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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/15/2025 - Meeting Minutes ERIN MENDENHALL DEPARTMENT Mayor of SUSTAINABILITY SLCgreen SLC FOOD MICROGRANT • COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Tuesday, April 15, 2025 The following members of the SLC Food Microgrant Selection Committee were present: In-Person Maria Schwarz, Chair Diana Ramirez, Vice Chair Monica O'Malley, Secretary, non-voting member Joshua Rebollo Karina Villalba Electronic James Hunter Marifer Rivera Darby Egbert The following members were absent: None Also Present: None Minutes by Monica O'Malley, Salt Lake City Sustainability Department Meeting Time: 3:30 p.m. I Time Commenced: 4:33 p.m. 1. Roll Call 2. Approve Meeting Minutes The Committee reviewed the draft April 1, 2025, meeting minutes. With a motion from Committee Member Villalba and a second from Committee Member Rebollo, the voting members present unanimously approved and adopted the official written minutes for the SLC Food Microgrant Selection Committee Meeting held on April 1, 2025. ERIN MENDENHALL DEPARTMENT Mayor of SUSTAINABILITY SLCgreen 3. Review Community Grant Application Rankings Chair Schwarz shared the final scores for each organization, calculated using the weighted scoring categories the Committee agreed upon at the previous meeting. Chair Schwarz showed the group how the organizations rank in the different scoring categories, and explained the rankings can be used to help guide their funding decisions. Chair Schwarz underscored the summarized score categories, being proposed sub-total, overall recommendation, and total scores, and noted that the same 6 organizations ranked highest in all 3 categories. Chair Schwarz explained that a score of 70% is a typical benchmark in procurement decision making, as proposals with scores below 70% are generally not awarded. In addition to the score rankings, Chair Schwarz pointed out that the group can look at general information about the organizations, including budget size, location, and whether they were funded by the Program in the past, to help determine a funding recommendation. Chair Schwarz highlighted that the Camarilla Circle Community Garden is likely not eligible for funding due to the project being on public land. Chair Schwarz reminded the Committee that the total Community Grant budget is $33,500, and, if there is a minimal amount of money left over after a funding decision is made, the Committee can choose to put it towards hosting orientation events for the Program. Committee Member Egbert asked how much it would cost to fully fund all applicants with a total score above 80%. Chair Schwarz demonstrated it would cost $33,028.46, leaving $471.54 in funding. Committee Member Rebollo asked how many of the top 5 scoring organizations received a Food Microgrant award last year, and Chair Schwarz replied that 4 had, including Proyecto Xilonen, Food Not Bombs Salt Lake City, New American Goat Club, and Vanavil Community Garden. Committee Member Egbert underscored that these organizations have relatively smaller budgets and are likely not receiving a lot of funding from sources outside the Program. Committee Member Hunter expressed his support in funding these smaller organizations, as they have a large impact on the community, and a small amount of funding goes a long way. ERIN MENDENHALL DEPARTMENT Mayor %0 of SUSTAINABILITY SLCgreen The Committee looked at how organizations rank in terms of budget size to determine which may have a larger capacity to achieve their project without grant funding. Determining that Community Health Center, Inc. and Neighborhood House are both high scoring applications with organizational budgets of$1 million or more, the Committee discussed potentially granting these organizations partial funding. Committee Member Villalba explained that organizations with large budgets still may not have budget allocated towards their proposed project, emphasizing their need for grant funding. Chair Schwarz pointed out there is a big gap in overall recommendation scores for the top scoring applicants, noting the top 6 scoring organizations received overall recommendation scores above 94%, with the next highest recommendation score at 82.9%. With this, the Committee looked at how much it would cost to fully fund the top 6 scoring applications and partially fund organizations with total and overall recommended scores above 70%. 4. Finalize Community Grant Funding Recommendations After further discussion, the Committee decided to: • Award the amounts requested by the top 6 scoring organizations with overall recommendation scores above 94% at the full amount requested. • Award 6 additional organizations with overall recommendation scores above 70%. o Organizations in this group with relatively low funding requests (between about $300 - $1,500) received the full amount requested. o Organizations with high funding requests (about $5,000) received partial funding in the amount of$1,500. With a motion from Committee Member Hunter, the Committee unanimously voted to approve the funding recommendation highlighted below and put the remaining $302.13 towards hosting awardee orientation events. Proposal Overall Funding Funding Organization Sub- Recommendation Total Request Recommendation Total Proyecto Xilonen 93.5% 97.1% 94.0% $5,000.00 $5,000.00 Food Not Bombs Salt Lake City 91.3% 97.1% 92.1% $5,000.00 $5,000.00 ERIN MENDENHALL DEPARTMENT Mayor of SUSTAINABILITY SLCgreen Food,Movement and You,U.U.Center for 92•0% 91.4% 91.9% $5,000.00 $5,000.00 Community Nutrition Community Health Centers,Inc. 91.1% 94.3% 91.6% $5,000.00 $5,000.00 New American Goat Club 88.0% 94.3% 88.8% $4,600.00 $4,600.00 Vanavil Community Garden 87.5% 94.3% 88.4% $1,905.19 $1,905.19 Neighborhood House 86.5% 77.1% 85.2% $5,000.00 $1,500.00 Frog Bench Farms 83.3% 82.9% 83.2% $1,523.27 $1,523.27 Rose Park Bee Club 79.4% 82.9% 79.9% $5,000.00 $1,500.00 Urban Pepper Project 79.2% 77.1% 79.0% $4,990.27 $1,500.00 Orenda Urban Farm 75.6% 74.3% 75.5% $369.41 $369.41 Backyard Urban Garden Farms LLC(BUG Farms) 74.4% 80.0% 75.2% $300.00 $300.00 After passing the final funding recommendation, the Committee discussed whether organizations should be eligible to apply for Food Microgrants next year if they were awarded Program funding previously. Committee Member Rebollo said he thinks organizations should not be denied the opportunity to apply if they received funding in the past, for they may be seeking funding to pursue new endeavors as their organization grows. The group agreed that a question should be added to future Community Microgrant applications that will ask past awardees how they will use the funding to build on what they received before, and whether they will use it to evolve their work and capacity or maintain what they have been doing. 5. Adjourn With a motion from Committee Member Egbert, the Committee voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting. Ma-ia e ' cChwaa 05/13/2025 APPROVED: Mariae Schwarz(May 13,202512:51MDT) Date: Maria Schwarz, Committee Chair This Document and the recording constitute the official minutes of the SLC Food Microgrant Selection Committee meeting held April 15, 2025.