COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Board of Supervisors

DATE:

July 8, 2008

BOARD MEETING DATE:

August 12, 2008

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

No

VOTE REQUIRED:

None

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Rich Gordon

SUBJECT:

Presentation on the San Mateo County Food System Alliance

RECOMMENDATION:

San Mateo County Food System Alliance (SMFSA) presents to the Board on its efforts to encourage a sustainable county-based food system.

VISION ALIGNMENT:

Goal(s):

23 Leaders throughout the County provide the impetus for broader regional solutions in land use, housing, childcare, education, health and transportation.

BACKGROUND:

An Ag Futures Alliance (AFA) is a county or community based effort to sustain agriculture in perpetuity. A Food System Alliance (FSA) focuses on creating a viable county based food system.

AFA’s and FSA’s are currently operating in five California Counties: Yolo, Santa Barbara, San Benito, San Mateo, and Ventura. A statewide counterpart to the AFA, the California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment is also ongoing.

Funding for the AFA and FSA project comes from local contributions and the Roots of Change, a consortium of funding foundations.

DISCUSSION:

The San Mateo County Food System Alliance (SMFSA), formed in November of 2006, was the first FSA in California. The SMFSA recognizes that there are broken links in the food system in one of the most economically, environmentally and socially diverse communities in the world. The purpose of the Alliance is to support, enhance, and maintain an enduring and interdependent food system that is economically viable, environmentally sound and socially equitable that connects people to agriculture and enhances the health of all residents of San Mateo County.

The SMFSA was convened to provide a conduit for communication between all the various stakeholders in the food system, and is committed to addressing the need to find balanced solutions to the many weak links in the existing system. The San Mateo Food System Alliance is a place for dialogue and synthesis where stakeholders look for common ground from which to define a need and determine actions to be taken together.

The SMFSA works by way of a constitution, which can be found at www.sanmateocofsa.org. In the past two years it has brought together representatives of “coast-side” farmers and fishermen, and “bay-side” community service workers struggling against poverty, obesity, and chronic disease.

It has decided on the following three areas to focus its efforts for the coming year:

1.

Promoting integrated health and nutrition education programs at all local elementary schools.

2.

Enhancing the connection between local producers and large institutional buyers of food.

3.

Encouraging increased local food production by looking at land use patterns in the County.

FISCAL IMPACT:

None.