Background

Late in 2008,  The Council was established by a joint resolution from Santa Fe County and the City of Santa Fe and the Council began their work in 2009. The resolution was the result of a two year process that began with Health & Human Services Week 2006 and because of findings that were reported by the Department of Agriculture citing the state of New Mexico as the number one state for food insecurity in the nation. A series of community conversations ensued. The first community conversation produced a Declaration of Food Rights.

The process was directed by Sherry Hooper of The Food Depot, Tony McCarty of Kitchen Angels, Terrie Rodriguez of the City of Santa Fe, Pamela Roy of Farm to Table, Steve Shepherd of the County of Santa Fe and Mark Winne of the Community Food Security Coalition. For the next two years, this group collected information from a variety of community members to formulate the beginnings of a proposal to create The Council.

On May 10, 2007 the group organized a community event to propose the idea for a Food Policy Council and introduce the idea of what a body tasked with shaping policy would look like. The 2007 community conversation was used to formulate the draft resolution that later created The Council.

Finally in January of 2008, both the City Councilors and Board of County Commissioners passed resolutions creating The Council. The original group that worked to create The Council were appointed and tasked with holding another community dialogue to determine what issues and areas The Council should proceed with, and to help identify qualified individuals to be appointed for the remaining seats on The Council.

A community event was held during Health and Human Services week on April 10, 2008. Attachment C titled “Closing the Food Gap: Projects, Partners, Policy” was used as a tool to educate the participants. The event provided the group with a number of issues to move forward with including some of the language that was used to formulate the resolution that later created the Santa Fe Food Policy Council.  This event helped to identify opportunities and challenges faced in regards to the Santa Fe city and county food system.

All members of The Council were appointed by the end of 2008 and the first meeting of The Council took place on January of 2009.