Rice County Work Session
11.21.23, via zoom
- Public Health/Nursing
- WIC program
- Staff
- 4 dieticians, though could also be nurses
- 2 clerks, including one bilingual clerk
- 12 grocery stores in Rice Co that participate in WIC
- Aldi is not a WIC store because they don’t carry formula
- $1.2 million going to these stores
- 1,982 people served in 2022, 45% children under 5 years old, 27% women, 28% infants
- Demographics shifted from majority white to majority Black/African American over the last years
- Staff
- Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP)
- Focus on policy, systems, environments → they work on prevention
- Eg bike lanes program, Rice County Moves bike lane and crosswalk program
- Breastfeeding
- Tobacco
- Physical activity
- Wellbeing & mental health
- Focus on all programs being sustainable
- Sharing Our Roots farm greenhouse
- Riverwalk Market Fair Emergency Food program → helps to get leftover produce to the food shelf
- Society of St Vincent DePaul SuperShelf conversion
- Friendship House, mental health club greenhouse
- Rice County WIC
- Farm to WIC pilot, Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP)
- Farmers market checks, up to $30 for fresh foods and vegetables
- The number one thing people are looking for from a food shelf is fresh fruits and vegetables
- However, there’s only a 27% redemption rate in Rice County of these checks, so developed a pilot program with Rotational Roots in Cannon Falls to bring bundles of $15 worth of fresh fruit and vegetables to the WIC office, in the format of a CSA. This improved redemption rates.
- Farm to WIC pilot, Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP)
- Focus on policy, systems, environments → they work on prevention
- AmeriCorps and Healthy Ways
- Agnes is the Healthy Ways AmeriCorps this year
- Schools: Greenvale in Northfield, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt in Faribault
- Agnes is the Healthy Ways AmeriCorps this year
- Car Seat Safety
- Rice County Public Health is a contracted car seat distributor through insurance programs
- Distributed 204 car seats on average, but has distributed 270 so far this calendar year through October
- Health Equity Training with HealthFinders Collaborative
- Would commissioners be open to participating in health equity training, and data from Rice County? Don’t have to answer now
- CHIP -community health improvement process
- Report is completed every five years
- Discussed how data is collected
- Health equity is taken into consideration, to ensure representative sample from Black/African and Latino community members
- Questions
- Docken: Can you access the survey you take at the Doctor’s office? Because this is duplicating data.
- Answer: We can do some of that, and can cross reference with what is in our survey. However, can’t rely only on data from doctor visits, because that skews to ill people
- Docken: WIC produce voucher — who gets it and does it affect their other benefits?
- Answer: Every family is offered it, and it doesn’t impact their other WIC benefits.
- Answer: Have tried to remind WIC participants about this option via text messages, in-person visits, social media, etc.
- Docken: Question for Agnes, is Healthy Ways after school?
- Answer: Yes. 3:30 – 4:30, 30 minutes of fruits and vegetables, 30 minutes of physical activity
- Docken: What food does everyone like?
- Answer: Grapes and watermelon
- Malecha: What about people who live in rural areas?
- Answer: They have to go to clinic in Faribault or Northfield, and have staff who can go out to a family in home
- Docken: Can you access the survey you take at the Doctor’s office? Because this is duplicating data.
- WIC program
- Parks and facilities, Matthew Verdick
- Fairgrounds conservation building roof: Staff recommending not to go forward with the roofing project on this building due to concerns with the roof being able to hold snow load.
- Q: What’s the backup plan?
A: We haven’t yet developed that. - Docken: It’s probably not worthy of a new roof, so not in favor of putting that kind of money into this building, because we don’t know if the structure is going to hold up.
- Underdahl: Agree, due to concerns regarding the structural integrity.
- Hoinsington: Is it county code review that led to this?
- A: Yes, he said it would not.
- Hoisington: Did we have a structural engineer look at this?
- A: Yes, he looked at it and declined to comment.
- Hoisington: So we voted to put a roof on it before we even had a structural engineer review it?
- A: Yes
- Hoisington: That’s not what I understood.
- Purfeerst: Recommends we do what we can to save the building at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.
- Malecha: Agree
- Underdahl: Do we need this building? Tree sales could happen in another building. Could fair activities happen in another building? Do we want to spend money to get it up to code by putting new trusses on it?
- Malecha: What’s your proposal?
- Question (speaker could not be distinguished): We’d have to talk to the DNR to see if they need to have the building right now. If you come up with a cost analysis for putting new trusses and a new roof, do you want those figures?
- Malecha: Yes, I think we have to have those numbers/
- Question (speaker could not be distinguished): But you’re not on board with putting new tin on the shingles?
- Malecha: Right, I don’t want to do that.
- Underdahl: Today we need to decide if we’re going forward with a bid for a new roof. Other choices require additional data.
- Hoisington: I’m hearing from you that the building is condemned? Can we get a determination, is it dangerous or not?
- A: No one has said it’s dangerous, but they are concerned about putting additional weight on it, because it was not built using standard construction practices. Last roof was around the 1980’s. Recommends canceling the bid we awarded, and then further review through the building committee, then bring recommendation back to the full committee.
- Purfeerst: Suggests having fair board and master gardeners meet to discuss future uses.
- Docken: There’s no heat in the building, right?
- Correct.
- Malecha: We need the numbers to decide what direction to go in, such as new roof, new trusses.
- Docken: Hoisington, if you want an engineer who is willing to look at it and tell you whether it can handle the snow load. I doubt there is an engineer who will do that.
- Hoisington: We need to explore it and move on it. It needs to be addressed.
- Docken: Encouraged working with master gardeners — a moderate sized building that would house the two. We could do a pole building of some kind there.
- Purfeerst: I’d be interested in cost analysis of trusses and roof on top of existing cinder blocks, not bids
- Underdahl: Also need to do a needs analysis.
- Q: What’s the backup plan?
- Action item: Verdick will cancel the existing bid.
- Fairgrounds conservation building roof: Staff recommending not to go forward with the roofing project on this building due to concerns with the roof being able to hold snow load.
Observer had to exit the meeting at 9:54 am, missing soil and water building update, highway, and finance.
