Mill Creek View Volume XXIII - Issue 18 September 2020 A 8
by Jacob Lambert Snohomish County is working with local farmers and distributors to connect people who sometimes struggle to access food with regular supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables, delivered almost to their doorsteps. The Nourishing Neighborhoods program is part of the countys response to the COVID-19 crisis and is managed from the Snohomish Coun- ty Emergency Coordination Center. The new program has leveraged federal CARES Act funding to identify options for dis- tributing food to places in the county where data suggest people have been particularly hard hit by economic disruption linked to the pandemic and also have relatively limited access to grocery stores and food banks. Since June, the program has provided roughly 2,700 free boxes of produce to community mem- bers at seven apartment complexes in Everett, Lynnwood, Marysville, Snohomish, Monroe and Bothell. The project built on the countys planning to get food and other resources to people after dam- age from an earthquake, severe snowstorm or other disaster reshapes the community, said Ja- son Biermann, director of the Snohomish County Dept. of Emergency Management. Nourishing Neighborhoods really became a
Nourishing Neighborhoods connect local produce to needy families
way to get food - locally sourced food - more close to where some of these population islands are, Biermann said. Linda Neunzig, the countys Agriculture Coordinator, said the program has addressed the uncertainty that farmers faced because of the pandemics impacts on their typical distribution networks and also addressed residents worries about access to food. Nourishing Neighborhoods is making sure the fruits and vegetables that our farmers are growing right here in our backyard gets directly to the people most in need, Neunzig said. The countys financial support for local farms has been wonderful, as has Nourishing Neigh- borhoods reach into the community, said Vince Caruso, owner of Caruso Farms in Snohomish. This program has been great because we are able to see our product go to all different demo- graphics, he said. The Nourishing Neighborhoods effort has been staffed by county employees assigned to the communitys COVID-19 response, plus vol- unteer interpreters from the Snohomish Health District Medical Reserve Corps. Much of the produce distributed by Nour- ishing Neighborhoods has come from farms in Snohomish County and elsewhere in Western Washington. Snohomish Countys Light Rail Communi- ties project will host a virtual workshop seeking public input. A workshop for future planning decisions for the geographic area near planned light rail sta- tions in unincorporated county will be available through September 25. This workshop is part of the second phase (subarea planning) of the multi- year Light Rail Communities project. The workshop explores the topics of growth and housing and seeks public input on where they envision different housing types being located. The first phase, station area planning, of the project was centered around gathering public in- put on planned light rail station locations. The result of that two-year process culminated in the county council passing a resolution indicating a publicly favored option. Find more information about that work and a video stream of the presentation to council on the project web page at www.snohomishcountywa. gov/4068/Light-Rail-Communities. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leverage major transportation investments to benefit Snohomish County, said Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers. Final decisions on the actual station locations and alignment will be made by the Sound Transit Board, but the countys project will help inform a Subarea Plan and future transportation planning. It will also inform the countys Growth Management Act Com- prehensive Plan and regional planning efforts. The voter-approved Sound Transit 2 and Sound Transit 3 will extend light rail from North- gate to Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood and eventually onto Everett via Paine Field. In the ST3 plan, two stations will be located in the unincorporated county at 164th St. at the Ash Way Station and 128th St. at the Mariner Station near their respective intersection with I-5.
Future of housing near planned light rail workshop
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