Meeting minutes for the Hancock Harvest Council regular meeting held March 5, 2012 at the Extension Office.
Attendance: Glen Reynolds, Laura Moore, Bill King, Linda King, RC McDanel, Rex Zenor, Roy Ballard, Edna Yeager, Earl Smith, Barb Smith.
The meeting was called to order at 7:03pm by Earl Smith.
The February minutes were accepted as presented.
The treasurer's report was accepted as presented. The current balance is $3,180.24. Barb presented the budget for 2012. There was discussion about the budget and the budget was accepted as presented.
RC McDanel suggested than we go to speak to the FFA in Hancock and surrounding county schools about the future of growing produce for local distribution. There was discussion about whether we could seek a grant to pay for this. RC volunteered to help with the presentations if others would help organize the meetings such as putting together a power-point presentation.
The possibility of a new Hancock County Fairgrounds is no longer a viable option on the land proposed earlier on US 40. Money is now being spent to improve the existing fairgrounds instead.
The next zoning ordinance planning meeting will be on March 27 at 6:30pm.
Edna passed out copies of the March issue of Indiana Living Green magazine and information about the possible advertising opportunities. There are ads in the regular magazine and a classified ad section. After discussion the group approved a 1/8 page ad for the April and May issues at the cost of $150 each. We will reevaluate, after we see the response to these ads, about advertising in the future. Barb will contact the magazine and work on the ads that will appear. There is also an opportunity for HHC members to advertise in the classified section at a reduced price. A 20 word ad with a 1"x1" logo would be $24.50. Contact Edna or Barb for additional information including contact information for the magazine if you wish to consider advertising for your own business.
Jessica and Eric Smith of This Old Farm in Colfax, Indiana presented information on their farm and farm alliance. They operate an 88 acre farm in Montgomery County. They are also involved in the distribution of product of 50+ farms. This is comparable to what we are trying to establish with a food hub. There was a good discussion about how they are doing this and the problems they have encountered. Getting consistent product throughout the year is a problem. We also discussed topics such as: the relationship with farmers and inspection so they know where the food comes from; processing organic meat; cooler space for produce; organization system state wide; sites for processing state wide. The discussion was very good and brought up ideas that we need to think about and discuss further.
Scales were certified during the meeting. If the scale does not have a serial number for legal trade the scale can be confiscated at the Farmers' Market.
Thank you to Jessica and Eric Smith of This Old Farm for their thorough presentation and leading the discussion about timely topics.
The next meeting of the HHC will be April 2, 2012 at the extension office.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm.
Submitted by:
Edna Yeager
Secretary
[email protected]
317-339-9788