Food Policy Council of San Antonio

Registration open for 2013 conference

The Food Policy Council of San Antonio (FPCSA) has opened registration for its second annual food conference, to be held June 12-15, 2013 at the TriPoint Center, Highway 281 N at N. St. Mary’s St. The event is endorsed by the Mayor’s Fitness Council. Registration is available online or by mailing a form found at safoodconference.org.

On Wednesday, June 12, a full-day course, “Doing Food Policy Councils Right,” is offered by Mark Winne. A writer, food activist, and trainer, Winne has helped to found several food and agriculture policy groups. Recently he was appointed Senior Advisor to the John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. He was keynote speaker at FPCSA’s inaugural conference in 2012, and has been invited back to present this intensive training for those interested in starting or working with FPCs. He is author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty (Beacon Press, 2008) and Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture (Beacon Press, 2010).

The main conference days are Thursday and Friday, June 13 and 14 at TriPoint, with three concurrent speaking tracks on  Producers, Policy, and Community.  Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff will welcome attendees on Thursday, and Friday opens with a panel discussion on water and agriculture.  Local and national policy issues, and titles including “A Culinarian’s Perspective on Healthy Cooking,” “Building Community Through Gardens,” and “Agriculture at the Missions” will cover aspects of the food system that are not often dealt with in the same event.

Exhibits by vendors and other nonprofit organizations, poster sessions, silent auction, a book and author table, a networking session, and interactive idea boards will offer opportunities for people to find new information, and spark ideas for action.

On Thursday evening, participants may opt to attend a local-food reception at Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard in Elemendorf.

Saturday June 15 will have tours and field trips to various locations, including SicloVerde, an inaugural bike tour of community gardens in the Green Spaces Alliance network; a farm tour on Highway 90 West, where participants will visit three farms raising beef and poultry and growing organic produce; an early agricultural tour of the acequias at Mission San Juan and a nearby ranch associated with Mission Espada; and a tour of the San Antonio Food Bank’s garden and programs.

To register, sponsor, or donate a silent auction item, or for more information about the program and events, visit the conference website, safoodconference.org, or email us at foodpolicysa@gmail.com.

FPCSA’s 2012 conference attracted around 200 people interested in learning more about how to affect our food system, including concerned citizens, small farmers, educators, dietitians, food entrepreneurs, public servants, and elected officials.

The Food Policy Council of San Antonio is a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing root causes of an unhealthy food system, and helping people work for the food environment they want to have. Its vision is, “Healthy, fresh, affordable food is accessible to all, in a vibrant local food economy.”

SNAP Benefits Local Agriculture--Farming magazine

We can all use a refresher course now and then on how some important federal programs started out. When "government" (which, the last time we checked, is of us, by us, and for us) is reviled by so many, it can be very surprising to learn that some programs getting a bad rap today arose from national security and economic development concerns. For example, the National School Lunch Program resulted from the realization during World War II that military readiness was being impacted by malnutrition.

Similarly, in Farming Magazine (the Journal of Northeast Agriculture), we learn from this article on how SNAP helps local farmers that the Food Stamp program (now called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) had its origins even earlier in the 1930s, in an effort to connect hungry city folks, who could not afford to buy food, with farmers with good food to sell. The article not only highlights that historic beginning, but also addresses ways of overcoming barriers to accepting SNAP benefits for some modern-day farmers markets.

Stamps or coupons are no longer used. The benefits are delivered on an electronic card (the Lone Star card, in Texas), which many FM vendors are not equipped to handle. That's one barrier. Another can be the price of the food. Read the article to find out some of the solutions that are available.

Public radio's On Point nails it on fighting obesity

The second hour of today's On Point on KSTX (FM 89.1) has a good conversation about measures taken to combat the obesity epidemic. It features Oklahoma City, but touches on many of the initiatives that San Antonio adopted with the same CPPW grant that started the Food Policy Council.

Apart from the noise about whether the government should or shouldn't tell people what to eat/drink (NYC ban on large sugary drinks for example), Tom's guest made the very good points that (1) processed food has drastically changed in the last several years, in ways that our bodies are not equipped to metabolize, and (2) changing the food environment assists people in "making the healthy choice the easy choice" as we say.

Be honest-doesn't your own consumption often depend on what someone puts in front of you?

E-N article on Herff Farm garden, Will Allen on "The Splendid Table"

While waiting for the food policy conference coming up next Thursday and Friday, here are some links to read and listen to, to get you into the mood.

The Express-News SA Life section today features an article on Herff Farm's sustainable "inspiration" garden next to the Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne. Tracy Hobson Lehmann writes about the Nature Center's project to demonstrate a variety of sustainable practices for our climate. These include organic soil-building, growing with compost and mulch, keyhole gardens, drip irrigation, and nontoxic pest control methods.

Also on Saturday, "The Splendid Table," airing on Texas Public Radio, featured an interview with Will Allen about the founding of Growing Power, and his book The Good Food Revolution. Find it here.

And while I'm at it, I'll repeat the Living on Earth link from last weekend that features Mark Winne, keynote speaker for the food conference, commenting on food deserts.

Food Desert commentator speaking in SA May 9 to 11

Noted food activist Mark Winne was interviewed for this week's environmental program "Living On Earth," for an update on food deserts. Recent reports in the New York Times have questioned accepted knowledge about areas lacking access to healthy, affordable food, and how large a role this plays in personal behavior and health outcomes. LOE had treated this topic before and interviewed Winne, and for this week's show he gives an update on the issue and puts the current controversy into perspective. It's 10 minutes of very worthwhile listening, or you can read the transcript.

Winne will be in San Antonio week after next, as keynote speaker at the Food Policy Council of San Antonio's conference May 10-11. Registration closes soon, if you want to attend. Follow the link.

For the community at large, he is also speaking at St. Mark's Episcopal Church Wednesday evening May 9 at 7 p.m. RSVP to the church office, 210 226-2426 for that. St. Mark's is at 315 East Pecan downtown, and has free parking in the church lot across Jefferson.

Both of Mark Winne's books (Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners and Smart-Cookin' Mamas, and Closing the Food Gap) will be available starting this week at The Twig Book Shop and the St. Mark's Bookstore. He will be signing them at the St. Mark's talk and at the conference.

Mark Winne spent much of his career in Hartford, Connecticut, first working for an anti-hunger agency, and then founding an organization to work on fixing the system that was producing so much inequity in access to healthy, affordable food. From that start, he has become one of our nation's leading voices on the causes of food inequity and the policies that are needed to correct it. His analysis and advocacy have influenced federal policy, and have led to the formation of food policy councils in many communities (including San Antonio). He continues his work these days from New Mexico, writing and traveling frequently for conferences, consulting, and speaking engagements.

Food Policy Council of San Antonio hosting conference

The Food Policy Council of San Antonio is hosting a conference next month.

The $60 registration fee is underwritten for the first 200 participants by the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Grant at Metropolitan Health District.
 
The conference will consist of three tracks, focusing on Producers and Markets, Community Food Systems, and Policy. Presentations will include Community Garden Initiatives, Food Waste Recovery, Federal and State Food Policies, and Food Justice.

Sustaining Our Food,
Sustaining Our Future
Thursday and Friday, May 10-11
Madison High School's Agriscience Magnet Program
5005 Stahl Road

See the full program and register through this website, either online or by paper form.

Mark Winne (pronounced "Winnie") will keynote the conference with a presentation on May 10. He is the author of Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture and Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty. Winne is co-founder of a number of food and agriculture policy groups including the City of Hartford Food Policy Commission, the Connecticut Food Policy Council, End Hunger Connecticut, and the national Community Food Security Coalition.

Talk and Book Signing
If you can't attend the conference but would still like to hear keynote speaker Mark Winne, he will also be speaking at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 315 E. Pecan, at 7 p.m. Wednesday May 9. Call the church office, 210 226-2426 to RSVP.

Both of Mark Winne's books will be available soon at The Twig and the St. Mark's Bookstore, and will be sold at the conference.

Free Greens

If you made New Year's resolutions about eating lighter and healthier (and who didn't?), here is some free help for your menu: edible weeds.You don't have to buy them; you don't even have to grow them. And you will no longer want to fight them after you pick and eat them. You will want to leave a few in spots where they can look intentional, or blend in with your veggies and ornamentals.

There are many edible weeds that grow in just about any yard or neighborhood, and you can look them up: dandelion, sowthistle, wild lettuce, henbit, chickweed, lambs quarters, and the list goes on. This photo contains the first three from that list, picked from my yard, rinsed, chopped a bit, and sauteed with olive oil. Delicious!

Most, including dandelion, can be eaten raw in a salad (even the flowers are edible). For the prickly ones like sowthistle and wild lettuce, you would want to cook them until they are softened. You can steam or saute, or choose any other cooking method that you like.

Even if you have mowed them down after the recent rains, these plants will be back up, since they grow faster than your lawn grass. Pick, rinse, cook or not, and enjoy.

If you are unsure of identifying a plant, look at Google images of the above names, for starters. When trying a new plant, be on the safe side and nibble a tiny bit without swallowing. If it tastes bitter or unpleasant, leave it alone. If it tastes good, you can try eating a small amount and see how that goes. You will come to know several common plants that are good to eat and highly nutritious. Look for further resources if you want to advance your foraging skills. Foraging Texas one such blog dedicated to that purpose. 

 

Food Hubs and Yard Garden Networks at Southern SAWG

Friday I went to four sessions and a screening of the film "The Greenhorns." On Saturday, I went to sessions on policy and activism, especially around the 2012 Farm Bill. I still had a chance to catch a fascinating presentation by a Harlingen farmer who is transforming her area, one season at a time.

Two presentations from Friday were about rebuilding community around food. One was titled, "Food Hubs: Moving Higher Volumes of Good Food to Local Markets." A food hub, in this case, is a business that buys local farm products and distributes to groceries and supermarkets. The presenters were very forthcoming about the nuts and bolts, and the challenges, of putting together this kind of distribution network. I have notes and contact information to share with anyone who is interested in trying this.

The other was by Paige Hill of Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms, an Austin nonprofit that helps neighborhoods put together cooperative yard gardens for the residents' use, for sale, and for donation. Rather than finding one big plot for a neighborhood or community garden, she says, you can create small plots throughout the neighborhood, with all the functions served somewhere. They work with each group's unique circumstances--some people have space for a garden but no time, and others want to garden but might have too much shade for some of the crops they would like to grow. Some want food for their own households and to share with neighbors, and some want to sell at a farmers market. Most also donate some to nearby food pantries. She told a story about a backyard tilapia pond that one neighbor wanted to build, to supply fish for the neighborhood. What seemed like a daunting task was done in an afternoon by a group of teenage boys who needed a service project.

These gardens reduce the cost of living for everyone involved, and also increase the quality of life and quality of food. We can do it here, too.

 

Conference Junkie is on the ground at SSAWG

Tonight at the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group conference in Little Rock, we are treated to virtual farm tours, via 10 DVDs produced by SSAWG to highlight several kinds of sustainable growers. Check out the descriptions here. Somebody needs to order these and kick off a regular foodie movie screening in SA.

Right now, I'm watching "Cut Flowers." The farmer is telling us that landscape fabric will last 5 or 6 growing seasons, versus black plastic which lasts for one, and it lets rain through. In another one, the farmer used black plastic to prevent too much rain from leaching nitrogen. That's not usually our problem! These diverse organic farmers have developed so many efficiencies and cool labor-saving tricks, and they've all had to learn it as they go along, for their particular farms and crops or animals. They are also intent on catering to their customers, whether at a farmers market or CSA (Community Supporte Agriculture).You will be amazed.

Next up are "Pasture-Based Dairy Farming" and "Artisan Cheese Production and Marketing." As the granddaughter of a dairyman, I've been waiting for these.

This conference draws sustainable farmers and food activists from all over the South, and beyond. Several Texans are on the program. More tomorrow!

Gardening for Good: Food Pantries, SNAPgardens

I've written before about Ample Harvest, a website that lists food pantries that accept donations of surplus produce from gardeners. So today, when the Express-News Grace of Giving series profiled the food pantry at El Divino Salvador United Methodist Church on West Woodlawn, I looked to see whether it is listed, and it is (search on ZIP code 78201). The church is struggling but is determined to keep the pantry open. Here's hoping they get all the help they need from the article.

If you have some cold-hardy greens or other veggies to donate, find a pantry near you and call them up to make arrangements.

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In other news, Daniel Bowman Simon, one of the guys who drove the WhoFarm bus (White House Organic Farm) throughout 2008, has launched a new project. He learned that SNAP benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps) can be used to pay for seeds and plants for a household garden. He also learned that he was not alone in not knowing that.

He then learned that this has been true since 1973. So he started a non-profit, SNAPgardens, to raise awareness in ways that the USDA has not been able to. Under another NP's fiduciary umbrella, and on a shoestring budget, here are some of the things he has accomplished this year:

• Distributed “Food Stamps Grow Gardens” posters to plant-purveying, SNAP-accepting farmers markets in over half the states in America, plus DC, in languages including Hmong, Cherokee, and Spanish.  You can request posters for your farmers market or garden or wherever you want to hang them at: www.SNAPgardens.org/posters

• Presented on SNAP Gardens at the American Community Garden Association’s annual conference.
• Did a poster session at the Community Food Security Conference in Oakland.
• Led a USDA People’s Garden webinar on Food Stamps and Gardening.
• Researched the history of food stamps and gardening, which you can find at www.SNAPgardens.org/history.  A larger piece with more factoids was submitted to the journal Cities and the Environment and is now in the peer-review process.
• Provided public comments to USDA on their upcoming revision to SNAP Education, to make it more garden-friendly.
• Testified at a New York City Council hearing about some ways to make gardening an easier choice for SNAP recipients.
• Built a beta website with helpful hints and information.
• Answered lots of email inquiries from farmers, gardeners, extension agents and other government officials, and of course SNAP participants.
• Answered a whole bunch of interview requests, most recently from Grist.
• Helped build a 20x50 hoophouse at the High School for Public Service in Central Brooklyn.  The hoophouse will be used to grow seedlings for sale at the on-site, SNAP-welcoming farmers market!

Notice, in the Grist article, he is partnering with Dinner Garden, our hometown nationally recognized seed-donation nonprofit. In 2012, he plans to raise awareness by providing posters, collecting and sharing best practices, and setting up a toll-free information hotline. "We’ll do our best to inspire some of the more than 46 million Americans now depending on SNAP to put food on their tables to grow at least some of it themselves."

If you want to make an end-of-year donation, you'll be going through their fiduciary agent, Open Spaces Institute. Very easy.

I also notice on their Partners page that there are no local (or even Texas) organizations listed yet (Dinner Garden will be there soon, I'm sure). We'll be adding to them, won't we? There's a resolution for 2012.