Homegrown Minneapolis: Building a Healthy, Local Food System for All Minneapolis Residents
Presentation to New Partners for Smart Growth Conference Seattle, WA, February 2010
by
Cara Letofsky, Policy Aide to Mayor R.T. Rybak
Minneapolis, Minnesota The Milling City on the River
What is Homegrown Minneapolis?
A city-wide initiative to increase the growth, sales, distribution, and consumption of healthy, locally grown foods.
Great partnership between city efforts and community initiatives
Values behind Homegrown: What do we mean by “local”?
W.K. Kellogg Foundation states that local food systems are built around the principle of “good food,” defined as food that is: Healthy, as in it won’t make you chronically ill Green, as in it was produced in a manner that is environmentally sustainable
Fair, as in no one along the production line was exploited for its creation
Affordable, as in people of all socioeconomic backgrounds are able to purchase it and have access to it
Homegrown Phase 1: Community-driven process to develop recommendations on what the City can do to improve the local food system:
Farmers’ Markets
Community, School, & Home Gardens
Small Enterprise
Urban Agriculture
Commercial Use of
Local Foods
Stakeholder Group (over 100 partners!)
Steering Committee
Phase I Recommendations: 75 recommendations, with 125 specific action steps
City Resolution: Adopt an official position statement supporting healthy, locally grown, sustainably produced foods and establish a task force that will implement additional recommendations
Regulatory Policy: Revise City plans and codes so that they provide a hospitable environment for growing, selling, and distributing local foods
Systems, Tools and Education: Offer programs and tools to build food production capacity at the neighborhood level and that facilitate small-scale food production, processing, & distribution of food
Green Jobs: Include urban agriculture in the City’s workforce and small business support programs
Land Use Policy: Revise City’s Comprehensive Plan to include more land use policy supporting community gardening and urban ag activities
Communicate: On the benefits of local food, existing resources, and Homegrown as a whole
City Council Resolution: “Recognizing the Importance of Healthy, Sustainably Produced and Locally Grown Foods.”
On June 26th, 2009, the Minneapolis City Council adopted the Homegrown Minneapolis report and established an implementation task force
Homegrown Phase 2: City partnership with community to begin implementation of recommendations
16-member Task Force of City staff and community partners meets monthly to guide implementation efforts
Will advance work on short- and mid-term priorities
Including working on designing and establishing a local food policy council to take work into the future
Advancing Homegrown: What we’re working on (partial!):
Sustainability Indicator and Local Food Policy Council
Urban Agriculture Policy Plan Community Garden program
Expanding Food Access
Easing the Regulatory Environment
Advancing Homegrown: Sustainability Indicator & Local Food Policy Council
Integrating Homegrown Minneapolis goals into the City’s work
Advancing Homegrown: Urban Agriculture Policy Plan Developing more land use
policy support for community garden and urban agriculture activities
Include best practices review and analysis of economic boost
Recommendations around zoning changes, urban design guidance, specific land uses
Advancing Homegrown: Community Garden program Developing an easily accessible
way for gardeners to lease city-owned land
Will include identifying specific parcels, soil testing, access to city water source and city compost
Includes connecting them to local nonprofit resource Gardening Matters
Lease is being finalized as we speak, for role out by EOM!
Advancing Homegrown: Expanding Food Access
Expanding availability and use of Electronic Benefits Transfer systems (EBT) at farmers markets
Inventory of community and commercial kitchen facilities
Minneapolis Mini Farmers Market Project
Advancing Homegrown: Expanding Food Access: Mini Markets • Referenced by First Lady Michele Obama in her recent
speech on childhood obesity • In neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food • All participate in Farmers Market Nutrition Program
(FMNP), which has represented 30 – 60% of sales • Led to changes in City’s licensing for Farmers Markets • Limited to produce grown by local farmers • Since 2005, grew to 12 sites in 2009 • City in partnership with IATP
Advancing Homegrown: Easing the Regulatory Environment Recently passed in 2009:
Local Produce Market licensing change for markets with 5 or fewer vendors (2009)
Staple Foods Requirements for Grocery Stores newly requires corner stores to carry “food for home preparation or consumption” (2009)
Advancing Homegrown: Easing the Regulatory Environment In development:
Institutional Food Service License to ease regulatory licensing burden on community and shared commercial kitchens
Mobile Food Vendors to allow for larger carts that expand the food options available to be served
Advancing Homegrown: Easing the Regulatory Environment Looking ahead:
We want local food enterprises to grow and expand in Minneapolis, and don’t want city regulations to get in the way!
Convening focus groups to hear directly from entrepreneurs about what barriers they have to opening or expanding their business in the city.
Aiming towards developing an omnibus package of changes
Common Roots Cafe
Front
Back
For more information:
Visit the Homegrown Minneapolis website: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/dhfs/homegrown-home.asp
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