Oakland Food Policy Council

Since I started work at the end of October 2008, I have been working on several projects designed to give the OFPC a successful launch:

• Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned. This is a Food First report designed to review existing (and former) food policy councils to learn what it takes to make food policy councils into effective tools for significant policy change. We are studying organizational structure, scope of work, relationship to government, and which sectors of the food system FPCs are able to address.
• OFPC stakeholder group review. To ensure a well-balanced council with representation from all food system sectors, I’m working with a small committee to review and refine our list of stakeholders, and design criteria for selection of OFPC members.
• Fundraising.

Meanwhile, there has been an interesting development in California state food policy. The California Senate Committee on Food & Agriculture is being reorganized. The new committee will be expanding its focus to include more urban and consumer-end issues. The committee is inviting input from constituents. Our Senator, Loni Hancock, is a member of the committee; this is a great opportunity for Oakland to let our state legislators know what kinds of change we’d like to see in the food system.

Peace, joy, and good food,

Alethea

Tags: Food policy councils, launch, Food & Agriculture committee, OFPC stakeholders