EAT Minutes April 2008

April 30, 2008 at 12:30 pm, Van Tassell Rm 5006

The meeting began at 12:33pm and concluded at 2:15pm. Next meeting is May 28, 2008 from 6:30-8pm at the Farmhouse Table located at 112 N.Mission near the Wenatchee World office building.

Members Present:

Joan Qazi; Angela Schaub; Michel Wiman; Judy Preston; Bob Gillespie; Scott Parsons; Fran Taber; Sheila Malmberg; Sherry Schneider; Beth Spadoni; Kim Lohse; Mike Brogan; Jen Crawford and Colleen Donovan.

Dates to Watch For:

  • May 15th Food Policy Workshop, Seattle. Joan Qazi will be participating on a guest panel discussing community food assessments. Michel Wiman and Judy Preston will also participate. Mark Winne from the Community Food Security Coalition will be the keynote speaker. Free workshop and any EAT members are encouraged to attend from 8:30am to 3:30pm.
  • May 19th WSU Small Farms and Tilth Producers Farm walk at Willie Greens in Monroe, check EAT’s online calendar for details.
  • May 27th Grand Opening for Farmhouse Table which will be open Tues-Sat, 10-6pm
  • May 29th Washington State Healthy School Summit. STEPS has monies available to help send an individual to this workshop.

Treasurer’s Report:

$3863.17 is the current balance. Expenses and Profit & Loss documents were passed around the meeting for viewing.

New Business:

  • A group of young women, Mothers Supported Agriculture, will be leasing Nancy Denson’s farm property at Two Rivers and growing their own food.
  • Washington Environmental Council passed an initiative supporting Washington produce in all public schools. Colleen believed it was one school per district and that districts with the highest free/reduced lunch program participants would be considered first.
  • JoEllen was hired by Community Health; Supervisor of First Steps prenatal program.

Committee Reports

  • CFA Results from CFA survey now available, which was put together by Margie from STEPS. Michel and Joan are working on updating the Chelan County Food Atlas. Photo Novellas created by Foothills Middle School and Clovis Point Middle School have been displayed at various community locations. Joan would like a presentation of some type (powerpoint or anything else) put together to format information obtained from the CFA survey. She is looking for volunteers to design a month for the EAT calendar that will feature data from the CFA, recipes and photos. The goal is to have it made available by the end of summer. EAT also needs a volunteer to put together a map of available community garden spaces within the city. Joan and Michel will be attending the Food Policy Workshop to see if this is something that EAT would like to pursue.
  • Consumer Education Chelan –Douglas Land Trust put out a Good Neighbor Handbook. Joan shared a copy at the meeting. Ginny O’Kelley suggested that a book group be started to provide an opportunity for sharing and discussing the great reading material. We will try to add a page for this on the website. Kim Lohse is on the board for Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center’s environmental film series. She solicited foodie type film suggestions for their March presentation since March is National Nutrition Month. King Corn was suggested as a great film.
  • 501c3 Exploratory Committee Colleen presented that Heifer recently underwent a budget restructuring. EAT could be funded by Heifer approximately a year from now. The plan to have EAT funded as a 3 yr project has been put on hiatus. Joan stated that as long as EAT activities stay under $25,000, then EAT will not need to file a tax return with the IRS. It was agreed that the current activities are easily under that umbrella amount. Larger projects seem to be undertaken by CFC at the moment.
  • Grant Work Fundraisers are being reviewed once again since EAT won’t officially be a Heifer Project. Scott is the fund-raising chair and volunteered his services to help with this.
  • School Garden Committee The Newbery Elementary garden is in its 3rd season with 8 classes currently participating in the Greenhouse field trips going on this week. WVC Ag instructors Leo Garcia, Francisco Sarmiento and Bob Gillespie and their students have been working with Newbery students on understanding the importance of a greenhouse in gardening, making potting soil, transplanting and basic propagation techniques. Foothills Middle School was awarded monies from STEPS for their garden. Shelby Lockhart said the excavation has already taken place and the new soil deposited and spread out. They are officially ready for planting. Scott Parsons will donate some edible flowers for the garden. Shelby Lockhart is a science teacher at the school and the main contact. Sunnyslope Elementary has committed to putting in a garden for their students and was also awarded a $1000 grant from STEPS. The parent coordinator for that project is Vaishali Bhide. Two copies of the school garden resource guide were requested by Walla Walla School District. Joan sent those out but has not received payment for them. Colleen recommended an evaluation form be sent with all outgoing guides and also stated that a labor charge be added into the guide cost.
  • Website The Healthy Gourmet and Solid Rock Farms are being added to the website listing of local farms. The EAT website, in addition, contains “The 5 Reasons to Eat Locally” and a listing of area CSAs. The webmaster wants to know if farmers and CSAs wish to be linked to other related websites or search engines. Angela wanted to know if separate pages could be made for the following school gardens: Foothills MS; Sunnyslope Elementary; Orondo Elementary/MS and Lewis and Clark.
  • Media Rochelle Feil interviewed Joan for 5 Things You Should Know about Eating Locally which appeared in the Wenatchee World on April 29th. Sheila attended our meeting after reading the article and following up on the website.
  • Farm to Table Joan recommended that planning should begin. She encouraged people to start collecting success stories from last year’s workshop.

Follow-up on Topic(s) that were discussed in this meeting:

  • CFA Calendar (everyone will choose a month to work on)
  • Photo Novella to be collected from the library and the mall. (Judy)
  • School garden progress (Angela)
  • Farm-to-Table Workshop (Marcy/Joan)
  • National Nutrition Month paid advertisement (Michel/Marcy/Joan)

Committee Sign-Up:

  • Working Group Chairperson Joan Qazi; Meeting Facilitator: Joan Qazi; Minute Taker: Angela Schaub; Treasurer: JoEllen Colson; Webmaster: Ben Fields; Newsletter: Fran Taber; Media Diva: Kim Langston; Fundraising: Scott Parsons
  • Community Food Assessment Chairperson Joan Qazi; Billie Jo Ellis; Fran Taber; Colleen Donovan; Kim Langston; Judy Preston; Angela Schaub (Data Analysis); Marcy Ostrom; Laurie Riegert; JoEllen Colson; Consuelo Coronel
  • Consumer Education Chairperson None; Kim Langston; Billie Jo Ellis; Shawn Hansen; Joan Qazi; Ginny O’Kelley; Laurie Riegert; Judy Preston
  • Community Garden Chairperson None; Jenn Crawford; Sharlynn Cobaugh; Kim Langston; Shawn Hansen; Dawn Fisher; Michel Wiman
  • 501c3 Exploratory Chairperson Angela Schaub; Angela Schaub; Fran Taber; Colleen Donovan, Sharlynn Cobaugh;
  • Edible Schoolyard /Farm to School Chairperson Angela Schaub; Angela Schaub; JoEllen Colson; Joan Qazi; Scott Parsons; Dawn Fisher
  • Farm-to-Table Chairperson None; Fran Taber; Marcy Ostrom; Bill and Vonnie Smith; Michel Wiman

Suggestions for next meeting: Planning for farm to table workshop

  • Next Meeting May 28th from 6:30pm to 8pm at the Farmhouse Table on Mission

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