Pike County Local FoodsGroup Meeting Notes

Tuesday, August 23, 2016 – OSU South Centers

10:00am – 12:00pm

NOTES FROM THE MEETING

Attendees: Tammy Jones, Julie Blanton, Jeff Fisher, Judy Dixon, Andrew Bauer, Melody Lucas, and Alondra Fioriti

Purpose: To provide education and awareness of local foods in Pike County

Meeting Notes:

Tammy updated the group on a phone conversation she had with Amanda Osborne from Cuyahoga County OSU Extension. They offer 2 PRx programs, PRx Moms for new or expectant mothers and PRx HTN for individuals with hyptertension. Enrolled physicians are trained by the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods at Case Western Reserve University. These groups work with OSU Extension to implement the program by prescribing patients a $40 voucher to purchase fruits and vegetables at local markets. In addition, they also receive culinary incentives during the 3-4 month program. Each month that they return to see their physician, they receive the $40 vouchers to use at markets. The program provided over $24,000 worth of vouchers to farmers’ markets in Cuyahoga County in 2015. Their program also serves as an education tool for helping Ohio Direction Card recipients learn how to stretch their SNAP dollars through the Produce Perks program. The PRx programs rely on foundation money totaling around $125,000 for 2016. Amanda shared info about a Farmers’ Market Coalition Grant that we may apply for in order to get the equipment needed to accept SNAP at our markets. There are still data usage fees per month that need to have funds. At this time, we discussed waiting to see if we can increase vendors/customers at markets in 2017 before moving forward.

Tammy updated the group on a phone conversation with Shelly Thomas who works for ODH/WIC. The group discussed trying to implement the use of WIC vouchers in 2017 since there are no costs associated with this program. Shelly will assist us when we are ready to move forward. There is a vacancy in the Pike County WIC program at this time. Tammy and Alondra will communicate with the newly hired person when they come on board with CAC. Our group plans to work with CAC/WIC to train vendors in February/March before our markets open in 2017.

We have received 17 vendor applications as of August 23. Vendor traffic has slowed down some. Markets on Wednesday were rained out; there were 3 vendors at Piketon and 2 at Rural King last week. We hope to continue with the markets, as long as we have at least 2 vendors per site. There is interest from vendors for a longer set-up time at Rural King on our final day of 2016. Once this date is set, we will promote the event via email, OSU Extension Pike County website, Facebook, and news media.

Tammy shared with the group that Fluor-BWXT highlighted our markets in their recent staff newsletter. We appreciate their support of our markets. Rural King and Homeland Credit Union were also acknowledged for their support of our Waverly market. Melody offered to send info to Glatfelter for them to share in their newsletter. She will provide Tammy with an email contact.

The group discussed next month’s visit to the Reeb Avenue Center and ACEnet facilities. We looked at the websites of each location. We currently have 6 people who plan to go on September 27th. Please let Tammy know if you plan to go on this date. We invite anyone to join the group. Feel free to share this invite with others who may be interested but not a part of our group! The plan is below.

Meet at Pike County Government Center in Waverly @ 8:00am on Tuesday, September 27

Arrive at Reeb Ave. Center @9:30am for site tour

Lunch at the center @ 11:00am

Depart for Nelsonville @11:45am

Arrive in Nelsonville for site tour at 1:00pm, tour will continue onto 2nd facility in Athens

Depart around 3:45pm for Pike County

We discussed 2 other locations, Muskingum and Perry counties, as sites to visit in the near future. We will consider setting these 2 up for a date later in the year or early in 2017.

Next Meeting Date

September 27th @ 8:00am at Pike County Government Center parking lot in Waverly

October 25th @ 10:00am at OSU South Centers

Pike County Extension

313 Mill Street

Piketon, OH 45661

Phone (740) 289-4837

Fax (740) 289-4496