Marin Food Policy Council meeting Tuesday January 16, 2018

Zach Martinez

Today I went to the Marin Food Policy Council meeting in lieu of Audrey.  It was very interesting, and I learned a lot!  We went over and deeply discussed many topics, all pertaining to food.  As soon as I had arrived to 3240 Kerner Boulevard, Bonnie introduced herself to me in a very excited manner and asked who I was, I had then explained that I was there representing Redwood High since Audrey was unable to make it.  She directed me towards the yummy fresh and natural locally gardened snacks, and from there we quickly got to work.  First I learned about the MFPC, and I learned that it was founded to find issues with food in Marin County.  We followed a strict schedule from 3pm till 5pm with many serious topics in search of answers and solutions.  Directly at 3 we started the announcements.  One thing I thought interesting was the creation of a new app created by the County of Marin, called the Food Now App.  This app allows you to get all the locations of the nearest and cheapest locally grown produce and food, which is super cool!  

We continued to follow the schedule as we started planning for 2018 since this was the first meeting of the year, but because of the groups size we did another activity. We split into two groups to discuss topics.  I very much enjoyed this activity because it gave me the setting and ability to list my ideas and be part of the group.  We primarily discussed Farm to School Policy (nutrition education to youth), since this was the topic I was most familiar with.  We talked about the importance of youths knowledge on the topics, and how kids not only need to be told about it but in my opinion we need the actual hands on working in the outdoors to really see the beauty and importance of natural foods at the pristine environment.  But the first step is to raise the youth and staffs awareness towards the importance of this.  Other topics we discussed include Senior Food accessibility, Urban Ag municipal policies, processing and distribution of food in the County, and Equitable access updates policies.  After the meeting they thanked me for my contribution and involvement, and since I had enjoyed learning about how Marin County Plans their farming I asked for the dates of the next meetings.  And since this was very interesting I will likely be participating in these monthly meetings in the future.