Travis County Commissioners Court
February 13, 2007
Item 18
18 is to consider and take appropriate action on the recommended use of the anti-poverty allocated reserve.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, sherri flemming. Executive manager for health and human services and veterans service. During the fiscal year '07, budget process, the court set aside $300,000 in -- in what we called an anti-poverty reserve. To look at how we might be able to impact issues around poverty. In November staff and health and human services came to you during work session to talk about some proposed projects that we had interest in related to -- to anti-poverty initiatives and potential expenditure of these funds. Following that work session, staff felt like based on your comments we need to go do a little more work on that. However the programming that we recommended during that work session seemed to be of great interest to the court. The contractors that we proposed at the time, both meals on wheels and the capital area food bank are established providers with us. They are providing programming that we believe is very much needed. And the -- the contractors appreciate the -- the one-time nature of these funds and they have indicated that they are able to provide this programming for the balance of the fiscal year. They will be able to provide performance data related to the expenditure of these funds during the fy 2008 fwait budget process. Therefore staff is here today to recommend or request your approval to go forward with the contract portion of our recommendation, which would involve about -- about $85,000 of the 300 that have been set aside. And specifically, $43,627 would be -- would be allocated or amended or we would amend the contract with capital area food bank for the amount of 43,627. And then we would also amend our contract with meals on wheels and more for 41,630.
>> we have residents in need of this assistance?
>> yes, sir.
>> my interest would be do we know what impact we are having with serving 160 at one place and 150 at another?
>> well, currently, this program does not exist. So it would establish services that -- that are underway in other locations. It would allow the capital area food bank to initiate these services at this location at hillside elementary school.
>> at the present time, we can only serve hillcrest?
>> is there a need for meals for kids at other schools?
>> > that's correct, Commissioner. Meals on wheels told us there is a process to set this up, they have to meet with the schools, set up the process. This is what they are able to do with the balance of this fiscal year funding.
>> okay. So this would be -- I can take this as a beginning step.
>> yes.
>> to try to add the issue of hunger. Because that article that we were looking at in the newspaper certainly said that the problem was much bigger.
>> certainly.
>> and so -- so, you know -- okay, this is a good start. In my opinion. But I think that we need to keep going to address hunger. It's just extremely important to do that at this -- at this step in elementary school. So --
>> I have a couple of questions. This is a wonderful, wonderful start. And I'm -- I would be pleased to vote in favor of it. And -- and I was looking at the backup on it that a foundation for effective allocation, poverty allocated reserve. I was wondering if you could give us any details of where we are on that. Coming up with a -- with an allocation policy. Along the lines of what Commissioner Gomez is driving at. There is so much need out there.
>> I think what -- what staff shared during the work session was that we would like to come back to the court and talk to you about -- about initiatives of this type that are currently underway in other communities. So that you would have a sense of what kinds of of programs have been successful in other communities, communities that we hope we can strike some similarities between Austin and Travis County. And so that's what we are hoping to do. We were not able to do that in November. And so we are kind of backing up just a little bit and so we are going to talk about what these initiatives look like. But the other piece of this is that all of your initiatives through health and human services have an anti-poverty slant. Our mission is to -- to foster an environment where people can attain self sufficiency. So -- so we also feel like we should talk to you in greater detail about the specifics of how those programs do that.
>> and beyond the -- beyond the specific programs, trying to get beyond the siloing of specific programs, because I know -- I know that it will be much needed at this elementary school, there's no question about that, I'm curious about -- about how we are looking at the rest of Travis County in order to -- it goes back to what we were talking about, about a needs assessment for all of the populations of the cord to this, we are just -- according to this we are just identifying a specific population in need. Poverty in del valle and manor to address not only food and nutrition needs with the holistic needs of impoverished families in these communities. I'm wondering where we are in assessing the other communities of need as well.
>> part of that we are hoping to do through our community development block grant funding. The court approved the -- the program within health and human services with cdbg funds that would allow us to -- to add some social work staff in areas of the county where we feel like we do not have good information in terms of -- of what the need is, where folks are even located to -- to even determine their accessibility to services. So we hope to do that through that process, but also we have worked with our providers in this case who -- who we feel do a really good job of trying to not only provide these services across the county, but also are keenly aware of places where they have not been as successful being able to find and fund services in this area. So we feel pretty good about their recommendations about the level of need in these particular communities and we will continue to work with them as we go through and identify other places such as these.
>> just I really applaud you all for dealing with the -- with the twin duties of -- of identifying the need and the population and identifying the service providers that are already on the ground, already doing great work and supporting them at the same time. They are not anti-thetical goals that one deals with now and one deals with future planning.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners] so health and human services during the legislative process, continues to shepherd and watch over those -- those funding recommendations or the funding recommendations, if you will, because they do have a direct impact on your programs here in Travis County but also our service providers.
>> so are you --
>> so far so good.
>> are you saying that there's not much proactive out there to increase our abilities and probably mostly what we are looking at is legislative efforts to shift more responsibility down to us?
>> that would be correct. I think there's a bill escaping on the number that is looking at home delivered meals at the legislative level and some state funding for that. But that has been probably the most prominent bill that could benefit our constituents in that that would be additional state funding for programs such as meals on wheels to provide those services, you know, with more depth throughout the community. So we will keep our fingers crossed on that one.
>> that's a positive, thank you.
>> I just have one more question. Can you tell me a little bit how the nutrition education program will be carried out?
>> the nutrition education programs are -- are based on curriculum that will be provided that is currently being used by both programs. There was a question during the work session related to our nutrition education programs through cooperative extension versus these programs and what we have been able to find out is that the programming that is currently being offered by meals on wheels and the capital area food bank has been updated, if you will, to today's nutritional requirements. While our programs through cooperative extension have usda approval, they have not been updated so far to include some of the nutritional information that is most current. In the example that I would use is that our programs continue to recommend providing whole milk as a part of the average daily requirement where we know current data indicates that you can achieve the same nutritional value from using one percent or two percent milk. So that would be an example of the difference --
>> as an adult.
>> yes.
>> so that would be one of the examples of the differences between our curriculums. But as a result of this work, we do have our nutrition program working in concert now with meals on wheel and capital area food bank to see how we can move to a program that is -- that is more -- that are more aligned.
>> I guess included in that is also the age appropriate meals and how maybe portions.
>> portions and also making vegetables more attractive to children through preparation, having them understand the value of them, having them have the experiences to try different vegetables so that they develop a taste for them at a younger age.
>> I think that we should be -- try to be more systematic in our approach. Also make sure that -- that the agencies have received funds, for us to try to persuade the city to follow suit. That we know exactly what we are trying to achieve and that we work in that direction.
>> absolutely.
>> and to the extent that we can work with other entities, we are all a lot better off. It is just because we are usda employees to pressure usda. It is much easier for us to complain to them. If they think that we are disseminating inappropriate information to Travis County residents, we have got to let them know. They are as slow to change as we are at a governmental entity. But change doesn't start until somebody starts complaining it seems to me. I eagerly move approval.
>> second.
>> staff recommendation which is to fund these two agencies at a higher level, that means capital area food bank, 3,627 and -- m.o.u., what does that stand for mow, meals on wheels, 3638 to be specific.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> to move the 85,257 from the
>> [indiscernible] directly into hhs, that would just help them enter the contract requisitions.
>> that's part of that motion unless there's objection.
>> no.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:31 AM