Glenda Ullauri invited Jan Poppendieck, Senior Faculty Fellow from the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, to share food insecurity initiatives that have been implemented at various CUNY Campuses.  The meeting was well attended by staff from the KCC Farm, members of the Physical Education and Recreation Dept. faculty, staff from the Student Counseling Center as well as two students, one from KCC currently enrolled in HE-42 health and nutrition, and one student from Lehman (former KCC student) who has been working on a food pantry initiative project.

After learning about several initiatives at other campuses the group brainstormed some possibilities for further improving student awareness of the availability of food on campus.  It was suggested that like Lehman College, KCC put the location of the campus food pantry on Blackboard.  Also Couch Bain suggested that the food committee at KCC revisit serving leftover food at the end of the day free of charge in The Seaside Cafe. It was also suggested that faculty add a short paragraph on their syllabuses regarding food availability on campus. The location and hours of the pantry hours were also discussed with regard to ease of accessibility throughout the day and evening hours.  It was also noted that perhaps some faculty also may at times need access to food pantry resources.

It was decided that those interested would work on compiling a short paragraph to be included in syllabuses over the winter semester as a beginning point from the above discussions.

Glenda Ullauri shared upcoming Farm sponsored events:

1. Taste the Rainbow 10/23/19.  Students who are scheduled to volunteer on the farm will be directed to assist/attend this event.
2. Food Day November 7th Student Research Project will be presented from 12:40-1:40PM
3. Upcoming volunteer date:  November 20th for students, staff, and faculty.

Glenda suggested that the FARM FIG again sponsor a Garlic Planting workshop at the KBCC Farm in November date TBA.

Jenny Ratdtke Shared about an Urban Agriculture program which partners urban gardens with incarcerated persons to produce hot sauce from locally grown peppers.  She wondered if this might be a project that our KBCC Farm could be involved with.  Glenda suggested that she share this info. with Maya Stansberry later in the semester.

Shannon Caravello announced that she would be offering KBCC’s Urban Agriculture Class in the Spring of 2019 as a writing intensive class.

Shannon also shared that she will be changing her dissertation topic but would still like the focus to be related in some way to Urban Agriculture and if feasible incorporating the KBCC Farm.  Several ideas were discussed by the group.

Glenda Ullauri reviewed upcoming Farm Programming including:

1. Weekly on going veggie distribution for students through November
2. Upcoming Volunteer Days 10/9 and 11/20
3. Food Day 11/7 as part of the Diversity Week events
4. Farm Tours may still be scheduled
5. Taste the Rainbow 10/23 as part of the KBCC’s LBGTQ month events
6. Breezeway Bites coordinated by Maya Stansberry

Glenda and Tanzina Ahmed gave an overview of their research project “:Assessing Food Programs in Community Colleges”.  Student researchers will be distributing surveys in various classes.

Glenda announced a CUNY Food Justice Leadership Fellowship which commences in January of 2020

Shannon Caravello reviewed her dissertation topic which relates to students increasing their fruit and vegetable intake after a KBCC Farm Experience.