In early November 2023, the Ottawa Food Advisory Board announced they would be pausing meetings and activities. They further stated, “certain programs, including Senior Project Fresh, which distributes farmers market coupons to local senior citizens through federal funding that the Ottawa Food coordinator facilitated and coordinated through local agencies, and gleaning and produce donations from local farmers’ markets – specifically in Hudsonville, Spring Lake and Georgetown Township – will no longer continue.”
Ottawa Food is a conglomerate of over 45 local non-profits and government agencies that work to provide food to people in need. Many community members depend on their services. They are supported through donations from the public, government grants, and funding provided by Ottawa County and other government entities. Per a recent Ottawa County meeting, it was estimated that combined financial resources of this conglomerate is a whopping $220,000,000, yet this group claimed that budget cuts to the Ottawa County Department of Public Health (OCDPH) led them to pause their current operational model.
The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners (OCBOC) discussed the pause of Ottawa Food and questioned OCDPH and Ottawa Food representatives during the November 21, 2023, Ottawa County Board of Commissioner meeting (2:12:50). The meeting clearly revealed that the actions taken by OCDPH and Ottawa Food were not done to provide the best possible services to hungry residents, but were rather about resisting oversight and maintaining the status quo. The OCDPH and the Ottawa Food Advisory Board were willing to make hungry residents suffer in order to send a message to the OCBOC.
The Ottawa Food Advisory Board works in partnership with the OCDPH. Since 2011, Ottawa County has funded the position of Ottawa Food Coordinator to guide the participating organizations and help the food programs run smoothly. Much like a superintendent works for a school board, and a county administrator works for a county board, the food coordinator works for the food board, but is paid through county funding.
During the September 26, 2023, Ottawa County Board of Commissioner meeting, when the health department budget was finalized, the commissioners made it very clear that their intention was for the Ottawa Food program to continue operations. In fact, County Administrator John Gibbs stated (5:13:35), “Without any additional general funding contribution Ottawa Food does not need to be cut. That is the directive that I've given to the health department; to not cut it within the current budget.” He further stated, “my desire is that the county’s involvement will be unchanged; with our coordinator who helps to coordinate those 45 groups.”
Despite direction from the commissioners and Gibbs’ directive to continue the Ottawa Food program unchanged, the OCDPH chose to eliminate the Ottawa Food coordinator position. Following this organizational change, the Ottawa Food Advisory Board then elected to pause operations because, apparently, the 45-member conglomerate lacked the managerial acumen and intestinal fortitude to take on the duties of one program coordinator. Essentially, the Ottawa Food Advisory Board used the elimination of the coordinator position as an excuse for why they could no longer provide services to hungry residents.
This was clarified during the November 21, 2023 OCBOC meeting. Speaking to the BOC, Lisa Uganski who represented both the OCDPH and Ottawa Food stated, (2:16:50) “Over 70% of Ottawa Food members voted to take a pause because this position was essentially eliminated when the budget was cut. That wasn’t a decision of the Health Department, that was a decision of Ottawa Food and its members.”
Board Chairman Joe Moss discussed the Ottawa Food Advisory Board. (2:30:00) “The board at Ottawa Food is comprised of two health department members; you being one of them. Community Action House has two members. They receive a significant amount of funding from the county. MSU Extension has one member as well, which also receives a substantial amount of funding from the county. You’re saying that the members of the county, MSU Extension, and Community Action House felt that it was important to cancel these programs and tell all of the members of Ottawa Food that they had to be cancelled, and shut down the gleaning and shut down Senior Project Fresh, even though you know it’s critical?”
To make this even more interesting, on December 6, 2023, Ottawa Food Advisory Board member Christian Kleinjans announced he will be challenging District 2 Commissioner Lucy Ebel in the May recall election.
Vice Chair Silvia Rhodea explained some of the ways Ottawa Food is funded by Ottawa County. (2:54:00) “Ottawa Food was provided three staff, and significant County funding has been provided to its coalition partners. The core groups connected to the Ottawa Food Advisory Board are Community Action House, Community Spoke, and MSU Extension. Ottawa County has funded these related groups at the following levels over the past two years. [] On December 2, 2022, Ottawa County granted Community Action House $486,000 for use over three years, specifically to manage the Ottawa Food program; including three full-time staff over the period of December 14, 2022 to December 31, 2024 as well as other expenses. [] In 2022, Ottawa County gave Community Spoke $70,000. In 2023, Ottawa County gave Community Spoke $45,000. MSU Extension was given $264,000 in October of 2022, and is asking for $272,000 in November of 2023. Since October 2022 alone, these core groups, which form the core leadership of Ottawa Food, when you would look at the advisory board, have been given a total of nearly a million dollars by the county.”
Commissioner Gretchen Cosby asked about the number of community members served by the Ottawa Food program. (2:43:14) Lisa Uganski from the Ottawa County Health Department provided some numbers for FY23:
350 low-income seniors
800 migrant farm workers and their families were reached with food distribution
480 community members through Real Food Can Connect Us Cultural Cooking Classes
7,500 resource guides distributed
100 community members educated through interactive cooking demonstrations and nutrition education
10,000 families interacted with at tabling events
120 families served through Holland Middle School Greenhouse Partnership
Commissioner Gretchen Cosby then did some rough math and approximated the cost of the program to be $8,800 for each community member served. She stated, (2:59:50) “38 partner organizations with Ottawa Food as a collaborative. They have a total budget revenue of $220,000,000. [] Even when I asked about number of community members served, I approximated 1,500 for the middle schoolers, so I rounded to about 25,000. That’s $8,800 dollars apiece. I would love to see outcomes for that spend.”
Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea questioned the funding claims and raised concerns about facilitators. (2:56:00) “This raises questions about the claim that Ottawa Food doesn't have enough resources to continue normal operations. [] We've been giving Community Spoke a significant amount of funding, and my understanding is that Community Spoke helps to coordinate the actions of nonprofits to help meet the needs of the community. They are interestingly also on the advisory board of Ottawa Food. [] Community Spoke is supposed to be facilitating in this role, but they have been absent from coming and speaking to the board this entire year, besides January; and they were part of this decision to go to the press instead of coming back to a finance committee meeting and working through the needs that they saw were in the county.”
Vice Chair Rhodea then made a statement that illustrates why the Ottawa Impact commissioners seem to be continual targets of the establishment. (2:59:10) “I would like us to take a little time for us to think through some of the relationships we have with providers like Community Spoke. [] Perhaps we need to look at reallocating some of those funds. [] …where we could ensure that important initiatives are not affected by political actions.”
Just like Hambleygate, the narrative surrounding Ottawa Food is not about looking out for the best interests of Ottawa County residents, but more about taking down Ottawa Impact aligned commissioners. This is about keeping an overly comfortable government establishment system in place, and it is another attempt to infect local residents with Ottawa Impact Derangement Syndrome (OIDS). The board made it clear that they wanted Ottawa Food funded. To discredit the Ottawa Impact board members, those entities funded through taxpayer dollars, including the county health department, chose to create chaos in order to gaslight the public, who may not always have the time to figure what is really happening. The best way to create chaos in this instance was to stop providing food to those in need.
In case you are not familiar, OIDS is caused by a progressive vision of how government and society should work. OIDS spreads most easily among those not grounded in solid constitutional principles, as they are more susceptible to obsessively biased and repetitive media reporting which portrays the Ottawa Impact commissioners as secretive, destructive elected representatives. They are not. They are local residents seeking to remove government waste and abuse, and the establishment does not appreciate their efforts.
As oversight of county programs continues and funding is more efficiently allocated to reduce waste, the establishment is likely to continue to punish the public by spinning narratives and shutting down services the public does find useful. In Grand Haven, school officials had playgrounds inspected right before the new school bond election. Two playgrounds were completely shut down, and some play items were roped off at other schools. This appeared to be an attempt to show voters that the school board must receive the bond money or else.... This is the same story with Ottawa Food. Vice Chair Rhodea summed up this incident in one statement. (2:58:35)
“Having food for our people, especially people in need, is really important; and it’s not a political game.”