March - Working Toward Efficiency, Effectiveness & Sustainability

The full Food Security Workgroup met on March 27th to share updates and further the work around shared strategies.  (Details are summarized on the meeting powerpoint).

Strategy Updates:

• The Education and Skill Building Team - Working off the Action Map created at the January Workgroup meeting, a team has been meeting to create parameters for the types of partners to include in a food security education and skill-building collaborative as well as begin the process of identifying a process and tool for capturing shared performance measures.  The tool was shared with a discussion on needed changes and suggestions to make it better meet our needs.

• Double Up Food Bucks - The Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council received funding from the WNC Community Foundation to begin a pilot program in 2 Buncombe County retail markets with an anticipated launch date in late April.  A required USDA waiver has been applied for.  This process identified current software challenges that led Mother Earth Produce to decide to step back and wait for the DUFB expansion in the Fall rather than be an initial pilot retail organization. West Village Market is prepared to step in as the 2nd retail organization and waiver application has been submitted this this market.  (note, blanket waiver occurs with USDA FINI funding). A LOI has been submitted to Mission CI for expansion funds, if successful this will take us through Sept/Oct of next year, when Mountain Wise will be taking over as the lead agent. 
• Conversations are also taking place with Hopey.  There are several barriers such as no point of sale software system system. They also don’t carry as much local produce as they could and we are working with them to increase this…partnership beginning.
• Plans are moving forward to apply for USDA FINI funding with MountainWise as the lead.  The DUFB will still need to secure bridge funding through CFWNC grant in January of 2018, and some other funding source to supplement funds between October 2018 and when FINI funds become available in 2019.

Partner Updates:

• YMCA (Ella)  - The YMCA's clinical pilot with 5 participating clinics is beginning to see results.  Clinical partners are all Mission My Care Plus clinics (Leceister, Candler, Old Fort, Sweeten Creek and Asheville Pediatrics.  The YMCA provides food and and the mobile kitchen twice a month. Currently there have been 127 referrals to the nutrition program with 80-90% returns at each site. Feedback has been very positive and they hope to expand to 8 clinical sites. MANNA is a key partner in developing and implementing this model Note: Good location to provide info on DUFB
• MANNA (Amy) - MANNA is doing more work to integrate nutrition into the work of the 220+ MANNA using the Feeding America Nudge model ..nudging them to begin making healthier substitutes.  They are also partnering with COOP Extension to help support Nudge partners with food demonstrations and education.  Ultimately the goal is for a pantry to be able to do some nutrition education without having a professional onsite. There will be more attention around home canning (with clear understanding of risk and how to ensure safe practices).  MANNA is actively engaged with the YMCA's clinical pilot as well as working to support Bounty and Soul's community nutrition work.
• Bounty and Soul (Ali) - Bounty and Soul is piloting a clinical health coaching program in addition to their broader community nutrition and health education programming. They are halfway thru their first round of this pilot. They are beginning a partnership with MAHEC Family in Swannanoa with a goal to work with 16 people this year.  They are already seeing significant changes with some of the participants. Beyond coaching, the program includes regular exercise class opportunities, stress management and other support for a holistic approach.

Systems Change & Sustainability 

Our conversation to prioritize systems change approaches uncovered major concerns by all partners in the room about potential and significant changes to the funding landscape and a recognition that our systems change conversation should start with the core food security organizations that have been long-term active partners in this work. Along the lines of collaboration among our education and skill-building activities, there are many opportunities to collaborate for the purpose of increasing efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.  Designing a food security collaboration that focuses on shared functions such as administrative support and volunteers as well as identifying long-term funding that minimizes competition and promotes sustainability with a stated goal to:

• Create a sustainable  structure to support our collective work with the core community partners doing food security work in Buncombe County.  

To further this work we will begin work to identify:

• Our shared values
• Barriers & supports
• Shared measures
• Funders & connectors

Identified Next Steps:

• Create shared a document to begin answering key questions --- schedule lunch meeting to identify questions, 
• Revisit and expand on initial conversations facilitated through Missions Community Investment initial work with food security organizations to identify what work is being done and who is part of “this system”
• Explore assistance to map/visualize “the system”
• Consider engaging media partners

February - Workgroup Meeting Structure, Momentum and Exciting News

Thanks to all who responded to our brief questionnaire on how to structure our meetings moving forward!  The results show that: Monday afternoons appear to work for almost of of you with late afternoon and eliminating the 3rd Monday make it work for a few more. Meeting bi-monthly and combining the larger group with time for subgroup work was preferred by a majority. A few of you expressed a willingness to participate on a small leadership team.  I'll reach out and set up a meeting over lunch or coffee in the next month to explore what that might look like. Our next meeting will be the 4th Monday of March (3/27) from 3-5 at MAHEC in the Pisgah Room of the Education Building.   Moving forward, through the first of the year our meetings will be from 3-5 on the following Mondays... May 22 - Buncombe County HHS, Hughes Building July 24 - MAHEC Blue Ridge A September 24th (no location) November 27 - MAHEC Cherokee January 22 - MAHEC Pisgah These dates and locations can be found on the CHIP Calendar Strategy Group Updates:

A small team (Cory Jackson w/YMCA, Kate Justen w/FEAST, Cathy Hohenstein with NC Cooperative Extension and Terri March) have met several times to begin work on what was considered the next step in our Skill Building and Education Collaborative.  The team has created a very simple definition for what type of program would be included in this collaborative as well as drafted some shared questions that these organizations could use with their clients/customers.   The Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council with Bountiful Cities serving as the fiscal agent has been awarded funding by the Community Foundation of WNC for the Double Up Bucks initiative. The planning team, including numerous FS Workgroup members, has been meeting monthly to address logistics for the anticipated April roll out.  We are currently waiting to receive a required (and expected) waiver from the USDA to proceed.  Once that is obtained, the date for the program launch can be announced and we will begin sharing materials and information to get the word out to SNAP recipients as well as community agencies and organizations that can help spread the word.  The initial retail partners will be the French Broad Food Coop and Mother Earth Produce.  The planning team is already working identifying future retail partners and on securing funding for expansion leading up to a USDA grant application in 2018.