Food Policy Advisory Council annual report
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
It is a stretch of the recording that this archive identified as a separate matter — a call to order, a recess, or something taken up that the agenda does not list. There is no official title, no staff recommendation and no disposition, because the county never recorded one. Everything below is inferred.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Jan 20, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jan 20, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 4m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 17% of 12 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Good afternoon, Commissioner's Rich Jenkins, Planning, Development, and Economic Growth. I'm here to present the Food Policy Advisory Council's annual report and introduce our Chairman. Uh or Chairwoman and uh vice chair. uh Nicole Duby and Jennifer Parker. I'm gonna let them do the actual presentation because our resolution requires them to.
Awesome. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Nice to see you all again. I met most of you through Leadership Pasco. So the purpose of the Foo Food Policy Advisory Council or F PAC is to support an accessible, resilient local food system here in Pasco County. Our duties are to re- make recommendations to government bodies about policies, support the development and expansion of locally produced foods here in Pasco. Review proposed legislation
and regulations that affect the food system, connect economic development, food security efforts, preservation and enhancement of agricultural lands, while Addressing environmental concerns, inform, gather, and share information on community food systems. Some of our programs and initiatives include the Plants for Pints, which is a monthly plant exchange hosted at Ordinance One in Newport Ritchie, and is regularly attended about by about
15 to 20 people. One of the other things we worked hard on this last year was to fulfill our open positions. So out of the seven, we filled four of them and there are three vacant positions. The reappointments and appointments were approved by the board on a consent agenda today. We also reviewed the food policy, we did a food policy crosswalk and we looked at urban agricultural policies and this review helped industry practitioners
to provide comments to staff for the Backyards Chicken Ordinance in August of 2025.
We also reviewed House Bill 89 and followed it carefully as it would have allowed for small footprint grocery stores to go into food in areas to provide more access to healthy nutrient-dense foods. That bill unfortunately did not attract a Senate companion, but was filed in refiled in November of 2025. The FPAC will also continue to follow this and other food system and agriculture related bills currently in the 2026 legislation session.
Our most successful event was our second annual food summit, which was hosted on the east side of the county at the One Stop Shop where there was a tour of the farm den and commit commercial kitchen, which Bill Cronin mentioned earlier as an incubator for food entrepreneurs. All of the refreshments were hashtag Picked in Pasco and provided by local farmers such as The O's Harvest, Shady Oaks who are here today, and Rosebud Continuum. A representative from Congressman Bill Arakis's
office was in attendance and said this was very informative and enjoyable. Speakers included myself talking about our nonprofit access to fresh and how we are focused on being an aggregator and distributor of local produce and connecting it to areas such as shoe uh schools and hospital systems. Charles Zeider from the Museum of Archaeology, Paleontology, and Science captivated audiences and attendees on a talk of the Mayan agricultural practices and how it relates
to our modern food systems. Lastly, Tanner, a local farmer here in Newport Ritchie, Tanner Kaufman, he owns Theo's Harvest, was in also presented and demanded. how small-scale agriculture can feed families and support local economies. F Pac does invite you to no. We're missing a slide there, but F PAC does invite you to our meetings. We're there every month at the Land O' Lakes County Utilities Building. Our next meeting is February 13th from 2 to
3.30. And our food summit is April 16th from 5 to 7.30 at Rosebud Continuum. Lastly, I would like to thank the Department of Planning and Development and Economic Growth for their support and guidance as we focus on agricultural policy as a tool for economic growth and resilience here in Pasco County. I'm happy to take any questions, but I know we're on a tight timeline.
All right. Any questions?
No questions, but great job. All right, thank you.