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Home My WebLink About04/07/2026 - Meeting Minutes www.SLC.gov 451 S State Street www.SLCMayor.com 0 Salt Lake City,UT 84111 SLC FOOD MICROGRANT • COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Tuesday, April1 The following members of the SLC Food Microgrant Selection Committee were present: In-Person Maria Schwarz, Chair Leesie Clegg, Vice Chair&Secretary Karina Villalba Electronic Maria Romero Josh Rebollo James Hunter The following members were absent: Marifer Rivera Minutes by: Leesie Clegg, Salt Lake City Sustainability Department Meeting Time: 2:38 p.m. I Time Adjourned: 4:07 p.m. 1. Welcome & Roll Call Chair Schwarz welcomed everyone and called role. She announced that Committee Member Rivera would be out for this meeting. 2. Approve Meeting Minutes Chair Schwarz shared a draft of meeting minutes from March 31, 2026 and called for any adjustments, questions or concerns. Committee Member Villalba made a motion to approve and Committee Member Rebollo seconded with a unanimous approval by the committee. 3. Review Community Food Grant Application Scores/Questions Chair Schwarz reminded the committee that there are about $28,800 to award to Community Grant applicants and a total of 38 applicants for the Community Food Microgrant. She ran through the review process as a reminder. www.SLC.gov 451 S State Street www.SLCMayor.com Salt Lake City,UT 84111 Community Grant Applications: Edison Elementary There were no further comments by the committee about Edison Elementary. Evelyn's Prime Poultry Committee Member Rebollo shared that he would like to know more about this applicant's community partners. Chair Schwarz felt it was unique and was curious about what it is. Committee Member Clegg suggested looking into who they are further. Committee Member Villalba agreed and thought it might be someone she knows. Committee Member Hunterjoined at 2:46 pm. Food Not Bombs Salt Lake City Committee Member Villalba wondered if this applicant's ask was really getting at the heart of what this fund is asking for. Committee Member Hunter felt less inclined to give them full marks because it is their 2nd or 3rd year in a row. Frog Bench Farms Chair Schwarz felt a greens washer is more like a business growth cost than a grant. Vice Chair Clegg moved her score from 4 to a 3. Committee Member Romero changed her score from a 3 to a 4 because the organization does keep track of SNAP and EBT beneficiaries. Committee Member Rebollo changed his score from a 5 to 4 due to Chair Schwarz comments. Future Craft Farm Collective Committee Member Villalba felt this organization's project was more about growing their business than growing food. Chair Schwarz felt their organization might be too new and felt it would take time to build the educational classes into their operations. Committee Member Hunter felt similarly. Garden Crew's Braided Roots Soil Share Program Vice Chair Clegg lowered her score from 4 to 3 due to lack of information and an ambitious budget. Chair Schwarz agreed. Committee Member Villalba felt the newness of the business and its for-profit nature were a negative aspect for her. Committee Member Rebollo changed his score from 4 to a 3. Green SLC Chair Schwarz expressed similar concerns as with other school gardens. Committee Member Villalba knows the person who runs this and knows they do a lot of work on the West Side. She felt similarly. Committee Member Romero wanted to know what schools they have successfully implemented this program in already. Committee Member Villalba gave more context on the man who runs the organization. Grow the Village Vice Chair Clegg moved her score from 4 to a 3 because she felt a new non-profit needs more foundation before starting a project as big as was proposed. Committee Member Villalba moved her score from 1 to a 2 because she felt it is a good project. Committee Member Romero felt the project focused on people who don't have access to backyards. www.SLC.gov 451 S State Street www.SLCMayor.com 0 Salt Lake City,UT 84111 Hartland Community 4 Youth & Families Committee Member Villalba shared context about changes occurring in the organization and what she learned about how they would handle those changes. She changed her score from a 2 to 4. Herrera Food Movement For Community Nutrition Chair Schwarz flagged this application as unspecific most likely entirely Al generated. Committee Member Romero changed her score from a 5 to a 3 for the that reason. Committee Member Rebollo revised his score from 3 to a 2 for similar reasons. Committee Member Villalba justified her score as a 1 because the timeline and budget did not check out for her. Also, she felt that there is curriculum out there already and that she would have liked to see them connecting with others rather than reinventing the wheel. Committee Member Hunter changed his score from a 3 to a 2 for the same reason. International Rescue Committee New Roots Program Chair Schwarz brought up the previous discussion from last week on overlap in New Roots on multiple applications. She also felt this application would require checking in public lands on agreements around the proposed project site to know what kind of financing is lined up for them. Committee Member Villalba was not sure if this would be going towards IRC or towards farmers. Committee Member Villalba felt that the organization is already funded and that this grant may not be the lynch pin for them in the way it would be for farmers. Committee Member Hunter gave clarification due to his background at IRC. a hawks Vice Chair Clegg moved her score from a 5 to a 4 due to lack of specificity in their budget. Mazzella Garden of Fletcher Court Vice Chair Clegg gave some background on why her score was a 2. Committee Member Rebollo felt the population and scope was relatively small so he moved his score from 3 to a 2. Chair Schwarz changed her score from 3 to a 2 for similar impact reasons. Committee Member Villalba changed her score from a 3 to a 2. Mother & Bean Chair Schwarz felt this application was more of a business development grant rather than a communityfood grant. Committee Member Villalba felt the passion was great, but an early-stage start-up was a negative aspect for her. Committee Member Romero felt the project they applied for would not actually be supporting people who are post-partum, so she changed score from a 5 to a 2. New Neighborhood Food Movement Committee Member Romero moved her score from a 3 to a 2 because she felt the previous successes were not clear. Vice Chair Clegg changed her score from a 5 to a 3 because the application felt ambitious and the partnerships were unclear. New Seed Farmers Chair Schwarz flagged that the applicants are planning to be on the New Roots Glendale Farm site. www.SLC.gov 451 S State Street www.SLCMayor.com 0 Salt Lake City,UT 84111 Rose Park Bee Club Committee Member Villalba moved her score from a 3 to a 4 because she was very impressed with what they accomplished last year. Committee Member Rebollo appreciated the variety and wanted to support bees in this funding round. Save the Lake Farm Chair Schwarz was concerned that the bulk of this application's budget went to ineligible uses of the funds (i.e. wildlife and trail making) and that being based in Brighton, its impact on Salt Lake City residents is unclear. 4. Next Steps Chair Schwarz paused the discussion and said the committee would finish discussing the rest of the applications at the next meeting. The committee agreed to add on another meeting in order to get through all the applications with the appropriate amount of discussion. 5. Adjourn Vice Chair Clegg made a motion to adjourn and Committee Member Villalba seconded, all unanimously voted in approval. APPROVED: Mar Sc arz(Apr 14,2026 16:13:35 MDT) DATE: 04/14/2026