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, March 19, 2025  
6:00 PM  
Hybrid Meeting: Attend in person at the Lyman  
Anderson building 5201 Fen Oak Dr; Meeting  
Room Moraine (C); attend virtually via Zoom  
A. Call To Order  
Chair WARNER called the meeting to order at 6:19pm  
5 -  
Present  
Chair BILL WARNER, Vice Chair SHIRLEY NENNIG, DANIEL CORNELIUS,  
SEBASTIAN HASSELL, and ADDI FAERBER  
4 - CARL CHENOWETH, ERICA JANISCH, JAY BROWER, and KERRY MARREN  
Excused  
Attended by Zoom: CORNELIUS, NENNIG, HASSELL, FAERBER, JANISCH  
Others Present: Catie DeMets, Jules Reynolds, YGP member Radhika Gupta, Jess  
Guffey Calkins  
B. Consideration of Minutes  
MINUTES OF THE FEBRUARY 19, 2025, FOOD COUNCIL MEETING  
2024  
MIN-525  
Attachments: 2024 MIN-525  
A motion was made by NENNIG, seconded by WARNER, that the Minutes be  
approved. All in favor, motion carries (5-0).  
C. Public Comment on Items not on the Agenda  
None  
D. Presentation  
Farmland access and rural food system planning – Catie DeMets and Jules Reynolds  
A discussion was held about the information presented.  
6:30pm JANISCH joined  
6 -  
Present  
Chair BILL WARNER, Vice Chair SHIRLEY NENNIG, ERICA JANISCH, DANIEL  
CORNELIUS, SEBASTIAN HASSELL, and ADDI FAERBER  
3 - CARL CHENOWETH, JAY BROWER, and KERRY MARREN  
Excused  
E. Reports to Committee  
Regular Business Reports  
- Dane County Food Action Plan – WARNER, Guffey Calkins  
February 27: Community engagement launch event was well-attended. USDA funding was  
frozen, but is now reinstated.  
Consumer survey can be taken and shared: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q27L2CL.  
- Wisconsin Food Systems, Inc - CORNELIUS  
Community Action Coalition’s Foodshed Partnership Project: WI Department of  
Agriculture, Trade, & Consumer Protection (DATCP) is still reimbursing, but DATCP’s  
Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) funding from USDA is paused.  
- Regional Agriculture & Food Sovereignty; Community Gardens – Nicholas Leete via  
Guffey Calkins  
Community Gardens – The Community garden summit, hosted by Extension Dane  
County and Rooted earlier this month, was a success, with 65 attendees from 28  
community gardens, with numerous results including plans for open tours of different  
community gardens around the county this summer. Registration is also ongoing at most  
community gardens, most of which are seeing increased demand. Rooted’s community  
gardens team is also working with a few groups who are looking to develop more growing  
space this and future years. See https://danegardens.net for contact and registration  
information for each garden.  
Revisions to the City’s leases on agricultural land have been made by Staff in the  
Economic Development Division, following most of the recommendations made by the  
Regional Ag & Food Sovereignty Work Group in January 2022. The revised lease  
template will be introduced at multiple committees for recommendations, and will return  
to the Madison Common Council for action and potential implementation in 2026.  
- Food Access; Double Dollars Program – Guffey Calkins  
None  
- Public Health Madison & Dane County; City of Madison Business Development –  
Nick Heckman via Guffey Calkins  
None  
- Extension/Dane County – Guffey Calkins  
Additional upcoming educational events are listed on the UW-Madison Extension Dane  
County website: https://dane.extension.wisc.edu/.  
DCFC Action Plan reports  
- Policy – Guffey Calkins  
We are gathering information about park land agriculture usage; will meet again in April.  
- Food Access and Equity (PIE) - JANISCH  
Dane County received 34 applications for the 2025 Partners in Equity (PIE) Food Project  
grants: https://equity.countyofdane.com/grants/PIE-food. The total amount requested  
was over $126,000. The total funding to be granted is $40,000.  
- Community Engagement - WARNER  
We plan to mobilize people for Food Action Plan engagement sessions. We plan to  
compile points of contact for Dane County municipalities.  
- Organizational Capacity  
No report  
- Food System Resource Recommendations  
No report  
F. Announcements  
Gupta – Youth Governance Program project will be a Sustainability Safari event on Wed,  
May 28, 9:30-1:30, at the Henry Vilas Zoo. The event will raise awareness of how to be  
more sustainable, with a focus on elementary school youth.  
JANISCH – The Wisconsin Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA), which  
paid farmers to provide food to local food banks, has been terminated by the USDA.  
Local Food for Schools (LFS) has also been terminated.  
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2025/03/17/program-that-put-farm-fresh-food-in-wisco  
nsin-pantries-ends/82410562007/  
G. Future Meeting Items and Dates  
Next meeting is 4/16/25.  
H. Such Other Business as Allowed by Law  
None  
I. Adjourn  
A motion was made by FAERBER, seconded by HASSELL, that the meeting be  
adjourned. All in favor, motion carries (6-0). The meeting adjourned at 7:23pm.  
Minutes respectfully submitted by Jess Guffey Calkins, pending council approval.