Dane County  
Minutes - Final Unless Amended by  
Committee  
Food Council  
Consider:  
Who benefits? Who is burdened?  
Who does not have a voice at the table?  
How can policymakers mitigate unintended consequences?  
Wednesday, October 11, 2023  
5:30 PM  
Hybrid Meeting: Attend in person at the Lyman  
Anderson building 5201 Fen Oak Dr; Meeting Room  
Moraine attend virtually via Zoom  
A. Call To Order  
6 -  
Present  
Supervisor MICHELE RITT, Vice Chair SHEENA TESCH, Chair BILL WARNER,  
Supervisor RICHELLE ANDRAE, ERICA JANISCH, and MARCIA CATON  
CAMPBELL  
3 - SHIRLEY NENNIG, ABHA THAKKAR, and DANIEL CORNELIUS  
Excused  
B. Consideration of Minutes  
8.23.2023 FOOD COUNCIL MINUTES  
2023  
MIN-299  
Attachments: 2023 MIN-299  
A motion was made by ANDRAE, seconded by JANISCH, that the Minutes be  
approved. CATON CAMPBELL abstains. The motion carried by a voice vote 4-0-1.  
C. Public Comment on Items not on the Agenda  
D. Reports to Committee  
Regular Business Reports  
- Food Plan – CATON CAMPBELL  
No USDA funding notifications yet; federal budget hasn’t been approved yet.  
TESCH joined at 5:37pm.  
- Regional Agriculture & Food Sovereignty - TESCH  
The next meeting is this Friday 10.13.23. The group is assessing if the standing  
date/time still works well for folks, will discuss outreaching to more participants, and will  
be discussing any updates on the terminal market or hoophouses allowance in City of  
Madison code. TESCH is moving to Vermont; Nicholas Leete will step in as RAFS chair.  
- Madison Farmland Preservation Task Force – CATON CAMPBELL  
Urban agriculture use has been included into City of Madison subdivision definitions.  
Open comment period right now on City of Madison’s Sustainability Plan:  
https://www.cityofmadison.com/sustainability/highlights/take-the-sustainability-plan-com  
munity-survey-today  
- Wisconsin Food Systems, Inc – CATON CAMPBELL  
Co-facilitated a productive and successful Food Recovery Convening today (Oct 11).  
WFSI Bd will meet Friday; haven’t met since August.  
Double Dollars Program –  
No report  
- Community Gardens –  
No report  
- Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future - Community of Learning Practice –  
TESCH  
Did a visionary budget exercise at the last meeting; materials will be shared.  
The project wraps up in November 2023.  
- City of Madison Business Development Specialist -  
No report  
- Public Health Madison & Dane County –  
No report  
- Extension/Dane County – Guffey Calkins  
New report available: “Advancing Racial and Social Equity in Wisconsin Farm to School:  
Strategies for Investing in Historically Underserved Producers”. Contains in-depth  
information about barriers, and in-depth recommendations for policymakers, schools,  
producers, and organizations. The project is a collaborative effort between the  
UW-Madison School of Human Ecology’s (SoHE) Civil Society and Community Research  
Department and Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies (CommNS), the  
UW-Madison Extension Community Food Systems Program, and REAP Food Group.  
Report here:  
https://foodsystems.extension.wisc.edu/advancing-racial-and-social-equity-in-wisconsin-fa  
rm-to-school/  
UW-Madison Extension Community Food Systems Food Entrepreneurship Ecosystem  
Development (FEED) Program is partnering with Green Bay nonprofit New Food Forum to  
organize a 2-day summit for Wisconsin food and farming entrepreneurs! The 2023 FEED  
Summit will be held in-person on November 13-14, 2023, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  
This year’s theme is: Adding Value to Your Food or Farming Business! Go to  
https://go.wisc.edu/j40254 for more information and to register.  
Upcoming food systems educational events on the UW-Madison Extension Dane County  
website (https://dane.extension.wisc.edu/) include gardening education classes  
September-November.  
Council Discussion  
- Pandemic Food System Study  
Additional food systems/food planning capacity is being added to Nick Heckman’s  
position and division in Public Health Madison Dane County. This will add overall  
city/county food staffing capacity. Early action can take place around future requests for  
increased food systems capacity.  
- 2024 Budget Planning process  
The council discussed submitting a budget amendment proposal for funding for the Food  
Plan project, given the uncertainty of the USDA funding possibility. The council also  
discussed submitting a budget amendment proposal to add another $20,000 for the 2024  
PIE Food Project Grants.  
- YWCA Racial Justice Summit – Oct 3.  
No discussion was held.  
- Taste the Future event – Nov 3.  
Members discussed the opportunity to have a presence at FEED Kitchen’s Taste the  
Future event.  
E. Action Items  
Budget proposal  
This was discussed above under 2024 Budget Planning Process.  
F. Announcements  
ANDRAE - appreciated the opportunity to connect in person with members from both  
food councils at Troy Farms in September.  
G. Future Meeting Items and Dates  
10/25 – Meeting will be cancelled.  
Next meeting will either be 11/29 or 12/6 based on member availability.  
Bill plans to attend the meetings in-person. At least one other member is needed to  
attend in-person as a back-up in case something comes up for Bill.  
H. Such Other Business as Allowed by Law  
I. Adjourn  
A motion was made by CATON CAMPBELL, seconded by JANISCH, that the  
meeting be adjourned. The motion carried unanimously 6-0.  
Minutes respectfully submitted by Jess Guffey Calkins, pending council approval