Rockford and Four Rivers

Rockford and Four Rivers
Food Security Summit
www.foodsummit.org

A Community Summit in Open Space
January 27-28, 2006 – Rockford College

Table of Contents

The Invitation 4

What Happened and How To Get Involved 5

ISSUE #1: Land Use, Planning, Stewardship, Soil Fertility, Soil Conservation and Personal and Corporate Sustainable Lifestyle Inventory and Analysis as it impacts long held family farm acreages 6

ISSUE #2: Self-Reliant Seed Production (and Plant Material) 7

ISSUE #3: The challenge of serving more and more hungry people with limited resources. 8

ISSUE #4: Food Co-op in the Rockford area 9

ISSUE #5: Food accessibility for low-income families 10

ISSUE #6: More than just calories – getting nutritious food to poor people 11

ISSUE #7: School Lunches 12

ISSUE #8: Feeding the Hungry without Red Tape 14

ISSUE #9: Finding and Providing Fresh Produce to those that are in Need 15

ISSUE #10: Improving diets for youth and children 16

ISSUE #11: Vermiculture: an organic plant food, a way to reduce waste, sustainable agriculture 17

ISSUE #12: Local Food Processing and Preservation 18

ISSUE #13: Schools/Community Gardens 19

ISSUE #14: Clean-up of Abandoned City Lots with Urban Farming 20

ISSUE #15: New Farmers 21

ISSUE #16: Building resources around youth gardens in Rockford 22

ISSUE #17: How best to hold Government and Business accountable for delivering good food, education about our food and what is best for us collectively 23

ISSUE #18: Sharing Between Food Pantries 24

ISSUE #19: Access to Water 25

ISSUE #20: Keeping Small Family Farmers on the Land 26

ISSUE #21: The need for a State/ Federally inspected poultry facility in Northern Illinois 28

ISSUE #22: Summer Lunch Program (SFSP) for Children 29

ISSUE #23: Genetic Engineering 30

ISSUE #24: Are you with me?: Informal chatter 31

ISSUE #25: Stewardship – The Next Generation 32

ISSUE #26: The Future of Food Video 34

ISSUE #27: Healing ourselves- healing our planet through food and water vibrations 35

ISSUE #28: Genetic Diversity 36

ISSUE #29: How do we follow up the Food Summit? 37

Open Space Technology: About the Process 39

APPENDIX

Participant List - contact information for all attendees. Let's keep talking!The Invitation

Rockford & Four Rivers Food Security Summit
January 27-28, 2006
You are invited to help shape the future of our community at the Rockford & Four Rivers Food Security Summit to be held on January 27-28, 2006, at Rockford College.
What would it look like if the food system worked for everyone in our community?
• Would the most vulnerable be the first to get access to the healthiest food?
• Would farmers earn a fair wage for their labor and leave the land more fertile and biologically diverse with each generation?
• Would area households find local, fresh, and healthy whole foods readily available at neighborhood groceries, restaurants, and other markets?
The Summit is a unique civic space for conversation among people like you. Through a process of open dialogue among diverse community leaders, we will share our knowledge of community food security concepts and our own local food system, identify critical issues and barriers to greater food security, and reach across sectors to develop cooperative actions and policies that make our community food secure for all people.
The Summit is intended to help us reach beyond our normal circle of colleagues and associates and bring us together with other diverse stakeholders to explore concerns that are more effectively addressed at a community or system level.
We are pleased to have three outstanding keynote presenters to address the Summit:
• Diane Doherty, Executive Director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition
• Michael Rozyne, author of “Feeding Ourselves: Strategies for a New Illinois Food System”
• Dr. Hans Diehl, founder of the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP)
They will weave together diverse perspectives on how the food system impacts the hungry, farmers, and families, and lift up opportunities and challenges before us. For a full schedule, please see the attached Summit at a Glance.
As Summit Co-Chairs, we look forward to seeing you in January.
Tom Spaulding, Executive Director, CSA Learning Center
Anne Hayes, Director, Food Pantry at St. Patrick’s Church
Chris Hempfling, Assistant Director, Jane Addams Center for Civic Engagement

What Happened and How To Get Involved

On the afternoon of January 27, 2006, more than sixty people responded to the Summit Invitation letter. They gathered in Open Space* with no more agenda than what is laid out in that letter. An hour or so later, they had raised 25 major issues of genuine personal and community concern, related to food security in Rockford and the Four Rivers region, and arranged them into a 5-session working agenda. On the second morning, they added several more issues and fit them into their working agenda.
In total, over 1.5 days, this diverse group of farmers, food pantry operators, land use activists, educators, food policy advocates, and other concerned citizens self-organized more than 30 working conversations and documented most of them in this report.
In the last session of the second day, new issues were raised and new conversations convened, in order to focus on immediate actions, projects and initiatives.
A few days after the Summit, each participant received all of the notes from all of the sessions. These are included here for your review. They are your invitation to get involved in this important community movement.
The notes presented here are living, breathing, working documents, captured and typed by the participants themselves, in the heat of high learning and active community connecting. These notes need only to spark the next round of conversations, invitations and actions. They are passionate, but not always pretty. Please take them as your invitation to get or stay connected to the important and diverse issues raised at the Summit.
Finally, please visit HYPERLINK "http://www.foodsecurity.org/" www.foodsecurity.org for more information about what happened at the Summit, what is happening next, and how to get involved.

Some people and issues to get involved and connected now

(see participant list for contact info):

Brett Ivers - vermicomposting symposium

Karen King - chicken processing plant for northwest Illinois

Nina Langoussis - land use policy and advocacy in Winnebago County

Andy Larson - connecting land opportunities with new and unconventional farmers

Tom Spaulding - weblog team working to keep the food security news coming

Tom Spaulding - planning committee for next year's summit, January 2007

* More about the Open Space Technology meeting process at www.michaelherman.com.

ISSUE #1: Land Use, Planning, Stewardship, Soil Fertility, Soil Conservation and Personal and Corporate Sustainable Lifestyle Inventory and Analysis as it impacts long held family farm acreages

CONVENER: John A. Clark; Student- Rock Valley College
PARTICIPANTS: Philip Bardell; Farmstand Produce Grower; Freeport, Illinois area
SUMMARY:
The cross-questioning process and the internal and external dialogue with the search for a platform of understanding as engaged by John A. Clark and Philip Bardell yielded a wealth of grassroots understanding on the following points:
Land use planning as viewed within the concept and end result of sustainable agricultural enterprise must begin with not only an examination of the land use analysis but it must start with both an individual and corporate self examination, analysis and methodology of systemic change as to what is a: sustainable and responsible life style”. This must also be viewed in a holistic mode to be of any value toward understanding.
We felt that one of the primary issues in searching for solutions is that questions about land use should asked from the ground up, not from the point of view of the crop or product or building that could potentially be installed there. In other words, the motivation for land stewardship is not to view it as a consumable commodity but as an entity giving life and using all the resources we have to preserve, correct for and build the fertility and integrity of the land.
Farmers need to join together in grassroots activism to democratically fight for land and sol stewardship and… improve their own stewardship of the land.
A question that also needs to be asked in this process is: “ What types of land do we call productive and how do we evaluate it in light of the land stewardship process?
The age-old process of the competing and sometimes deleterious uses by cities for industrial r retail and residential projects against traditional agricultural land is a continual problem of encroachment.

ISSUE #2: Self-Reliant Seed Production (and Plant Material)

CONVENER: Michael Goodwin
PARTICIPANTS: Karen King and Charles Hammette
SUMMARY:
Great concern regarding the power of multi-national seed/pesticide companies trying to control the food market through Genetically Modified methodologies, etc.
Safety concern regarding GMO food production
Questions raised:
Q: Where to get open pollinated seed to start production? A: anyplace where open-pollinated, non-GMO seed is available. This can be current seed saving organizations, local producers, foreign countries, etc.
Q: Does seed self-generated for distribution fall under government regulations? A: If seed is sold, yes. The Illinois Department of Agriculture requires seed dealers to be registered. If seed is given away, no.
Q: Can I grow seed for distribution from small, community garden areas? A: If plant is sell-pollinated and not affected by cross-pollination, yes. Examples of these are tomatoes, peppers and beans. If plant relies on cross-pollination, such as corn, squash, cucumbers, and such, the answer is no. They will not reproduce true to variety.
Conclusions:
1 – There is a definite need for a local source for gardeners and farmers of open-pollinated seed.
2 – Seed packaging should be labeled that the seed contains no genetically modified components.
Next Steps:
Start a grass roots organization to:
1 – develop, produce and distribute open pollinated seed to local users
2 – increase public awareness regarding the dis-benefits of genetically engineered seed and plant materials, especially the youth with coloring books, etc.
3 – promote sustainable agriculture.

ISSUE #3: The challenge of serving more and more hungry people with limited resources.

CONVENER(S): Mary Healy, Board member of Rock River Valley Pantry
PARTICIPANTS: Amber Wood, Representative of No. Illinois Food Bank
Anne Hayes, St. Patrick’s Pantry, Rockford
Shirley Swanson, Caritas Pantry, Beloit, WI
Amelia Diaz de Leon, City of Rockford, Human Resources Dept.
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS:
Discussion centered on the difficulty of serving more people with limited staff and resources and the on-going need to acquire funds to meet the needs.
Suggested included seeking grant writing assistance, either directly through a grant writer or by consulting the grant writing assistance program of No. Illinois Center for Non-Profit Excellence; referring mothers to the federal W.I.C. program for infant needs; expanding client choice programs, which may include ethnic choices (i.e. rice, pasta or potatoes) or polling clients for specific interests (i.e. beans), thereby removing items they may not use which would otherwise be wasted.
CONCLUSION:
BUILD PUBLIC AWARENESS OF HUNGER (i.e. that it is an issue year around not just a need at Christmas.)
There are more and more “working poor,” who for various economic reasons (heat, gas, etc.) are having difficulty feeding their families. All participants in the group are serving increased numbers.

ISSUE #4: Food Co-op in the Rockford area

CONVENER(S):Michael Kearney
PARTICIPANTS: Kim Bakke, Amanda Haymaker, Michael Rozyne, Tom Spalding
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS:
Rockford does not have a food co-op. Does Rockford want and could it support a food co-op? Different models for a co-op structure were discussed, including one the would serve just the basic food stuffs that could be accessible to low and moderate income families (as opposed to organic models like Whole Food and Wild Oats. Organic suppliers like United Natural Foods were also discussed. A suggestion was made that if we were to organize a co-op that we start small and possibly start as a buyers club. I was very encouraged by our discussion because now I know that there are others like me who would be interested in forming a co-op. I would hope that those interested would form a group as a result of this conference and decide what our next step should be.
Submitted by Michael Kearney

ISSUE #5: Food accessibility for low-income families

CONVENER(S): Debbie Alfredson and Nicole Baquet
PARTICIPANTS: Debbie Alfredson, Nicole Baquet, Maylan Dunn, Julie Getter, Gaston Armour, Carrick Davis, Pat Leininger, Tracy Baslick
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS:
We first identified some of the barriers that make it difficult for people in low-income neighborhoods to access healthy food: lack of good public (or private) transportation, lack of education, lack of skills such as cooking from scratch, no major grocery stores, stores in the area have limited selection and high prices, difficulty accessing informal sources because they require cash (not LinkCard).
Gaston pointed out that people in rural areas and people in urban areas had a lot of the same issues. He also noted that the whole system runs on petroleum.
Maylan pointed out that the suburban food system was vulnerable, too. Suburbanites were just less aware of it, because they had cars.
One idea that the group came up with was to bring small farmers and corner store owners together. Local residents could make the connections, and grocers and farmers contract for certain fresh foods that would sell in that neighborhood. (The residents of Concord Commons were interested in piloting such a project.)
Other ideas: Farmers’ Markets set up to take LinkCard, mobile markets on the back of a truck, small food distribution businesses, marketing the produce from local gardens.
Concerns: Liability issues, spoilage if food didn’t sell quickly
Next Steps: Pilot a project on west side of Rockford. Build a list of possible small farmers to supply small grocers. Make the contacts!

ISSUE #6: More than just calories – getting nutritious food to poor people

CONVENER(S): Elizabeth Donovan
PARTICIPANTS: Donna Jones-Isley, Andy Pincon, Tony Ens
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS:
Our discussion primarily focused on the challenges of getting the food to people who could benefit from fresh produce. It was accepted by all participants that the supply exists as does the need. We discussed the vast amount of waste each day of fresh produce despite the growing numbers of people needing food assistance. Thousands of pounds of food end up in landfills each day (at an expense) because people operating food assistance programs do not have the means to transport, store, or distribute to people in need. The additional challenge of distributing fresh produce in a short timeframe was also discussed.
The group also talked about possible economic development opportunities by creating mechanisms, including employee and farmer cooperatives, to process, can, and dry fresh produce for distribution. Another solution presented was the linking of local farmers with churches to set up farmers markets in both urban and rural communities. It was suggested that this would be good for farmers as well as providing access.