(Photo from Occupy.com)

MINUTES to 6/10/13 FOOD JUSTICE COM meeting

1. SURVEY

We created a timeline for finalizing the survey:

-By next week Ankit will implement all the notes re: the survey and send out to FJC one last time, committee will have one week to make any final comments.
-In 2 weeks, survey team will send to all Co-op committees list to see if any other committees have any concerns, insights, suggestion (within reason of course).  They will have one week to offer their suggestions.
-By next months mtg, survey will be completed.

Ankit will also speak with Kassy re: survey locations and start to develop survey location map/plan.  Suggested locations now are:

-Putnam triangle
-NYCHA family days
-Some parks (sorry forgot names)
-Churches
-Co-op fall festival

Our tabling team is not really happening right now so we can’t rely solely on them.  We discussed that if each active FJC member (about 10 of us) could take on 1-2 tabling shifts to get survey’s completed that would be the most fair way to get this information.  We thought a 2 months process would be sufficient so surveys would be taken from July – Sept.

2. LAFAYETTE GARDENS LIAISON

Lane is up for this, has to check with his work re: conflicts of interest, if there are any. If not then he can be our liaison for Lafayette Gardens.  Renee will connect him with Kassy who will start the process then.

Board of Directors (BOD) Working Session

Tuesday, May 7, 2012 – 7-9pm – 18 Putnam Avenue, Brooklyn.

Facilitator: Nick
Note-taker: Pablo
Timekeeper: DK

1st Main Agenda Item: (20 mins;–> 7.20pm)

Contractors to rodent-proof all three Store spaces: April to join to present recommendation.

Goal: BOD approval of price range and timelines.

–Schedule contractor work during Allison’s vacation: June 3 through 10
– Approve high end budget of $30,000, but on the following conditions:
1) We have absolutely no room to surpass $30,000 in any shape or form, calling for strict budget management before and during the process.
2) We need to build on April’s steps 1-6 to establish both a detailed plan and calendar which represents all facets operational and financial (including costs such as closing the Store, etc.)
3) Engage April, Pablo and other project managers to see this project through from start to finish
4) Present this plan at the GM on 5/23 — as a means to “inform” the membership rather than “discuss/approve.”

2nd Main Agenda Item: Functioning of the Board of Directors (BOD): (50 mins; –> 8:10pm)

1) Review new bylaws / agree on how the Board will work from now on (DK) (15 mins; –> 7.35pm)

DK to go back to Governance to clarify “in person” among other things.  DK – can you complete here?

Also, our monthly meetings, once approved at this month’s GM, are called “working sessions.”

2) Confirm BOD/SC Meeting Schedule (Nick) (5 mins; –> 7:40pm)

Every first Tuesday of the  month from 7-9pm at the Store.

3) Establish a calendar for goals / how to manage expectations (DK) (15 mins; –> 7:55pm)

DK to see with website regarding usage of the online calendar to be able to record BOD current/ongoing projects in order to promote transparency with the Membership.

4) Which types of data must be systematically provided for each BOD/SC (and GM) Mtg? Membership numbers? Financials? Other? (Nick) (10 mins; –> 8:05pm)

Membership numbers (joining/leaving); financials; monthly sales report.

5) Representation at next GM (we did not have quorum at last one) (I will not be at next one) (Aaron) (5 mins; –> 8.10pm)

Every BOD member aside from Aaron plans to attend.

3rd Main Agenda Item: BOD Responsibilities, including General Meeting prep: (20 mins; à 8.30pm)

4th Main Agenda Item: Committees: (30 mins; –> 9pm!)

1) The role of “steering” or committee chairs (Aaron) (10 mins; –> 8.40pm)

In the interim, BOD members will liaise with committees to get a sense of where things stand, their questions and/or support needed, AND ENCOURAGE ONE MEMBER TO COME TO THE GM:

DK: Education and Marketing
Aaron: Merch and Ops
Lawrence: Outreach and Governance
Pablo: Design/Build and IT
Nick: Website and Allison
Christina: Finance and Membership

In view of points 2 and 3 below, we talked about how to foster cross communication between committees (GM participation helps!) as well as a quartely working session with the BOD and committee co-chairs.

2) Communication with committees (how; how often; who) (Nick) (10 mins –> 8.50pm)

3) Initial check-in with committees; idea for another brainstorming/planning session? (Nick) (10 mins –> 9pm)

5th Main Agenda Item: Other Discussion points: (Either we table them and discuss via email or we keep them to 5 mins each; –> 9.30pm)

1) How can we begin facilitating processes pertaining to S/T and L/T strategy? (Nick)

Give some time at the next BOD working session to defining some S/T and L/T goals!

2) Refunds (clarity, renewed process; how to communicate to the membership) (Nick)

Not discussed (next time)

3) Report on Eden Foods debate from Merch, thoughts from board (Aaron)

To be discussed at the next GM

4) Executive Summary of Finances, and review of proposed equipment purchases from ops (Aaron) (but this should come from finance. I can’t present this.)

Tabled until after the rodent-proofing construction work.

5) Report back from CDS Consulting Call (from April 24th) (note – request financial info relevant to opening the store, working session with Food Trust on June 14th, Coop Conference on June 15th, next call on May 28th or 29th) (Aaron)

Who is going to be part of the next call?

6) Screenshare demo of sharing google docs (Aaron)

Unable to be completed.

7) Capital One Bank (additional contact names) + procedure for depositing monies (Allison + ATM cards) (Nick)

Need to confirm how deposits can be made via the ATM (in one envelope or bill by bill?!); also, identify who else can be on the account.

(Photo from Salon.com)

May 13th Food Justice Committee meeting

1. Discussion of survey

-Renee: what is the plan for getting the survey out there and for doing data entry? And if we want to use the tabling team, FJC might have to actually do the tabling because the tabling committee is not as robust as it once was. And tabling season ends in October.

-Question of doing the survey at the church outreach that we have been talking about for months.Christina went to the Pentacostal church on Bedford and Putnam, and so she is going to take the June 1st flyer and some other info to that church.

-Locations to distribute the survey: Putnam Triangle & tenants day at housing authority

[discussion cut short because Merch folks arrived and that was the top priority for the meeting]

Action elements for the Survey: David, Ankit, Susanne will solicit more feedback using the list serv and get the survey ready for June 1st event.

2. Discussion with April and John from Merch committee

April and john here from merch. They have both been active members of merch since it was a buying club. They were working with the coop for a year before the buying club started actually

Floor opened up for disscussion:

-April: the merch committee is pretty much about sustaining the coop. None of them are professional grocers, so it is all happening in a process, but they are finding that buyers are getting burnt out.

-There are 13 to 15 companies that all supply the food in the store, which is somewhat seasonal, but generally speaking we have a core of buyers who have been working with the same company for at least six months. But they want to have more buyers in order to avoid burnout and get a little bit more astute with buying.

-The feedback that they took from the survey was that people were concerned about price.

-Vendors that they worked with from the beginning, Park Slope Food Coop has been very helpful in finding vendors, industry references have been helpful also.

-Susanne: asks how the products that are chosen are chosen.

Answer: when you start the buying club you are constrained by the qualities of the store such as the sq. footage and the organization’s credit and so forth.

-David: how do the individual products relate to the distributors that carry large quantities of products, so for example what if you don’t buy a product from a distributor?

Answer: Generally, it’s not very big deal for the distributors because they have a huge business and not purchasing one product does not generally harm them because we’re just too small of an account.

-John: the merch committee is under water because it takes an intense amount of work, and they can’t vet every single product before buying. We don’t have the person power to vet all these products.

-Malory: it seems that there’s an issue here

-April: It’s not our job, because we are subscribing to the coop’s principles. It’s really the coop’s issue. It’s really an identity issue, but merch has nothing to do with it.

-Suzanne: we’ve talked about what merch is doing but this is not our intention to put people in a defensive position.

-Christine: The PSFC has a boycott policy which is that you bring it to a GM and it has to be voted on and then it either passes or doesn’t pass

-Merch: developing a procedural mechanism for dealing with this would be important.

-Kassy says that there are groups and businesses out there that do this research and so we can rely on them. FJC can work pretty easily with merch, especially working with Brooklyn Food Coalition, and Food Workers Alliance.

-Christine: We should have a liasion with merch, because there’s clearly very specific elements of each product by what it means with each distributor.

-Renee: Sounds like food justice can fit in by coming up with a purchasing code of conduct.

-John: Redraft the buying principles, take a stab at that. But from doing a lot of buying, but having done the work of buying, principles that are very specific are a real challenge!

-Renee: Maybe making buying principles that are more specific is not realistic, maybe focusing on it from the back end is going to be more practical than the front end.

-April: giving us a watch list of products is good, making a buying guide is good, making a procedure in place, these are all good.

-Amy: I think we all agree.

-John: Breaking down the Eden issue. They sell a can of beans, and we can always find a different one. But in terms of soy milk, we weren’t originally carrying them, but it was another national brand, but other merch members noticed that there were enough voices of people asking for it that they then went ahead and ordered, started carrying it, it was a better price point, and we started selling a lot of it. We don’t have a cheaper version in our supplier with our buying power,

-Kassy: maybe the buying principles need to define what workers’ rights mean

-Suzanne: four things that come to mind from this conversation about cooperation between merch and food justice:

1. having floaters between the two committees

2. creating a procedure whereby the coop will make decisions about boycotts

3. come up with a watch list of products

4. redrafting or specifying the buying principles *even if it’s not realistic

-Malory: can we get clarification on the watch list?

-April: just thinking about being abreast of things that are happening in the market from processing issues, to BPA free and so forth, so merch can say that we’re going after a vender and then food justice follow up with it, and in return you can give us feedback on that vendor.

-John’s question: If we float you a vendor, do you have a procedure right now – answer NO. And John brings up the issue of affordability. Merch struggles with the question of the artisanal, because there are local people who make things like expensive products.

-April: this food coop has an identity problem – and for so many people it’s a vanity project to be a part of it.

-Kassy brings up the issue of WICK and all the thorny issues, about purchasing or at least focusing on the issues for low income people, such that in order to qualify to host the WICK program you have to carry a bunch of products that are the lowest end versions. And John and April add you have to have certain quantities of milk and so forth.

-John offers to be the go-between with merch

-Christine: asks is the supplier list going on the website?

[more discussion ensued that I missed – sorry.]

Follow up tasks

Suzanne is making a list of products that are already in the store.

Malory is going to set up a research time to cover some of those products so we can begin to have the capacity to give merch watch lists and product research.

Ankit and potentially Kareem will work on procedural mechanism for boycotts.

David to email Renee and CC Ankit about survey

The survey folks will be soliciting feedback hard for the next week and a half about the survey

Food Justice Committee Meeting

Agenda
1. Introductions/General updates
2. Updates about the film screenings
3. Updates about MONTAJ
4. Updates and discussion about the survey

Introductions
-Susanne working with David/Ankit on the Survey
-Kareem wasn’t here last meeting, but is also working on issues of ethical sourcing, helping with the survey
-Gisela has been working on films, and reaching out to spaces where we might want to host films
-Amy, no updates, but she’s figured out how to do the shift planning
-Ross is here from MONTAJ, their co-founder is a member
-Ankit has been working since October
-Christina, interested in bringing in more community members, she’s talked with her neighbors and realizing that healthy eating

Updates on film screenings
-Gisela says that she feels that Soul Food Junkies would be the perfect film for this neighborhood
-Discussion ensued about the best locations for showing some of these films, with churches, mosques, and community based organizations being the general feeling
-Some FJC members from last meeting were talking about connecting with churches but they are not here today, so we’ll know more when we check in with them
-Gisela: the idea is to have four screenings throughout the year
-Another one that she likes which is not as related to food, but is good is “No Impact Man”
-Another one is called “What’s on your plate?”
-Kareem says that the people that we connect with will also have some ideas about what they want
-Brooklyn Food Coalition folks might have some ideas for people who can also ‘talk’ or ‘present’ if we host screenings
-One idea is for Christina and Gisela to begin reaching out by visiting a church nearby
-David suggests that maybe we have a film for the membership where we try to raise our own conscioussness, such as My Brooklyn
-It sounds like Gisela wants to do a lot of the same things that we want to do in terms of outreach to churches

Updates on MONTAJ
-Ross explains Iphone app, where you make 5 second clips, and then you can add a song from your iTunes, and filters, and voice overs, and so forth.
-The videos are all updated to youtube and can be embedded into the website.
-The idea being that if we’re out doing events, screenings, or whatever, we could be making these short videos.

Updates on the Survey
-Discussion and notes about the survey are on the survey document
-Discussion of where actually non-member survey will be given out, which seems to be that the outreach to churches and community organizations will also be a good avenue for getting the opinion of people who are not currently members.

Next meeting
-Kristina can’t host anymore because she is moving
-Eleanor had mentioned about possibly meeting at her place, but we would have to check with her because she wasn’t at the meeting
-Possibly we can meet in the courtyard during the same time

Food Justice Committee meeting 3/11/13

Introductions / Reflections

Reportbacks / Discussions

Disscussion of survey – how do we want to reach out to the community beyond membership? Visiting churches – advertising vs survey. Reach out to other committees to solicit questions for the survey? David will contact other committees to let them know this is in the works and ask them if they want to contribute any questions.

-Possible questions (brainstorming at the meeting): What would make the co-op look more welcoming in terms of appearance? / What does a welcoming shopping environment look like? / Does the storefront look like a white space? / What makes a space appealing? / Welcoming? What do / don’t you like about where you shop now?[Different versions - online and paper for members / nonmembers] How do you get to the places you shop? Would you like to have a say in how your grocery store is run? (what they buy, where they buy it, prices, hours?) What kinds of products do you buy? (What would you like to buy nearby?) Do you have any complaints about your current grocery store(s)? (price, quality, location, hours) Two sets of questions: people who haven’t heard of it / people who have heard but not joined. Would it be more appealing if you didn’t have to work? Do you eat organic food? Would you eat more organic food if it were more affordable? Are you satisfied with the availability of healthful food in the neighborhood?

Discussion of other outreach ideas: Connect with churches about giving away perishables – see if they have food programs. Look for ways to expand working hours – use for work in community.

Discussion of gentrification – is this the issue we should be focusing on? Safe space / inclusion?

Tasks for the month:

Elinore will follow up on 596 acres project.

Daniel will go to fort greene community center. (Talk to Rachel?)

Christina’s neighbor’s mom is a minister – connect with her?

David has a friend at Bethel Baptist church – will talk to her, continue talking to merch, talk to other committees about adding stuff to survey.

Christina will talk to her neighbors about what they do socially, and talk to some of the founding members.

Daniel will start brainstorming a list of community organizations, churches, etc. for outreach. (Talk to Rachel?) Elinore will work on this also. (Talk to Kassy.)

Ankit recommends Colorblind racism (Bonillo-Silva) and will track down a pdf. Brainstorm more survey questions.

Susanna will help with the survey; she and David and Ankit will meet.

Elinore will go to the general meeting and report back. Daniel too.

Murray will connect with food activists, educators, churches / food pantries in bed stuy.

Next time: talk about compiling a resource library / list.

UPDATES

-Rosanna has stepped down as co-chair of FJC. A call has been put out here looking for new chairs for Outreach and Food Justice. In the meantime, Rosanna sent out a detailed email with possible responsibilities, which members of FJC have agreed to split up.

-There were two events FJC members went to. Ankit and Rachel attended Bk Food Coalition panel conversation on the food justice movement. Christina went to screening of “Soul Food Junkies.” We will be co-hosting a screening with MARP on Friday 22nd, keep an eye out for posters.

-Try to grab some leaflets if your going to an event. Be respectful of everyone’s time and message #timeandplacefornetworking.

-Events committee film series, Food, “My Brooklyn”, food justice films. Email events committee if you’d like to be a part. Discussions following films, influential POC from the community…

-Mural update from Rachel: Frontlines of gentrification vacant lots behind co-op. 596 Acres has put the ground work in place, but who can help us get a garden in the back? Extra interesting, this shit is real. Stand up. Plant seeds! Paula from 596 acres is the contact. Mural meetings will be outings, let’s get shit done, and get hours.

-Kareem assisted by David: Looked into what it would look like to have a code of ethics/ethical sourcing. Merchandising is in charge of that. Access and Pricing seems to be the top priority for Merch. Survey was done in the past. New survey that get more at justice and ethics behind food. Shaping our co-op. Going forward have discussions about this, and create a survey. Who all is interested? Malory and Antik is a good resource for the survey. We could set ourselves apart by creating clear guidelines. David and Kareem will be attending the next Merchandising meeting. Survey non-members as a way to find out what’s important to communities we are attempting to engage in co-op.

-Hey guys who can help with some of the responsibilities of the FJC?? Lets take ownership of our committee.

-Christina will host and help with agenda, and leading meetings. I’d also like to work with outreach.

-David will help with sending email reminders.

-Malory will navigate emails. Involves informing members of events and posting on Facebook (social media organizer). Ankit will send her awesome stuff.

-Amy will be admin, approve shits, respond to the people who would like to join.

Note: let’s all go to events that interest us and report back. Lets do our best to be respectful and build positive relationships in our community.

Working Co-op…is it working?? keeping costs down? pain points, how do we get through?

-Could we get people from other committees, merch, membership, to talk with us at a future meeting?

-The co-op as a gentrifying agent -classism & racism: What definitions of gentrification to we have? Loaded. Use of racism and classism. Do we have a common analysis? Can we come up with agreed definitions of gentrification, classism, and racism. Why are people poor?

-Where/ how should we be doing outreach working with the Education Committee. Resources in the community, going to, building relationships with, collaborating with Fort Green Community Center and churches.

FOR NEXT MEETING

15min Introductions: Name and something that resonated with you from last meeting? If you are new what made you interested in the FJC.

20min Someone from membership (if possible)

25min Update from Kareem and David on merch meeting and any other updates

15min Blog and website brainstorm

The rest of the time 45min Create a safe place and then have the majority of the meeting be discussion: Definitions of gentrification, classism, and racism. Why does inequality exist? Do we have a common analysis?

Looking forward…

So we decided to continue having meetings the second Monday of the month at the same place, 90 Downing St. Apt. 41.

Next meeting Monday March 11th, 7pm to 9pm

If you can pick up a chair or two at the co-op on your way over and we can put them back after. If you are shopping before the meeting, there will be room in the fridge to store any cold items.

Rosanna was so wise in pointing out, we may all view gentrification differently. Food for thought, bellow I added the definition from Wikipedia, I thought it could be helpful in thinking about our own definitions.

Gentrification is a dynamic that emerges in poor urban areas when residential shifts, urban planning, and other phenomena affect the composition of a neighborhood^. Urban gentrification often involves population migration as poor residents of a neighborhood are displaced. In a community undergoing gentrification, the average income increases and average family size decreases. This generally results in the displacement of the poorer, pre-gentrification residents, who are unable to pay increased rents, and property taxes, or afford real estate. Often old industrial buildings are converted to residences and shops. New businesses, which can afford increased commercial rent, cater to a more affluent base of consumers—further increasing the appeal to higher income migrants and decreasing the accessibility to the poor. Often, resident owners unable to pay the taxes are forced to sell their residences and move to a cheaper community.

Political action, either to promote or oppose the gentrification, is often the community’s response against unintended economic eviction. However, local governments may favor gentrification because of the increased tax base associated with the new high-income residents, as well as because of other perceived benefits of moving poor people and rehabilitating deteriorated areas.

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Update on March 11, 2013:

Since our last mtg, we realized some roles were missing, so here’s an updated list of who’s doing what:

-Christina will host and help with agenda, and leading meetings if necessary (Really ppl should rotate the facilitating and secretary roles at each mtgs, that helps share the workload and keeps the leadership shared amongst all members).

-Amy is email/internal admin: approves shifts, responds to foodjustice@greenehill emails, sends out reminders re: mtgs

-David is our website admin: posts mtg dates and notes on our website. He’ll also work with George Edwards to ensure our mtgs are posted on Brooklyn Food Coalitions calendar.

-Malory is FJC Social Media person: Pulling info from emails, appropriate community events and Ankit.

-Renee for now is our steering committee liaison….this role just keeps a pulse on what the other committees are working on and is the rep for the FJC within the greater Co-op leadership

- It would really great if folks would occasionally attend a GM to rep the FJC….does anyone want to take this on as their role

ALso pls note that our agendas are finalized and approved at the beg. of each mtg, so Agenda’s listed for the following months mtgs are “suggested” agendas.

1. Update from last meeting

(see previous meeting notes for further info www.greenehillfood.coop/category/minutes/

1.a NYCHA – New York City Housing Authority www.nyc.gov/nycha Volunteer Opportunity: we still need 2 liaisons to attend Tenant Association meetings and build a relationship with Nycha residents.

1b. BQLT – Brooklyn Queens Landtrust www.bqlt.org/ Natasha will be the liaison with BQLT and she is also contacting other members with their own gardens to create mini garden group

1c. Mission statement: will update by simplifying some of the bigger words 1d. Volunteer Opportunity – still looking for an operations liaison 1e. Education tours Education doing nutrition tours Food Justice looking to do NYCHA tours. Can possibly do a survey with the groups during tours What about the survey – do it during tours?

Volunteer Opportunity: Need education liaison – Next education meeting: OCT 24

2. Updates regarding events

2a. Steering committee update How to deal with delinquent hours Personnel to be hired in mid november

 2b. Fall celebration Great turn out! Food presentation, dance, yoga, Check out messages painted on wall $11000 in gross sales Tons of people checking out store Idea to have non member shopping day 2/ year

2c. Childcare investigation: at the Fort Greene Center Located right across the street (beside the post office) They have been around since the 70′s (that’s 40 years in the community!)

3 generations pass through those doors everyday. They have helped shape the local community They have daycare, afterschool and senior’s program They would be a wonderful partner

- we can learn a lot from them about engaging the local neighborhood They have had a cut in funding from the government, leaving them with vacant classrooms We have investigated the possibilities of setting up GHFC childcare for parent shoppers and shift workers It will be a huge undertaking – ie: staffing (requiring any members volunteering as childcare staff to be fingerprinted by city -organization: how to keep track of kids -how to pay for space -how to integrate GHFC kids into existing programs – will parents even approve of the childcare methods here?

Currently, the Fort Greene Center is looking to fill their classrooms in the next few months. GHFC will not be able to mobilize quick enough to grab these spaces

2d. Race and Place – Race Panel held by Third Root

- Attended by Renee Renata Bergan Her notes:

-The event was very nice…had opening appetizer time with networking options. The panel ran about one hour long. I had to leave quickly there after. – The panelists were GREAT! Some things that I personally took away from the event are the following: -For a food system to be equitable then every race/gender needs representation/opportunity…I didn’t catch the year (but I think it was 10+ years ago) Karen Washington called the NY state census and found out that there were 110 black farmers compared to 50, 000 white farmers. -Funding/ers is still color blind and needs to take race into account -Boards need to be diverse (both funding and groups trying to create change)

*personal note, Co-op could use help in this area! -In poor communities, food is lowest on their priority list. To some farm has a stigma of oppression (relating back to the slave era)- *personal note, This is where I see a potential for us to have a strong role, via education of nutritional value, the relationship between nutrition and education, also nutrition in schools how that varies from neighborhood or school depending on funding and demographics. I see these as opps for Food Justice to work with Education to create some powerful political educational programs for the surrounding neighborhoods

-In creating alliances and relationships, it’s important for people (particularly white folks or those not living “in the community”) to not try to be “saviors”. There is a myth that people in poor communities don’t know anything….WRONG. It’s important to ASK FIRST what is needed, what do people want. When those “helping” see leadership rising within the communities, it’s important to step back so that the communities develop and encourage their own leadership..as they know best what they want and is needed.

*personal note: We’ve discussed this in Outreach and Food Justice, other than doing a survey (which is time and labor intensive), we’ve discussed asking these questions when giving tours, whenever those start. I really think we need to get these tours going so we can start having these discussion with various potential members and see how we can benefit the community better.

3. Potential partner: Brooklyn Coalition: visitor George Edwards brooklynfoodcoalition.org/

-3 year old organization. 2 wonderful food conferences

- they deal with a variety of issues: ie School food issues, policies, special rights -they have a new special events committee What are their objectives? They are working on the document

-They are looking to see what assistance they can provide What are the potentials for partnership?? Introductions to people in the food movement! They would like to help get word out on GHFC events

4. Childcare and Potential Partner: BIJA: visitor: Lauren Maples www.bijakids.com

What they do: -their classes include: pre-birth, daycare, pre-school, afterschool programs, summer camp -teach self-awareness, connection to nature -art of cooking, composting, yoga -teach about local food – where does food come from?

How we can help: -they have no backyard space, and would love to use ours -wondering where they can take it? Beehives? Chickens? -we need to do some soil testing, and deal with landlord issues How they can partner with us: -they have 2500 sq.ft. space 2 blocks away, with personnel -as they are not a not for profit, they can be creative about programming -Saturday afternoon space is free – GHFC childcare classes/ -coop member discount during parent’s work shifts? -rental fee for our use – $40/hour

Volunteer Opportunity: Become an education liaison and work with Education Committee about brainstorming potential partnerships with BIJA

5. Flushing High School – visitor Lindsay Shields, Teacher

Who she is: -Lindsay teaches at Flusing Queens High school -oldest high school in NYC with huge economic gaps -only general education high school left – some kids come from 2 hrs away -lots live in food deserts – some have never seen people cool -some want to start a food club to celebrate diversity

Her Goals: -would like to create a 1 or 2 week curriculum: food education -everything from nutrition, justice, what is a coop -Irene wrote a food justice curriculum they can share -partner with local schools -would LOVE to have VISITING “artist” program to teach kids about different aspects of food justice

Posssibilites: -Brooklyn Coalition and Flushing high school connect – what programs do they have to use as guide? -how can we partner Create School groups and tours -The coop teach-in program -they have curriculum and games and workshops -how to work with them is still a mystery

Volunteer Opportunity: work with Lindsay to develop a curriculum. Will involve working with Education committee, will involve investigating existing model cirriculum (ie: resources from Brooklyn Coalition)

6. Food Justice Reading Group – Nina Goepfort

-a reading group to discuss and engage food justice ideas -continually evolve and push envelope forward -create a list of readings that are useful -read and discuss monthly -how to empower existing members Purpose: -what are the practices that we are challenging?

-analysis on class and race and defining what is “community” Discussion: -some don’t come to coop with political agenda -but everything is political -don’t want to ostracize members -tolerance -have difficulty in creating common ground – not everything is 100% reconcilable -but the discussion itself is useful Is this how we want to focus our energy? -will take a few months to build energy -encourage food justice to make discussion points at GM -should we “force” an orientation? Learn resources, learn what avenues to take?

7. A member felt ostracized

-one member felt ageism -there needs to be training, a baseline of what is expected -what makes people feel unwelcomed

Work Opps

1) Re moving forward:  We REALLY do need someone step up and work with education if we ever want to get these tours going. Write us back if this interests you. 2) This friday Brooklyn Food Conference is having an event on Racial Equality in the Food Movement.  It seems kind of essential we represent.  Can any one go?  Of course you get work credit and it’s super cool, educational and fun way to do so 3) TABLING OPPS at some fun local events:      a) Sat. Oct. 20, 11-3 (2 shifts):  Tastes of Brooklyn, downtown Brooklyn     b) Sun Oct. 28,  1:30-5:30 (2 shifts):  Myrtle Village Green Fall Community Health Festival, Myrtle Ave btwn Franklin and Kent.

Meeting Minutes – Meeting of September 11, 2012 – 7pm to 9pm

Held at the Greene Hill Food Coop store space – 18 Putnam 

Item 1: NYCHA update: Kassy Nystrom -Positive presence at Tenant Association meetings -Lafayette Gardens expressed interest in GHFC tours. Some residents expressed interest in  creating a NYCHA coop

- what role can GHFC play? Can we also partner  with Resident Green Communities? -we should discuss creating Spanish speaking material JOB OPPORTUNITY: We need a liason to attend Tenant Association meetings on a regular basis to create a relationship with interested parties. 

Item 2: Brooklyn Queens Land Trust (BQLT)- Visit by President, Demetrice Mills -Synopsis on organization – a land trust of community gardens throughout Brooklyn and Queens

- see here for more info -Demetrice reached out to us to brainstorm some partnership/collaborative opportunities

-BQLT manages dozens of community gardens, holds youth programs, holds a  variety of workshops, boasts REAL farmers that teach workshops such as  soil testing, extending growing seasons, etc -In meeting discussion: how can we collaborate with them?

- It was decided that we need to learn more about their operations JOB OPPORTUNITY: We need a liason who will attend BQLT meetings, learn  about their different operations, and bring back information at  Outreach/Food Justice meetings to continue collaborative brainstorming  ideas

Item 2B: Youth Programs: Jessica kind schuh
-Related to BQLT, but can be programs and/or tours that we at the GHFC run independently – YOUTH PROGRAMS -Instead of just reaching out to neighboring schools, how about reaching out the afterschool/summer camp programs -Jessica volunteered to approach her boss at Bija Kids (an afterschool program) FUTURE JOB OPPORTUNITY: Brainstorm Youth Program possibilities in partnership with Bija Kids 

Item 4: Mission Statement: nina.goepfert -The Mission Statement:

JOB OPPORTUNITY: we need a operations committee liason – Food Justice  Issues ought to be addressed at Operations meetings and issues relayed  back to us at Outreach/Food Justice meetings. We are looking for someone who has a keen interest in how day to day Operations at GHFC are run. 

Item 5b: Brought up by Renee in an email before the meeting Job Opportunity: Attend Race and Place in Food and Coop Movements: We can look into sponsoring someone. Attend the event and relay back to us what you learned at the next Outreach/Food Justice meeting

Item 6: WIC update: Rosanna Ho

-After much research, Rachel Costello reached out to an administrator and  found that to qualify for WIC, we must not only hold specific items, but the store must be open 7 days/week “to the public.” Therefore, WIC  discussions will be shelved until GHFC is able to open 7 days a week – a few years from now.. possibly when specific food items on their lists  have been changed

-This latest update will be condensed into a  message that will appear on GHFC’s website. We will discuss with  marketing if further literature is needed to make this generally known  to all shoppers/perspective shoppers

Item 7: “Job/Project Board” Rosanna Ho

-I want to create an easily accessible google group document (or similar) that will list: 1. all ongoing projects 2. key contact people regarding each project 3. list of jobs that you can search for in order of: urgency, type of project, time commitment needed

-Function of this list: create a quick reference for volunteers in need of hours, keep track of all projects and cross-committee collaborations, act as a key document to give a bird’s eye view of the different type of work  that we in Outreach/Food Justice are pursuing -Look out for this document in the next month and an update of it at next month’s meeting