Advisory Commission
As established by City-County Ordinance No. 337, the Indianapolis Community Food Access Advisory Commission or IndyFAC, provides oversight and guidance to the Indianapolis Community Food Access Coalition. The commission also set the rules for ICFAC governance and establishes its procedures for conducting public meetings as permitted or required by law. Commission members are comprised of city agency officials, mayoral and community appointees, Marion County organizations involved in food access, as well as local farmers or food entrepreneurs. Check out our commission members below!
Sibeko Jywanza
Co-chair Community Appointee
Milele Kennedy
Co-chair City of Indianapolis Appointee
Tysha Ahmad
Farmer/Food Entrepreneur Representative
Julie Burns
JumpIN for Healthy Kids
Sandy Cummings
Marion County Public Health Department
Jamie Valentine
Indianapolis Foundation
Laura Dodds
Purdue Extension Marion County
Liz Durden
The H.O.P.E. Team
Kate Howe
Indy Hunger Network (IHN)
Graham Melendez
Indiana Department of Administration
Anthony Murdock
Murdock LLC
Tatjana Rebelle
Community Representative
Brooke Thomas
Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo)
IndyFAC Committees
- Work on food equity plan – for all agencies.
- Create a food equity toolkit for everyone to use.
- Examine the city’s policies that relate to food with equity lens. Would involve working with CFAC (and others) to develop an equity plan (connects to emergency preparedness too).
- Goes beyond putting equity into what we are already doing but a wholesale redesign maybe of structures, capacity, policy etc. to build equitable food system.
- Support the growth of urban agriculture in Indianapolis.
- Increase the pipeline of growers in the City – introduce farming, increase capacity building and training for farmers
- Improve access to land, infrastructure, and equipment for growers in the City
- Include policy strategy(ies).
- Support advocacy and policy change to increase incentives for local food procurement
- Suggestions: zoning for high tunnels and other zoning and land bank or land trust, land access issues, and affordable water access)
- Include program strategy(ies).
- Fundraising for programs that provide outreach and education, training, and infrastructure for growing food in Indianapolis
- Suggestions: large farm equipment and tool rental/sharing; workforce development (recruitment, training) on all/cyclical aspects of farming.
- Increase enrollment in SNAP and WIC, and expand use of Fresh Bucks for SNAP recipients.
- Includes major outreach and education effort as well as partner collaboration (agencies, companies e.g., benefits, providers, etc).
- Help ensure healthy food outlets accept SNAP, WIC, and Fresh Bucks where appropriate.
- Support the creation of a food hub in Indianapolis that supports local agriculture, improves access to healthy foods, and advances equity in the local food system.
- Support the aggregation, distribution, and storage for local growers.
- Support selling/distribution to retailers.
- Includes infrastructure (including cold storage for aggregation), mobility of food across the food system, food recovery / food waste reduction (e.g., value-added processing as well and donations to food bank or pantry).
- Advocacy and fundraising (e.g., tax benefits, funds, and infrastructure)
- filling openings on the Commission
- working on recommendations for the organization of CFAC