23 Apr Ronda Rutledge and the Sustainable Food Policy Board

Ronda Rutledge knows sustainability. As the Executive Director of the Sustainable Food Center and a founding member of the city’s Sustainable Food Policy Board, Rutledge has made a career of making sure Central Texas has a lasting future. But what does she think the future holds for our part of the world? “The jury is still out.”

Pointing to the current legislative session at the Capitol, as well as the new class of City Council Members, Rutledge says, “We’re in the middle of a really critical moment in time.” There are a lot of challenges facing our future, and there are a lot of people to bring on board to the idea of sustainability. “But that’s why this board exists, and that’s why we’re working as hard as we are,” she says.

What then is sustainability? And what is the SFPB doing about it?

“I use sustainable as analogous to lasting. Anything that we’re doing on our planet in an effort to make it lasting – whether that be with our water supply, our soil quality, our food production – that to me is what sustainable means,” Rutledge says. 

And, to be sure, the SFPB has a lot on its plate. “We serve as an advisory body to the City Council and the Travis County Commissioner’s Court concerning the need to improve the availability of safe, nutritious, locally and sustainably grown food at reasonable prices for all residents,” Rutledge says.

During 2014, Rutledge served as the chair of the SFPB, and she points to a number of successes achieved under her leadership. For instance, the board made a recommendation that the City work to improve farmer’s market access and awareness for residents receiving food stamps. The Sustainable Food Center operates a number of farmer’s markets in Austin, and the organization has a program that allows customers with food stamps to “double their dollars”, effectively matching private funds with public food assistance dollars. The SFPB found that, not only were Austin residents unaware that they could double their grocery money, many were unaware that they were eligible for food assistance in the first place. As a result of the board’s recommendation, the City allocated funding for a position that would work to improve awareness of and enrollment in food assistance programs.

Prior to 2014, Rutledge hastens to point out, the SFPB had some of its most signal achievements. She says that the City created two different staff positions as a result of the board’s advocacy. Now, Austin has a Food Policy Manager, Edwin Marty, who works in the Office of Sustainability. “We were really instrumental in raising awareness that there was nobody within the City whose focus was on food,” Rutledge says.

Looking forward to 2015, the SFPB hopes to build on its successes, and it has come up with four goals to guide its activity. These include the preservation of farmland, which Rutledge says Central Texas is losing at a rate of nine acres a day. But what she says most emphatically, and what she probably best embodies, is to get involved.

“Show up and make your voices heard.” There are a number of ways that citizens can get involved, and interested readers can check out the SFPB website for some of the specifics. However, Rutledge suggests that participation might be the most powerful tool for affecting change. “We have a unique opportunity now with this 10-member council," Rutledge says. "Every time City Council meets, there is an opportunity for a citizen to stand up there and make their voice heard.”