Agenda Item Name:
Title
American Rescue Plan - State & Local Fiscal Recovery Funds - Food System Equity Program: 2022-2024 Work Plan Pilot: Fresh Food Pathways (ARP2021x016)
End
Presenter:
Diedre Houchen, Ph.D., Office of SEEDS
Description:
Presentation of the 2022-2024 Work Plan Pilot: Fresh Food Pathways
Recommended Action:
Recommended Action
Approve the pilot project plan and the budget amendment.
End
Prior Board Motions:
June 22, 2021 - American Rescue Plan - State and Local Fiscal Revenue Recovery Funds
Fiscal Consideration: $26,129,224.50 has been received from the U.S. Treasury
Recommended Action: Approve the Plan, adopt the resolution for unanticipated revenue and accompanying budget amendment, and authorize the County Manager to: (i) approve and sign any recipient grant agreements and related documents necessary for the County to receive American Rescue Plan funding from the Federal Government; (ii) develop for subsequent BOCC approval guidelines and criteria for implementation of each Plan element, and (iii) negotiate for subsequent BOCC approval interlocal agreements and other contracts to implement the Plan.
Commissioner Prizzia moved to Approve the Preliminary Plan presented with a modification to increase local food line item to $4 million and decrease Undesignated line item from $9 million to $6 million, adopt the resolution for unanticipated revenue and accompanying budget amendment, and authorize the County Manager to: (i) approve and sign any recipient grant agreements and related documents necessary for the County to receive American Rescue Plan funding from the Federal Government; (ii) develop for subsequent BOCC approval guidelines and criteria for implementation of each Plan element, plus, explore items discussed during commission comment to possibly be added to the Plan including, mental health, non-profit capacity building, structural translation funding, re-entry services, and senior housing as well as request an update on the central receiving unit and a presentation by UF Health and (iii) negotiate for subsequent BOCC approval interlocal agreements and other contracts to implement the Plan.
Motion passed 5-0
Fiscal Consideration:
Fiscal Consideration
$750,000 allocation from ARPA - SLFRF. Project # ARP2021x016
End
Strategic Guide:Strategic Guide
Social and Economic Opportunity
End
Background:
In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Federal government has provided Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (ACBoCC) funding through the American Rescue Plan - State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF). Alachua County will use SLFRF funds to promote a strong and equitable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and economic downturn by piloting fresh, healthy, and local retail food access strategies. These strategies seek to strengthen the local food system and improve control of and access to a diversity of fresh and nutrient-rich and locally sourced foods in communities subjected to long-standing inequities exacerbated by Covid-based inequities, while recognizing and supporting existing resilient and creative food pathways already in these communities.
Supported Communities
The pilot strategies aim to support the connection between two types of communities/populations.
The first is rural and urban individuals and communities who have already developed creative, long-standing, and community-rooted solutions, based on rich social networks, in response to systemic and institutionally imposed limited access to a diversity of fresh food choices. These households and communities experienced Covid-19-related inequities as well as historical and ongoing health and well-being inequalities.
The second population is locally owned and managed, smaller-scale food and farm businesses and entrepreneurs that, despite facing food system-based challenges that threaten their livelihoods and compromise the resilience of our local food system, have continued to adapt and produce food for their community.
Uses of Funds
The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (ACBoCC) will allocate $750,000 of SLFRF funds from January 2023 through September 2024 to pilot pop-up mobile produce markets in two (2) to six (6) COVID-impacted communities with the aim of increasing access to fresh, nutrient-rich and locally sourced foods that support residents’ health and well-being and existing food pathways and networks of resilience and agency in these communities, while strengthening the local food economy and community control of food system resources. Food pathways are defined as “the cultural and social practices that affect food consumption, including how and what communities eat, where and how they shop and what motivates their food preferences.” The framework of food pathways recognizes that food consumption is political and dynamic rather than static. Local food economies will be strengthened through the following sourcing priorities:
● Smaller-scale local farms and food entrepreneurs, who face inequitable access to markets and resources;
● Farm and food businesses that meet the Valued Workforce criteria of the Good Food Purchasing Program, which was recently adopted by the ACBoCC; and
● Farm operations with labor that demonstrate health and safety protocols for farmworker protection from heat stress and other hazards, as well as living wages, and the right to organize for farmworkers.
Supporting the work of small community-rooted organizations and community groups, who are doing the work of addressing food inequities in their communities and neighborhoods in Alachua County, is critical to the equity aims of the county and real change for residents facing inequities. The County structures, processes, procedures, and requirements are often prohibitive to supporting and working with these groups. Part of the work that will be done during this pilot is identifying the obstacles these groups and communities face when trying to access County and other large institutional support and working with county staff to develop strategies and solutions to eliminate these obstacles.
The majority of the work will be done under Expenditure Category 2.0: Negative Economic Impacts in Sub-category EC 2.1: Household Assistance: Food Program. Pilot funds may be allocated toward the following, either as direct county expenses or through a sub-contract
Goals
● Support two (2) to six (6) communities with intersections of Covid-19 impacts and:
○ Interested in having a mobile produce market in their community,
○ Low and moderate median household income (per Treasury criteria),
○ High proportion of BIPOC residents,
○ High proportion of limited English proficient speakers (LEP),
○ Disproportionately less access to fresh foods (per USDA criteria for low access), and
○ Existing community-based networks for supporting residents
Processes
○ Facilitating access to a more diverse array of high-quality fresh and local food,
○ Contracting/hiring residents from within participating communities to do project work,
○ Increasing community control by consulting with key community members to shape project priorities and evaluate outcomes, and
○ Strengthening community capacity to fund and administer their own solutions to inequities, including the creation of a fund that is more supportive and less restrictive, that facilitates community groups conducting the work of this pilot.
○ Identifying County policies, procedures, and requirements that create obstacles to supporting and working with community-level organizations.
● Support at least two (2) local smaller-scale produce farms and food businesses that have experienced Covid-based inequities and:
○ Are local and independently owned and operated;
○ Meet the Treasury criteria for small impacted businesses;
○ Have faced historical and current social, economic, and political inequities as farm and food businesses
○ Are able and interested in selling into participating communities
Processes
○ Sourcing for the mobile produce market,
○ facilitating connections and relationship building between these suppliers and communities,
○ reducing barriers to prevent these suppliers from accessing markets,
○ investing in capacity building and infrastructure needs (not already being addressed by other ARPA-funded food system projects, identified by these suppliers.
● Support farmworkers in the supply chains providing fresh produce to local communities targeted by this pilot by prioritizing sourcing from farm and food suppliers that commit to and demonstrate:
○ Paying living wages,
○ Providing paid sick leave and/or verified health and safety protections, including those related to heat stress to their employees, and
○ Ensuring farmworkers’ right to organize.
Awareness
● Engagement with community-rooted groups and individuals in targeted communities, including compensation for their time and expertise.
● Employing individuals from participating communities that are the focus of the pilot to be community liaisons and assist in the implementation of the pilot/project.
Access/Distribution
● Coordination with immigrant liaison for outreach to LEP speakers and communities.
● Creation of a fund to ensure small community-based groups asked to do implementation work do not have to front the funds for project work.
● County staff taking on administrative burdens that are burdensome for small community-based groups partnering in the work.
● Hire community liaisons to do outreach in their own participating communities at wages and terms that are supportive of improving their livelihoods.
● Include in the project plan, investments in small community-based groups to build capacity associated with their role in the project that will serve them long-term.
Outcomes
● Increased sense of control over food choices available to them by residents participating in the project.
● Increased fresh and local produce and foodstuffs easily available and affordable in targeted communities.
● Increased connections between local small farms and residents participating in the project
● Increased beneficial markets for impacted local small farm and food businesses.
● Improve the pricing farms get for their products so that they adequately cover their costs of production.
● Lessons learned and recommendations for revising, tracking, and scaling up and expansion of fresh and local retail food access for marginalized communities model for Alachua County with the aim of strengthening our local food economy and addressing food inequities among residents.
● List of strategies the County could implement to reduce obstacles to working with community groups.
.