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NEI <br />• Supporting the availability of local food for our communities, including <br />restaurants interested in local sourcing <br />• Supporting local farmers <br />• Supporting local entrepreneurs (both in the direct food business and in <br />indirectly related businesses) <br />• Ending food scarcity and food insecurity (by, among other things, increasing <br />food access to populations experiencing homelessness or at risk of <br />experiencing homelessness) <br />• Eliminating food deserts and food swamps <br />• Providing local and nutritious food to schoolchildren (which is known to <br />improve school attendance and performance as well as health) <br />• Promoting agritourism and related economic interests <br />• Lowering the volume of food waste <br />While these goals are broadly acknowledged, and many if not all are being actively <br />pursued in various ways, the value that the OCFC proposes to add is the ability <br />to coordinate efforts to achieve the most effective use of available resources, <br />as well as to heighten public awareness and therefore amplify advocacy for <br />food justice. Participating in the larger state and national networks of food councils <br />to learn and contribute to best practices, will enhance these efforts. The OCFC can <br />convene conversations, find where goals and interests meet, and achieve collective <br />impact. <br />In coming to the realization of how closely interconnected these goals are, the OCFC <br />began to think that the model provided by the Partnership to End Homelessness <br />could work well. The OCFC was leaning this direction, but was not completely <br />decided, when its leaders met with the County as part of the Human Services grant <br />cycle. <br />The County Manager surprised OCFC leaders by sharing a job description for a food <br />council coordinator and asking if the group was interested in being housed in the <br />County, with the hope, if it could be worked out, of a multijurisdictional funding <br />arrangement. <br />The leadership was not ready to make that commitment without more discussion <br />among its members. At that juncture, the OCFC elected to continue with the County <br />as our fiscal agent while internal discussions continued. In the end, after much <br />weighing of pros and cons, the OCFC decided to pursue the manager's suggestion. As <br />a result, the Board of County Commissioners recently approved a budget <br />modification to provide bridge funding for the Food Council's activities until a <br />decision about a shared multijurisdictional funding model is made. The bridge funds <br />will pay for a significant portion of the coordinator's hours, workgroup activities <br />and community outreach events. The county's commitment is to supplement the <br />