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On June 3 and 4, more than 200 California members of the community food security movement came together for a statewide "organizing for action" summit. Based on the personal and organizational commitments made by summit's end, the event will lead to coordinated statewide campaigns, increased neighborhood and regional organizing and improved movement communication and decision making infrastructure. A draft vision to guide our collective work was proposed: everyone having access and the knowledge to eat healthy food.

The summit capped one year of organizing by the California pilot of the Community Food Security Coalition's emerging field organizing program. In the months leading up to the summit, the project was guided by an advisory committee of leading California member groups of the Coalition, subcommittees of which developed analyses of five significant CFS issues in the state. These groups along with other advocacy and community-based organizations co-hosted listening and networking sessions in five regions of the state-attended by more than 100 individuals-to gather feedback on these issues. The discussion from both of these fed into the summit planning.

The summit itself was a mix of context setting plenaries, co-learning concurrent sessions, assembly-style action planning, along with plenty of celebrating, networking, and feasting. Here's a quick summary of attendee's experiences based on the evaluations received.

87% rated the summit excellent to good.

Most useful parts of the summit included the networking and information sharing on current issues and projects.

Keynote, roundtable, concurrent sessions, and day two rated on average in the excellent to good range.

58% of participants said the event met their expectations very well.

More than three in four participants said the summit will help their organization better accomplish their mission by networking and sharing resources with other groups and by identifying successful models for working on CFS issues.

Summit increased most participants interest and commitment to work on statewide community food security issues.

A California CFS Network Born
Bob Gottlieb's observation toward the end of the summit that a California CFS Network was just born met strong agreement from participants. There was also firm agreement that the network should serve the purpose of forging common campaigns.

Decisions about structure, goals, issues and policy positions were delegated to a set of committees, including policy development, issue campaigns, and outreach and education-all governed by a statewide steering committee

Campaigns
Much discussion focused around opportunities and strategies for issue campaigns that forge common ground and seek justice in the food system. While there was a call for a focused campaign in 2003, there was a strong request to develop a clear long-term mission, vision and goals. Support was also voiced for a state level policy platform that captures the focused, immediate recommendations for action together with the long-term direction and big picture context.

Many comments reflected the desire for campaign organizing to take a grassroots approach, working inclusively and strategically with food insecure communities across the state. Many people commented that "we're all working on different pieces of the same puzzle and need to support each other in making it fit together."

Numerous legislative campaign opportunities were presented, many of which focus on strengthening connections between healthy food, local agriculture, and schools. These ranged from implementation of Senate Bill 19 passed last year to increase nutrition standards in the schools to weighing in strongly in the federal reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.

Commitments
More than twenty-four individuals pledged specific actions they will take on behalf of their organizations to build the CFS movement in California over the next six months. Many others promised to check-in with their groups before making commitments. Here's a sampling of the commitment made:

Melissa Guajardo of Sacramento will compile info on the organizations at the summit, what they can offer, and what their needs are

Leander Sellers will convene a food systems network in West Oakland. Several other groups identified the need to establish neighborhood CFS networks that meet regularly, patterned after other regional network efforts already underway.

Leslie Mikkelsen of Oakland will pull together a working group to strategize around SB 19 implementation.

Malaika Edwards of Oakland committed to get more young people to the summit next time. Several people offered to find funds to support scholarships for the annual conference in Seattle.

Anna Carter from South Central L.A. pledged to teach anyone in the room how to build and maintain raised-bed organic gardens.

CFSC committed to:

Facilitate overall coordination, communication, and networking of a California CFS network with the clear understanding that what fully emerges needs to be far more than CFSC.

Initially staff the steering and policy development committees.

Develop a broad-based policy platform based on work done to date and committee work to come. Publish and distribute in concert with a guidebook to CFS in the state.

Next Steps
Summit participants charted the following course of action to occur over the coming six months.

Convene committees, beginning with the statewide steering committee.

Develop a coalition-based state policy platform.

Create an outreach plan to expand and diversify the constituencies participating in the statewide network and the larger movement.

Support the creation of food system networks at the community and regional levels to increase communication and coordination.

Prioritize and strategize around issues in the platform with an eye toward launching a statewide campaign in 2003.

Fundraise to support all of the above.

A more detailed accounting of the summit is being worked on. For more information or to get involved, contact CFSC's California organizer, Thomas Nelson, at tnelson@foodsecurity.org.