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29 <br /> food production and distribution system more robust. She said the comparison is to the <br /> Partnership to End Homelessness. She said the Climate Council never had an MOU to begin <br /> with. She said that this process is innovative and there is a lot of control from the executive <br /> committee. She said that it has a unique mission and unique history. <br /> Ashley Heger said it was modeled after the Partnership to End Homelessness. She said <br /> that is why the executive committee has so much power and that design was also what the <br /> citizen group gave up to gain more structure, resources and support. She said they still wanted <br /> to maintain the connection to values and communities they work with. <br /> Commissioner Fowler asked how the chair and co-chairs are elected and how long their <br /> terms are. <br /> Ashley Heger said there is a process every 1-3 years where people nominate <br /> themselves or others to become co-chairs on the Food Council. She said the Food Council <br /> votes. She said that the co-chairs choose the duration. She said that comes back to the <br /> community they work with and that there are no paid positions on the Council, and this is <br /> essentially free work provided by the members. She said who has the privilege to volunteer <br /> their time. She said they are still grappling with available free time. She listed the co-chairs <br /> since 2020 and said they were all nominated and elected by their peers and get to decide if <br /> they serve a 1-3-year term. She said they will be updating bylaws at June meeting and will <br /> provide to the Board. <br /> Commissioner Fowler asked why 5 years for the MOU. <br /> Commissioner Greene said the model from the Partnership is 5 years. <br /> Ashley Heger said Chapel Hill wanted 2 years in 2019 but all other entities agreed with <br /> five. <br /> Commissioner Fowler asked if this was something that is needed forever, or if there <br /> would be an endpoint to the work. <br /> Ashley Heger said she would love to work herself out of this job. She said that she <br /> thinks it will be needed longer than she hopes. She said that there are other models besides a <br /> Food Council Coordinator and it can be measured to see what is working. She said that <br /> Durham created a food access coordinator in Cooperative Extension. She said they are only <br /> dealing with access, not system-wide organizing or dealing with farmers. She said that she <br /> works closely with them and has drawn them into the TJCOG space because you can't <br /> separate those issues. She said that from the beginning, it has been said that housing cannot <br /> be left out of food access. She said that it is not just one coordinator's work. She said that the <br /> work could be disbursed because there is more work than one person can actually do. She said <br /> that more strategic alignment across all departments would likely be beneficial. <br /> Commissioner Fowler said that is true for a lot of the different work the county is doing <br /> and that most of them have some overlap. She said that is kind of the point — do we continue to <br /> make special projects or do we start working to bridge the overlap. <br /> Commissioner Hamilton said it is hard in this current iteration to be clear what the <br /> targets are and that it is too much. She said there is not the ability to be effective by getting the <br /> data and homing in on the work. She said she is concerned about the effectiveness and how it <br /> is currently designed. She said she wants to see the data to see what would make sense. <br /> Ashley Heger said the coordinator position was originally created to coordinate <br /> community spaces to align with the Board's social justice goals. She said she could help <br /> convene the impacted community members and bring that back to the Board. She said that at <br /> one time she was once coordinating a food access group and a food waste group and then they <br /> cut back and decided to only focus on the local food economy and food access. She said that <br /> nationally, as well as in other countries, all are grappling with what the correct metrics are. She <br /> said it is about capacity building within the organization. She said that data is important but is a <br /> flattened piece of information and the question is how to move beyond simplified data while also <br />