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Hello, partners. We have another update regarding the Dane County
budget process and our request for your help in securing funding for the
local food support network. As you are aware, no funding for this was
identified in the first draft of the 2025 budget.
The county has now set the schedule for board committees to meet
and work on the budget. There are four relevant committees where we
encourage your participation either in person or virtually – please see
the schedule and message points below. Note that you don't need to attend
all of these meetings but instead view this as a
menu of options to choose from to engage in the process. The October 9th
budget public hearing by Personnel and Finance is no doubt likely the
most centralized point for people to gather and provide advocacy, but
based on our knowledge of the process, we encourage you to engage in
these individual committee processes as early as possible.
In addition to addressing the committee processes, Second Harvest
has laid some groundwork with the media to drive public awareness of the
county's important role in fighting food insecurity. Here are links to
recent mentions about the lack of funding in the budget:
Thank you again for lending your voice to this important effort and for
your partnership in serving Dane County neighbors.
Upcoming Board Committee Meetings:
- Environment, Agriculture, and Natural Resources
Committee - linkage between Farm to Foodbank and the Dane County
Food Council
- September 26, 2024 at
5:30 pm
- October 8, 2024 at
5:30 pm
- Executive Committee - help oversee the
Department of Administration which administered Farm to Foodbank
- September 23, 2024 at
5:30 pm
- October 7, 2024 at
5:30 pm
- Health and Human Needs Commitee
- good fit given our good arguments about basic life needs - just
like housing - and this committee funds all of
the county's housing work
- September 26, 2024 at
5:30 pm
- October 1, 2024 at
5:30 pm
- October 7, 2024 at
6:30 pm
- Personnel and Finance Committee - also helps
oversee the Department of Administration
- October 7, 2024 (joint meeting with Madison
Board of Estimates) at 5:30 pm
- October 15, 2024 at
5:30 pm
- October 21, 2024 at
5:30 pm
- October 22, 2024 at
5:30 pm
Message Points for Comments
General:
- Members of the County Board may assert they are
"legally unable to fund Second Harvest." Actually, there are two ways the county can
continue to provide dollars for Farm to Foodbank:
- Dane County has remaining unspent federal ARP
(American Rescue Plan) dollars. We should feel empowered to ask
county officials how much is left unallocated and whether the funds
left over are accounted for in this budget or if they will be
awarded through some other process. In short, the same funding
source that supported Farm to Foodbank in recent years remains
available. This is a choice county officials are making - not to
provide unspent ARP money for local food.
- The Wisconsin Counties Association has issued a
legal opinion that says counties can allocate tax dollars for food
pantries. Dane County lawyers may not agree with this opinion but
what is the risk of funding food this year while asking the state
for further guidance/clarification? It's highly unlikely someone is
going to sue Dane County for keeping people in need fed. This
conservative legal interpretation risks urgent needs being unmet
while lawyers squabble. Let's meet the
needs while seeking to provide reassurance on legal clarity from
folks like the Wisconsin Attorney General. (If the county's legal
interpretation is applied to other programs the county funds for
various non-profits, a number of exisiting programs would experience devastating
service reductions).
- The demand for emergency food assistance is
higher than it's ever been and this need
has been steadily growing since Covid. (An average increase of 30%
in 2023 alone, and month-over-month, 2024 is up another 20%.)
- Our pantries need food. If this funding is cut,
pantries will be forced to buy more food, straining their already
challenged operations and budgets.
- Less food could well lead to reduced offerings,
new limitations for families, and perhaps even fewer hours pantries
are able to be open.
- Food insecurity is real and disproportionately
affects people of color. Food insecurity is an issue of
equity.
- Food support stabilizes families. It's a matter
of nourishment, yes, but also a matter of helping families manage
tight budgets when it comes to housing, healthcare and education.
- Local purchasing (Farm to Foodbank) not only
helps meet basic needs but it does so with
fresh, healthy produce and food.
- Farm to Foodbank illustrates what it means to
buy local. Dollars the county has provided go straight to dozens of
local growers. This program has been their livelihood - for years.
- Farm to Foodbank contributes to a healthy Dane
County economy. The economic impact of every dollar spent on local
agriculture is $1.60 back into the community.
- Dane County has invested a great deal into
stabilizing housing. Appropriately, leaders have discussed housing
as a matter of basic human rights and equity. The same holds true
for food.
- Food supplied by this program supports the
individual and family direct service delivery work done by Dane
County Joining Forces for Families and others across the community.
- Farm to Foodbank is proven to work. It
exemplifies a community taking care of its own.
- We ask for funding for this effort to be
continued next year and beyond.
Impact Data Points from funding via Dane County:
- In fiscal year 2024 (July 2023 to June 2024),
$5.5 million were provided via Dane County for SHF food purchasing:
- 11% of all the food Second Harvest received
(including donated) was purchased with Dane funds
- 132 partner organizations received food
purchased with Dane funds
- SHF purchased food from 37 local vendors using
Dane funds
- The food purchased with Dane funds helped
provide 2.6 million meals (3.1 million pounds)
- 40% of Second Harvest's food purchases were made
with Dane funding
Since the pandemic relief funding started in 2020, $31.6 million in
Dane/ARPA funds provided to SHF have resulted in:
- 14.3 million meals for neighbors (17.2 million
pounds)
- Food for 223 partner organizations
- Purchasing from 80 local vendors
- An annual average of 3.44 million pounds of food
procured locally
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