January 25, 2012
Placer Local Food Alliance Meeting
People Attending
Hillary Mars, Leslie Daniel, Cindy Tekus, Michael Tekus, Karen Killebrew, Lara Hawthorne, Dave Duncan, Judy Duncan, Kathryn MacRoberts, Joe Looney, Julie Guargliardo, Margie McCavitt, Randall Gentry, Cheryl Small, Mark Fechner, and Jeff Bordelon.
This is a brief summary of some of the comments made during the meeting. The Placer Local Food Alliance (PLFA) is conducting a series of open initial discussion meetings on the formulation of a draft Mission, Vision, Goals, Objectives, and Functions for the PLFA. We are moving toward a facilitated assembly of local food interests that would include the entire spectrum of people and organizations that have a stake in the role of a Local Food Culture in the Wellness of our Community, including environmental and economic values.
All of the PLFA activities and work product are being published on the PlacerSustain.Org website. PlacerSustain has created a Placer Local Food Alliance Discussion Forum. All content on the PlacerSustain website can be viewed by guests without registration or logging in. Everyone is encouraged to create a free account on the PlacerSustain website and contribute content to the dialogue. Upon registration, you are encouraged to join the PlacerSustain “Local Food Movement Group,” which allows you to receive all PlacerSustain website content published to that Group. All registered users may post their own blog and contribute to Forums. In addition, the PLFA has created a Yahoo Group which serves as an email list server. You can subscribe by sending an email to this address: PLFA-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
The current draft Mission, Vision and related materials can be found on the PlacerSustain website at this link. We will continue to work with suggestions and refine this material through the conduct of at least one additional general discussion session that will be noticed on the PlacerSustain website and the above Yahoo Group. The following notes were prepared by Hillary Mars, a PlacerGrown AGvocate Graduate and member of the small working group that is taking on the Mission statement materials for PLFA.
Thoughts regarding Mission Statement:
· Successes:
o Includes triple bottom line (community/ economy/ environment) which was important to the audience
· Areas for Improvement:
o Missing the role of the “individual”
§ What’s in it for me? Where do I fit? What part do I play?
o Economy & environment aren’t given enough focus
· Key words to consider:
o Enrich
o Nourish
o Consciousness/ Accountability/ Ownership
o Abundance – shift from scarcity
o Macro-organisms: every member of the whole
o Harmony – consider oscillations of wellness
o Community of “Informed individuals” or “engaged individuals”
o Wellness – not sure if this is the right word/ used in the right order
o Perhaps using a “montage” of words is better than keeping it too simple – more opportunities to identify with different individuals.
Thoughts regarding Vision Statement:
· Areas for Improvement:
o Vision is not specific enough: what exactly is our target?
o Vision is completely missing the aspect of connection/ networking
o What would a visitor to Placer County write home about?
Thoughts regarding Objectives:
· Successes:
o Audience identified with many of the objectives and expressed interest in growth in the identified areas.
· Areas for Improvement:
o Objectives need to be tangible, measurable, and prioritized
o List is too large/ broad: need to consolidate/ group similar initiatives
o Need to go through exercise of matching objectives to networking partners that may already be working the projects or may be inclined to take on the projects
Proposed Vision & Mission(by Lara Hawthorne):
Mission: “To enrich our community by cultivating a connected local, healthy & sustainable food culture.”
Vision: “A community whose businesses & individuals support each other through education & loyalty in the pursuit of a healthy, sustainable food system.”