Our First Food Security Community Advisory Board Meeting

For families and individuals struggling with food insecurity, it’s often difficult to seek help and share these challenges with others. In an effort to bring these difficulties to light and more adequately address them, the Food Council has established a Food Security Community Advisory Board (FSCAB). 14 community members and 6 food assistance organization representatives were in attendance at the first FSCAB meeting on February 5th, 2019, to have open conversations on the issue of food insecurity in Montgomery County and to discuss ways in which already existing food assistance programs can be improved and if any additional recommendations can be added to the Food Council’s approach in ending food insecurity.

At this meeting, participants were asked to anonymously answer questions about their experience with food access. Some stand out statistics that were gathered from this exercise include:

Advisory Board members then broke off into three groups, facilitated by our Executive Director, Heather Bruskin, and our AmeriCorps VISTA, Quinn Fagan, as well as a group facilitated in Spanish by Diana Tato-Niktash, the Food Security Plan Program Manager at the Department of Health and Human Services. The group discussions were concentrated on retail food access, including challenges related to culturally-appropriate food access, access to nutritious food, accessibility of retail food locations, and retail food store layouts. Participants voiced concerns regarding predatory markets in areas where retail food store access is limited. Attendees also mentioned that grocery store chains tend to be more affordable, but often do not carry culturally appropriate food. Discussion topics across the three groups included:

All attendees were asked to find out if their local grocery stores or markets accept SNAP/WIC, if they carry the types of foods that they would like to eat, and if anything about the layout of the stores makes food access more difficult for certain populations, such as seniors, people with disabilities, and non-English speakers. The next FSCAB meeting will be held on April 11th, and we look forward to learning more from the participants and using these discussions to end hunger in Montgomery County.

Upcoming Events

Mar 28

Resident and Community Gardening Collaborative

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Mar 28

RainScape Your Yard: Two Part Series

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Apr 3

Food Waste Prevention Working Group Happy Hour

April 3rd 4-6 at 7pm at Locks Brewing in collaboration with Manna Food and Compost Crew! 

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Apr 10

Empowering MD Businesses: A Lunchtime Dive into Commerce Support

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Apr 11

Statewide Trainings for Farmers Market Nutrition Program

The Maryland Department of Agriculture today announced it will host its first round of trainings throughout the state for the Farmers Market Nutrition Program. The program provides fresh, unprepared, locally-grown fruits and vegetables to WIC and Senior participants and expands the awareness, use, and sales of such products at farmers markets.

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Apr 16

How to Do Business with Montgomery County (Webinar)

Learn how to do business with Montgomery County! Hosted quarterly with Montgomery County Office of Procurement.

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Apr 22

SSL Earth Day Opportunity

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Apr 23

Speed Meet: Virtual Business Networking Event for Montgomery County

Join this speed-dating style mixer on Zoom and meet other entrepreneurs in Montgomery County (though all are welcome)!

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Apr 25

Equitable Land Access Working Group Meeting

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Apr 27

Montgomery County Green Fest

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