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Q&A
Coordination of food programs and support for grassroots organizations
1:33:46
·
66 sec
Council Member Gale A. Brewer and Commissioner Molly Wasow Park discuss the coordination of food programs and the importance of supporting grassroots organizations in addressing food insecurity.
- Brewer suggests coordinating more food programs to help reduce overall costs
- The city currently supports over 700 food pantries and community kitchens, many of which are small, grassroots organizations
- Commissioner Park acknowledges the trade-off between efficiency and supporting local, grassroots efforts
- The discussion highlights the challenge of balancing efficient food distribution with maintaining support for community-based organizations
Gale A. Brewer
1:33:46
Well, mean, obviously, I'm a big supporter of Westside Campaigning Against Hunger, and the feeling there is to coordinate more of the food programs working with the city because god knows any coordination could help reduce the overall cost.
1:33:58
Well that would take some city input.
Molly Wasow Park
1:34:01
Yes.
1:34:02
City input and we do coordinate very closely with the emergency food community.
1:34:07
I would note we support at this point over 700 food pantries and community kitchens, many of which are quite small.
1:34:17
On the one hand, that is probably not the most efficient way of doing it.
1:34:22
On the other hand, we are also supporting very grassroots local not for profit organizations which brings a certain value in and of itself.
1:34:29
So if we are in the most dire of situations we may have to go for efficiency over the broad based, there's challenging ramifications for not supporting the most grassroots organizations as well.
Gale A. Brewer
1:34:46
Alright.
1:34:46
We like the grassroots.
1:34:47
Thank you very much.
Diana Ayala
1:34:51
Council member Riley?