CFAC Quarterly Meeting and Updates
On July 13th, 33 people convened for our quarterly Community Food Access Coalition (CFAC) meeting. The meeting began with a presentation about the priority areas that have been identified by the Community Food Access Advisory Commission (IndyFAC). Those priority areas are:
Equity Plan: To create and implement a food equity plan and toolkit for use by the City of Indianapolis and its community partners. Currently, Office of Public Health and Safety, Division of Community Nutrition and Food Policy staff are taking the lead on drafting a first draft of this plan and toolkit. Once a first draft is complete it will be presented to community members and organizations for feedback.
Nutrition Assistance Programs: To increase enrollment in SNAP and WIC and expand the use of Fresh Bucks for SNAP recipients, and help ensure healthy food outlets accept SNAP, WIC, and Fresh Bucks where appropriate.
Urban Agriculture: Support the growth of urban agriculture in Indianapolis through program strategies that seek to increase the number and capacity of growers through training and access to land and equipment, and policy changes that ease growing in the city and create incentives for local procurement.
Food Hub: Support the creation of a food hub in Indianapolis that supports local agriculture, improves access to healthy foods and advances equity in the food system.
We then separated into three breakout rooms to solicit feedback on those priorities.
We ended with a call to action, asking community members to join subcommittees focused on 3 of the above priority areas: Nutrition Assistance, Urban Agriculture, and Food Hub, and three administrative areas. The Membership committee identifies and recommends members to serve on the Indianapolis Food Access Advisory Commission (IndyFAC). The Budget committee will develop an annual budget to guide the work of CFAC and monitor and report on financials. The Governance committee is responsible for drafting, maintaining, and updating bylaws for CFAC and IndyFAC.
If you would like to give your feedback on the priority areas identified by IndyFAC or volunteer to serve with any of the committees (Nutrition Assistance, Food Hub, Urban Agriculture, Membership, Budget, or Governance), you can do so through this Food System Feedback survey.
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