June24 Meeting Notes - Eating Local Foods Network

[Robin Weirauch]

Greetings everyone:

To keep you updated on the Eating Local Foods Network activities, I have shared a document with you called "June 24 2009 Meeting Notes":

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dds5mtcc_212ghpq2gfg&invite=577819200

It's not an attachment -- it's stored online at Google Docs. To open this document, just click the link above OR view the same document below which I pasted in for your convenience.

Robin Weirauch ~ Coordinator

Supporting Healthy Eating & Local Foods

A Program of Northwest State Community College

 
http://sites.google.com/site/eatinglocalfoods/

Phone/Fax:  419-758-3864

--- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now

June 24, 2009 Meeting Notes

                            Eating Local Foods Network

Welcome and Introductions

In attendance:  Nathan & Heather Andrews (Andrews Farms), Jane & Orville Clark (Defiance Co.), Lindsay Graham (Omega Meats), Brian Schlatter (Canal Junction Cheese), Carol Castello, John Jemmott (Archbold), Diane Perkins, Karen Wagner, Jennie Lovett, Greg Miller, Ed Singer (NSCC), Robin Weirauch.
Food samples and sales promoted:  Cheeses from Canal Junction Cheese of rural Defiance, and Eggs from Omega Meats, Grand Rapids)

Old Business:

• Reviewed notes from last Meeting
  
• Discussed the Mission Statement - After discussing the notes from John J. and what is shown on the network's website, consensus was reached that reference to education needed to be added to what the statement from the website to convey that a part of our mission is to provide education to each other and to the public regarding the other components of the statement (healthier eating, improving our local economies and the environment by eating local foods.)

The following draft mission statement was produced after the meeting based on the discussion: Please feel free to comment on this and/or suggest changes, additions, etc.

The mission of the Eating Local Foods Network is to create a safe, and healthy food system in the greater Northwest Ohio area that supports the economic and environmental well-being of our communities for this and future generations.  To achieve this mission, the network will promote local consumption and sale of locally produced foods and will engage in public outreach, in keeping with the educational mission of its parent organization, Northwest State Community College.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT.  Thanks!

• The name of the network was discussed again, but a strong consensus was not yet reached.  But because both proposed names contained the words "Eating Local Foods" we could go with the both for now; the formal name being Supporting Healthy Eating & Local Foods, and simply Eating Local Foods as a shortened version.  We could use the ELF and SHELF acronyms for marketing images. 
  

New Business

• Volunteer for logo creation;  a BGSU student, Heidi Wagner, has agreed to work up some logo images for us to consider by next meeting if possible.  Robin will share points from our discussion on the network name and images with Heidi to give her a place to start.  Would like to have the name of the network also worked in with a logo image.  

We reviewed new additions to the ELF website  (http://sites.google.com/site/eatinglocalfoods/ )


• We went over the basics of the Google Group and how it works.  Robin would like to use the Google Group to communicate with network members to keep it local and user friendly (as opposed to using Facebook, or some other page within a social network.)  Folks on the mailing list will soon receive an invitation to join the Google group to continue receiving communications about the network.  The email address you'll see is  shelfnetwork@googlegroups.com (so you don't have to be suspicious of it's origin, or can rescue it from your spam filters).  

• There was good discussion on what activities the network could undertake right away in order to get us off the ground. 
  

1. The creation of a local food directory to share with the public online but also on paper so that people could discover local foods that are already available at local grocers, and also nearby outlets such as Farmer's Markets, direct farm sales, etc.  It was a agreed that there is an abundance of online information for people seeking it, but we need to get local food availability information into the hands of people at their points of purchase and introduce them to the many locations where great food is available.  IT WAS DECIDED TO FORM A COMMITTEE FOR THIS ACTIVITY.  PLEASE CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND/OR SIGN UP TO HELP WITH THIS. 

2. There was also discussion about how else to engage people in the food from the farm experience, and how we can help promote local foods.  The Everybody Eats dinner was discussed (many attendees had not heard of this event as yet.)  It was decided to also form a committee to assist Robin in the planning of this planned event to be held at Northwest State, possibly in the fall.  CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EVERYBODY EATS DINNER, HOW YOU CAN HELP, AND/OR TO SIGN UP FOR THIS COMMITTEE.

AS ALWAYS, IF YOU WISH TO BE REMOVED FROM THIS MAILING LIST; LET US KNOW.  PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING FORM: 
http://sites.google.com/site/eatinglocalfoods/sign-up-surveys