For more information about Resolution 31019 see: http://www.seattle.gov/council/conlin/
Or contact:
Council President Richard Conlin
at [email protected]
or Phyllis Shulman at [email protected]
(206) 684-8805
To view the full pdf, click here.
The Local Food Action Initiative is a series of actions meant to promote local and regional food sustainability and security. The intent is to improve our local food system and in doing so, advance the City of Seattle’s interrelated goals of race and social justice, environmental sustainability, economic development, and emergency preparedness.
The initiative is detailed in Resolution 31019. The resolution was passed by the Seattle City Council in April 2008.
Actions taken to implement the Local Food Action Initiative to date include:
· Adding $200,000 in the 2009 budget and $200,000 in the 2010 budget for bulk buying of food for food banks;
· Adding $200,000 in 2009 and $200,000 in 2010 for home food delivery services for the disabled and elderly;
· Including $2 million for developing new community gardens/p-patches in the Parks for All Levy, which was approved by the voters in November;
· Appropriating $50,000 to the Department of Neighborhoods to develop a Seattle Food Action Plan, and $25,000 to the Department of Planning and Development to review land use code provisions to identify code provisions that support or conflict with the foal of potential future development of urban agriculture and market gardening, and to develop new standards or incentive programs that encourage incorporating food gardens into multi-family developments;
· Siting a weekly Farmer’s Market at City Hall;
· Directing the Seattle Department of Transportation to clarify the rules, educate the public, and promote the use of parking strips for growing food;
· Directing the Department of Neighborhoods to identify the most suitable City-owned properties for conversion to use for food production, asking for no less than two acres that could be developed in 2009-2010;
· Requesting that the Department of Parks and Recreation find ways to increase the availability of healthy foods in DPR vending machines, facilities, and programs;
· Directing the Department of Human Services to develop a set of statistics on hunger in Seattle to help guide future investments and policies;
· Modifying the Seattle Green Factor (standards for inclusion of green spaces in developments) to provide extra credit for providing fruit trees or food cultivation, including on green roofs.
Priorities for 2009 include:
· Work with Farmer’s Markets representatives to identify the issues and establish long-term locations for Farmer’s Markets around Seattle;
· Move forward the expansion of the P-Patch program towards the goal of getting the current waiting list of some 1700 families as close to zero as possible;
· Continue work to support food banks and other programs to provide food and improve nutrition for those in need, while developing a long-range strategy to end hunger and malnutrition in Seattle;
· Work to strengthen connections between urban consumers and rural food producers, including expanding Community Support Agriculture;
· Work with King County to create a Transfer of Development Rights program that can protect farmlands in King County and potentially be expanded to other Counties in the future;
· Develop a Regional Food Policy Council to coordinate work between urban and rural areas.
