Working Upstream
Imagine you are on the City Council and someone has brought it to your attention that people keep falling as they try to cross the river north of town. These people are being swept up in the currents and drowned! One of your colleagues on the city council suggests forming a volunteer task force to stand at the bend in the river near the rapids and throw life preservers to people. You think about all of the resources it is going to take to continually recruit and organize volunteers and how quickly the cost of life preservers is going to add up. You suggest that the council move UPSTREAM and build a bridge across the river. Now volunteers can better address other pressing issues and the city council can save those valuable life preserver funds. You are working upstream.
Participants gather in the lunchroom of Umatilla High School for the Community Forum on the health impacts of Farm to School legislation. Photo by Andi Sexton.
Imagine you are on the City Council and someone has brought it to your attention that people keep falling as they try to cross the river north of town. These people are being swept up in the currents and drowned! One of your colleagues on the city council suggests forming a volunteer task force to stand at the bend in the river near the rapids and throw life preservers to people. You think about all of the resources it is going to take to continually recruit and organize volunteers and how quickly the cost of life preservers is going to add up. You suggest that the council move UPSTREAM and build a bridge across the river. Now volunteers can better address other pressing issues and the city council can save those valuable life preserver funds. You are working upstream.
This is the principal behind Oregon based policy non-profit Upstream Public Health. Upstream supports innovative policies that increase opportunities to be healthy where we live work and play. Similarly, Oregon Rural Action members work to address the root causes of the pressing issues impacting our communities. Upstream and ORA teamed up on February 4th to discuss how proposed Farm to School and School Garden Policy would impact the health of community members in Eastern Oregon.
The policy we were discussing was House Bill 2800 which would direct the Oregon Department of Education to provide reimbursements to school districts that serve Oregon food products as part of the School Lunch or School Breakfast Programs and to award grants for development of food-based and garden-based educational activities.
Upstream recently completed a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) which looked at all of the ways this policy could possibly impact our health. After a careful literature review they suggested that HB 2800 could improve our health in a variety of ways from increasing the freshness of fruits and vegetables served to our children to increasing employment opportunities for local farmers and building social capital and stronger relationships between community members. (All of which have been showed time and again to improve health).
They wanted to hear from the community about what we thought of their findings and what this policy would mean to us. Oregon Rural Action members, as well as other community members turned out in force to help fine tune their recommendations. We discussed how to make sure the policy had the most significant impact possible and how proposed grants could best be used to support integrated Farm to School Programs. Our comments, along with comments from a similar event in Eugene will be incorporated into a final HIA which will be available on their website: www.upstreampublichealth.org/
It was great being able to partner with Upstream on this important project and a big thanks to all of the members who turned out. The Eastern Oregonian and the Hermiston Herald also wrote great articles about the event. If you missed them they are available here:
If you are interested in working “upstream” watch for action alerts from ORA as this important legislation moves and get involved with the ORA Farm to School Initiative. Come to our screening of Lunch Line, a film about the history of the School Lunch Program, on March 21st at 7:30 in the La Grande Library Community Room or contact Teresa or Andi at 541-975-2411.
