Members of the Regional Food System Collaborative (RFC) turned their attention again Thursday morning to improving the region's food system. The gathering, hosted by Valley Vision, couldn't have been held at a more fitting location. While colleagues gathered inside the Sacramento Food Bank, the hungry lined up outside to receive bags of free food.

Attendees came from local organizations that have a stake in our food system and share common goals: improving our eating habits and the way the local food system functions.

The discussion was facilitated by Valley Vision's Bill Mueller and the group of more than 50 broke into three subgroups to put their plans for change into action.

The collaborative project has undergone a "planning stage" and now is putting its plans into action.

Each work group had its own focus -- education, sustainable agriculture and food access. The goal was for each group to come up with three to five goal statements to put into action by 2011. Mueller asked groups to keep in mind the "S.M.A.R.T." philosophy and make goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. In addition, he reminded participants to think of goals that would get the most return with the least amount of effort.

As a reminder of the heart of the project, a flow chart pointed out that healthy soil leads to healthy food, which leads to healthy people and a healthy economy.

Each group was allotted 45 minutes to share ideas and participants were encouraged not to reject concepts without hearing them in their entirety. A Valley Vision representative facilitated each group. Afterward, group facilitators presented short-term goals and ideas. They include:

Education
-Create a tool kit that will teach local youth how to cook with a focus on tasting healthy food
-Idea that tasting healthy food might change any negative stigma
-Create a program incorporating a tool kit that can be replicated
-Have ambassadors or representatives to help spread message
-Branding: Create a unified, ongoing message and transmit it through social networking
-Focus on policy-makers and educate them as well as business leaders

Sustainable Agriculture
-Policy regulation
-Educate and have Legislature sign on to educational platform
-Increase resources
-Increase integration of technical resources
-Williamson Act 

Food Access
-Create 20 new access points for fresh, healthy food
-Indicate on the label where food is grown
-Increase access to low-income and underrepresented communities
-Achieve price equity so food is accessible
-Make all programs multilingual

Many involved in the work group discussion were especially passionate about starting with changing habits of youth, who are impressionable and might encourage their parents to make healthy choices as well. After the presentations, the audience participated in a discussion of groups' decisions and goals.

In keeping with their beliefs, attendees ate locally grown organic fruit from Soil Born farms, which had several representatives at the meeting. One audience member expressed disdain for the plastic water bottles at the meeting, saying they go against everything for which the collaborative stands.

While Valley Vision has played a guiding role since the collaborative formed, Mueller encouraged everyone to continue convening in their work groups outside of planned meetings. He stressed that while Valley Vision has helped to push the project along, it is up to the group to keep the effort going.

Three work group meetings for each subtopic discussed at the collaborative are planned for October 13, 14, and 15 at Valley Vision. Attendees also expressed a strong desire for another collaborative meeting before February, when Valley Vision's involvement is scheduled to end.

To learn about future collaborative meetings or activities, contact Robyn Krock at robyn.krock@valleyvision.org or visit www.valleyvision.org.