Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences reached by our efforts during the reporting period include low-income residents, rural seniors, Latino immigrants--including Spanish speaking immigrants who speak English less than very well, residents of color, residents with disabilities, and professionals with a stake in mobile market work in Hampshire County. Of the 48 Mobile Market Retreat attendees, 28 were low-income community members, 12 of whom were people of color. Spanish-English interpretation was provided for 5 of the attendees and two received accommodations based on disability. The remainder of the attendees were professionals supported by an organization to attend. The group brought together to plan for the Hampshire County Food Policy Council includes two rural seniors, one of whom is low-income, one low-income white woman, two low-income Latina women (one of whom receives interpretation support for her participation), and one low-income black woman Changes/Problems:The primary changes in our approach relate to shifts in projected outcomes and timeline. While we anticipated that working across the county to plan and implement the Hampshire County Mobile Market Retreat would lead to increased desire and innovative ideas for cross-program collaboration, we found that key stakeholders in charge of individual mobile market programs maintained that there were more differences between their programs and barriers to collaboration than there were opportunities. The barriers identified were primarily related to geographic distance and consumer preferences around hyper local sourcing. As a result, the development of a countywide plan was deprioritized in favor of supporting the desires of individual programs to build, expand upon, and resource their own models taking into account the information gathered at the Hampshire County Mobile Market Retreat. The Grow Food Northampton Neighborhood Markets Program worked in partnership with local co-op grocer, River Valley Market, to develop and apply for funding for a model that located the market operations with River Valley and located wrap-around supports with Grow Food Northampton. The Hilltown Mobile Market chose to focus on developing its own physical infrastructure through the purchase and outfitting of a market van that increased its capacity to set up market stops in more communities. The Amherst Food Justice Planning Committee shifted into the Amherst Mobile Market Planning Committee and focused heavily on a market model that would provide jobs for low-income committee members who were residents of the housing complexes the market planned to serve. We welcomed these outcomes along with the increased understanding of challenges around regional collaboration. Healthy Hampshire continues to be a major connector between all three of these programs, lending support and expertise around model development, community engagement, marketing and outreach, evaluation, and navigating the state's Healthy Incentives Program. The timeline shift for the Food Policy Council work was primarily due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Food Policy Council Governance Circle was slated to start meeting in April of 2020 and the group got a delayed start as we tried to figure out how to best resource participants for intensive engagement. Ultimately, the group did not start meeting until July. An additional factor that delayed the timeline was conflict among some of the projected group members related to another project that Healthy Hampshire was involved in. We made the conscious choice to focus our energy on helping to resolve that conflict rather than overwhelm those group members with new group dynamics to navigate. However, the Food Policy Council Governance Circle continues to meet today, and after a significant period of learning and adjusting to the challenges of working with the Sociocracy model for group organizing, is now making significant progress toward developing the guiding documents for Food Policy Council governance. The current plan is for those documents to be completed by the end of calendar year 2020 and presented during an official launch of the Food Policy Council in January of 2021. This work is funded through a $555,000 grant from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, which we received in part because of our ability to leverage the funds from our Community Food Projects Grant. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided training opportunities related to group organizing strategies for Mobile Market Retreat Attendees, including Sociocracy and Emergent Strategy. The project also provided the opportunity for low-income residents to develop priorities for an Amherst Mobile Market implementation plan, and those priorities led to the selection of a market operator who provided mobile market operations training to low-income and underrepresented community members. Members of the Food Policy Council Governance Circle have also been learning about basic elements of governance, including decision-making methods, group structure, balancing power, and models of group membership. Five Amherst residents were trained in mobile market operations, including set-up, sales, payment processing, data tracking, SNAP/HIP redemption, product pricing, and customer service. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Products of the Hampshire County Mobile Market Retreat were emailed to retreat attendees. The Amherst Mobile Market model was shared with the Amherst Mobile Market Planning committee through a response to a request for proposals developed by the committee. The 2020 Hilltown Mobile Market model was shared with the Hilltown Food Council through their ongoing engagement in model development. Methodology and results of the Food Policy Council Governance Circle were shared with interested community members at a Hampshire County Food Policy Information session used as a recruitment tool for the emerging FPC. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Under Goal 1: Engaged over 50 stakeholders in developing elements of a mobile market implementation plan Created a one-year mobile market implementation plan for Amherst that identified an operator, created the equivalent of one FTE mobile market operator, added four additional mobile market sites, incorporated HIP reimbursable CSA shares from one farm that sourced produce from over four additional farms, reached sites in one new municipality, and included a business plan Through expansion of the Hilltown Mobile Market and implementation of the Amherst Mobile Market, mobile markets reached three additional municipalities during the 2020 season and sourced produce from 16 local farms, including five farms with limited market opportunities Markets in Northampton, Amherst, and the Hilltowns all developed business plans based on past performance for their 2021 seasons ?Under Goal 2: Established a food policy council subcommittee of the Mobile Market Working Group, named the Food Policy Council Governance Circle, that includes a caucus of 6 low-income residents--supported with childcare, stipends, and digital access (transportation was rendered unnecessary and digital access rendered necessary due to the COVID-19 pandemic)--focused on identifying leadership and decision-making priorities for low-income FPC members.
Publications
|