ORDER-2016-2 : Acceptance of MAPC Plan4 Health Grant

Transcript (~10 min @ 6:10)

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▶ 6:07 Speaker 2: acceptance of a map see plan for health grant motion for immediate consideration

▶ 6:16 Gail Infurna: alderman Makati Margolis asked for immediate consideration is there an objection seeing no objections alderman Makati Margolis suspend the rules to

▶ 6:26 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: bring forward the appropriate city officials alderman Makati Margolis is

▶ 6:29 Gail Infurna: looking to suspend the rules is there a second second invite alderman Mortimer all those in favor of suspension of the rules say aye all those opposed the rules are suspended Alderman McAteer my goals with you could

▶ 6:48 Speaker 6: we have miss clay the here so this is actually mass in motion grant funds we

▶ 7:02 Speaker 7: were informed this is the mass in motion grant right for this no no the MAPC

▶ 7:06 Speaker 6: healthy mental healthy food yeah that's mass in motion okay so we were informed at the beginning of the fist this fiscal year that with the state budget not being done at the end of you know by July 1st we ended up getting information about grants late not when we would normally have them in advance so we were informed after July 1st that we were getting an additional ten thousand dollars for our mass in motion grant which is active living and healthy eating and the money is for actually the healthy eating part of it to help businesses with distribution of getting healthy foods for their businesses not for the grocery stores there they have their distribution but for more of the convenience stores and it's only for this fiscal year is there any further

▶ 8:05 Gail Infurna: comments from the members Alderman McAteer-Margolis Thank You Madam

▶ 8:09 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Chairman Madam President Pro Tem we're not sharing this with any other

▶ 8:19 Speaker 6: communities are we actually we are this is Melrose and Wakefield all of our mass

▶ 8:24 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: and motion money is Melrose Wakefield and I do I have been seeing that we have several new eateries that have been designated as healthy establishments does this grant cover expanding those types of yeah take out fast food if you

▶ 8:39 Speaker 6: will yeah it will we're gonna be using some of this money to higher pace for some interns we've been well because of where we're located we have a lot of great schools right near us and a lot of graduate programs in public health right near us so we've been really fortunate in recruiting some really great public health interns over the last few years and Kara has done a great job with them and so we have one actually right now who's for the whole year so we would use some of this money for stipends for for interns because it's a really great incentive because there's a lot of internships out there but most of them are not paid and we have the opportunity to give them a small stipend then it it helps and then increasing CARES hours two hours a week to help supervise the interns but only during the course of this grant and one final question this

▶ 9:32 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: does not require any match on the part of the city no match no thank you

▶ 9:38 Speaker 7: also thank you Alderman Medeiros did you have your hand up yes thank you

▶ 9:46 Monica C. Medeiros: Madam President you said this helps with helps the stores obtain distribution can you explain that a little bit more well sure I can't get into the details

▶ 9:56 Speaker 6: because Kara does the details and I really just do the big-picture stuff but the different grocery the different convenience stores all use different distributors and they have very specific delivery times and we're dealing with fresh produce. You know, it can't be once every two weeks because then you don't ever have fresh produce because things have turned. So part of it is working with other communities. For example, with our original Mass in Motion grant, when we were talking to the Shell station, example we found out that all the shell stations in Massachusetts and pretty much the East Coast use the same distributor so it's really not efficient for a shell station to be doing something on their own it makes way more sense to be working with all the shell stations through corporate with their distributor working with the state to help do that so be kind of the same thing with all these other independent ones to help coordinate using the same distributors so they can just sorry come through town all at once and come more frequently because it'll be more worth their while instead of just going to one place they'd be coming through to hopefully five or six places and then again with the produce they need to come more often otherwise you have fresh produce and then no produce for a while and then fresh booze and no produce and

▶ 11:27 Monica C. Medeiros: And, I mean, is there any, does this, do we get into, you know, recommending certain vendors over other vendors?

▶ 11:32 Speaker 6: No, no, no. It's just helping coordinate. We don't recommend.

▶ 11:37 Monica C. Medeiros: And I know, like, we see the publicity come through in the e-mails that, you know, this market has become a healthy market, and sometimes it's in the newspaper. Aside from, you know, the publicity aspect, is there any kind of benefit to the stores for becoming a healthy market other than just knowing that it's doing good?

▶ 11:58 Speaker 6: Free advertising. I think that's a big thing because most of these convenience stores don't do any advertising. You know, it's just you happen to drive by it kind of thing. So they're getting free advertising through the newspapers and the mayor's blog and, you know, all the other Facebook that we use. and also there's a sign on them that they're a healthy store too so it's it's

▶ 12:21 Monica C. Medeiros: free advertising and does anybody go back and see if they're continuing to do

▶ 12:26 Speaker 6: it oh yeah oh yeah yeah that's a really good job for our interns no we definitely follow up and continue with them and you know we we do follow up we ask how is it going what are your problems you know what are barriers you have is there something we can do to help you so it's an ongoing relationship it's not just we've designated you and then we walk away no thank you thank you thank you

▶ 12:53 Robert A. Boisselle: Alderman Grosselle these public interns that you were referring to are they

▶ 12:59 Speaker 6: coming from the nearby colleges we get a lot from the BU School of Public Health

▶ 13:01 Robert A. Boisselle: okay are they getting is this part of their work study or credit that they're

▶ 13:07 Speaker 6: getting sometimes they need to do an interp internship for their degree and sometimes they just want to be out in the field so kind of part and parcel some some are using it for course credit and some are not using it for course credit some use it as a summer job and as I said some just really like doing being out in the field while they're getting their degree a little bit of

▶ 13:27 Robert A. Boisselle: everybody okay so this is not a salary that you're giving them it's basically a stipend that's a stipend cover costs and so forth the stipend to entice them to

▶ 13:38 Speaker 6: come here thank you thank you we have unpaid internships to recommend for

▶ 13:43 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: passage thank you madam president in the information that we received attached to the agenda it says that the budget will pay for staff time of coordinators corner store grocery store owners and interns and you addressed interns and coordinators is there a financial incentive for these corner stores slash grocery store owners it's sort of the way it reads it sounds like they're no

▶ 14:06 Speaker 6: I mean we don't pay them to do it okay we their incentive is additional business in additional advertising for their business okay so it's really don't

▶ 14:16 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: have time coordinators and interns but not no no okay great all right and they

▶ 14:25 Speaker 6: apply they apply with us we actually do outreach to them okay yeah we approach them and we've been you know doing it a little at a time and getting through

▶ 14:34 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: great yeah okay great well thank you I think it's a great program you know we're constantly seeing that the new listings of people that are jumping on this and it's important I think to create that kind of groundswell right

▶ 14:44 Speaker 6: this was all part originally of a Middlesex County grant that we were invited to join because we were a regional health department Melrose Wakefield because we really weren't big enough on our own so the other communities that are involved are places like Somerville and bigger communities but but we are involved now too which is great so once we got that original grant like a lot of the grants that we have once you get the first one it gives you openings the state doesn't always reopen and have all new RFRs because that's a lot of work they continue to give more money to the people that already have

▶ 15:26 Speaker 7: grants so great thank you thank you motion to recommend for passage second

▶ 15:30 Gail Infurna: Alderman Mortimer makes a motion for passage second by Alderman Boisselle the roll call vote and the clerk will yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes