1) • Increase public benefits utilization, and expand benefits and access to nutritious foods for people facing food insecurity through programs that amplify and supplement their purchasing power (6.5 and 6.6) 25 6: ACCESS Expand access to nutritious and culturally relevant food in food distribution programs and food retail locations for residents of Austin/Travis County experiencing food insecurity or facing barriers to food access (proximity, mobility, income, and availability) with priority investment in areas of Austin/Travis County experiencing high rates of food insecurity. 11 STRATEGIES Strategy Highlights 7: FOOD RECOVERY Increase the diversion of surplus food and non-edible food waste from the landfill to support a circular food economy, improve soil health, and reduce climate impact. 7 STRATEGIES • Develop a food rescue protocol and recognition program (7.1) • Explore the creation of community compost drop sites for Travis County residents so that every resident has convenient access to composting services (7.7) 26 Strategy Highlights 8: PRO-CLIMATE, PRO-HEALTH FOODS Raise awareness of the benefits of foods that nourish our bodies and reduce the overall environmental impact of our food system while addressing barriers to access. 4 STRATEGIES • Conduct multilingual education campaigns to promote pro-climate, pro-health foods, for both the public and businesses/institutions (8.1) • Identify public funding opportunities to support building an accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate pro-climate, pro-health food system (8.4) 27 Strategy Highlights 9: EMPOWER Develop community education, empowerment, and infrastructure to support effective implementation of the food plan as measured by increased funding, data collection, partnerships, and community participation in a local food system network. 5 STRATEGIES • Launch a community-based food collaborative to support implementation of the Plan (9.1) • Develop a process for City and County departments to include food system impacts in planning, contracting, and procurement efforts (9.5) 28 What’s the first step? • City Council’s formal support for the Austin Travis County Food Plan as our community’s guiding framework for food system change What About Implementation? There’s a lot in this plan! How much would we have to do? • • • Strategies reflect a range of resources, timelines, complexity, and ownership Some strategies align with City of Austin's work; some are outside our scope, and would require other partners and sectors There’s room for everyone to play a part What will it take to implement? • Moving the plan forward (at strategy level or overall coordination) will require some infrastructure as described under Goal 9 29 Next Steps Date TBD (October) Date TBD (October) Resolution at Travis County Commissioners Court Request for Council Action to Adopt the Plan 30 Explore the Draft Plan bit.ly/FoodPlanningATX Thank you! Questions? Amanda Rohlich Food Policy Advisor Amanda.Rohlich@austintexas.gov (512) 974-1364 Office of Sustainability 3232