Legislature(2019 - 2020)BARNES 124
03/18/2019 01:00 PM House RESOURCES
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation(s): Alaska Traditional Foods Movement | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE RESOURCES STANDING COMMITTEE
March 18, 2019
1:06 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative John Lincoln, Co-Chair
Representative Geran Tarr, Co-Chair
Representative Grier Hopkins, Vice Chair
Representative Sara Hannan
Representative Ivy Spohnholz
Representative Dave Talerico
Representative George Rauscher
Representative Sara Rasmussen
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Chris Tuck
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S): ALASKA TRADITIONAL FOODS MOVEMENT
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
MELISSA CHLUPACH, MS, RD, LD, Assistant Professor
Dietetics and Nutrition Program
University of Alaska Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-provided a PowerPoint presentation
entitled, "Alaska Traditional Foods Movement" and answered
questions.
AMY FOOTE, Senior Area Executive Chef
Alaska Native Medical Center
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-provided a PowerPoint presentation
entitled, "Alaska Traditional Foods Movement" and answered
questions.
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:06:06 PM
CO-CHAIR JOHN LINCOLN called the House Resources Standing
Committee meeting to order at 1:06 p.m. Representatives Hannan,
Talerico, Spohnholz, Rauscher, Tarr, and Lincoln were present at
the call to order. Representatives Hopkins and Rasmussen
arrived as the meeting was in progress.
^PRESENTATION(S): ALASKA TRADITIONAL FOODS MOVEMENT
PRESENTATION(S): ALASKA TRADITIONAL FOODS MOVEMENT
1:06:32 PM
CO-CHAIR LINCOLN announced that the only order of business would
be a presentation on the Alaska Traditional Foods Movement.
1:07:07 PM
MELISSA CHLUPACH, MS, RD, LD, Assistant Professor, Dietetics and
Nutrition Program, University of Alaska Anchorage, introduced a
PowerPoint presentation entitled, "Alaska Traditional Foods
Movement." Ms. Chlupach displayed maps of North America and
Alaska and pointed out, because of the limited road system in
the northern part of Alaska, many food products must be shipped
to villages via air, barge, or ferry and thus transportation
costs are very high (slides 1 and 2). Slide 3 pictured local
grocery markets in villages. Slide 4 illustrated the cost of
some items purchased in Kotzebue: Four fruit cups, $6.79;
bottled salad dressing, $8.19; a can of Tang, $9.99; infant
formula, $30.49; one gallon of milk, $9.39. Although some fresh
local produce is grown hydroponically, gathering traditional
foods is also expensive due to the cost of fuel. She stated the
most important, nutritious, and healing foods are traditional
foods. Ms. Chlupach asked the committee to imagine a situation
focused on the good feelings brought by certain foods; she then
asked the committee to imagine a situation in which one is
hospitalized far from home.
1:13:46 PM
MS. CHLUPACH spoke of the changes one suffers due to a medical
emergency and experiences found in a hospital setting; she
opined familiar foods can bring great comfort to those who are
suffering (slides 7 and 8).
1:16:09 PM
AMY FOOTE, Senior Area Executive Chef, Alaska Native Medical
Center, related a circumstance in which a patient was offered a
herring egg salad that brought her joy and healing (slides 9 and
10).
MS. CHLUPACH said within the Division of Environmental Health,
Food Safety and Sanitation Program, DEC, there is an existing
code that allows traditional foods to be donated to facilities
such as hospitals, long-term care facilities, schools, and
senior meals programs. The code stipulates donated foods must
be whole, gutted, or gilled, or as quarters, or roasts without
further processing. These regulations are designed to reduce
the potential cross contamination that can occur during the
processing of ground meat, stew meat, or fillets; a whole
product that is donated can subsequently be processed by the
recipient or by a processing facility. She related seal oil is
widely requested but is a prohibited food item because of the
possibility of botulism (slide 12); slide 13 listed other
prohibited foods. Ms. Chlupach explained committee the
Agriculture Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill) included language that
allows for the donation of traditional and indigenous foods to
certain institutions; although the Agriculture Improvement Act
of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) does not include the enabling language,
there is no problem because the language has been adopted into
Title 25 of the U.S. Code (slides 14 and 15). She further
explained in 2017, the Municipality of Anchorage adopted
terminology related to donating traditional foods to facilities
(slide 16). Ms. Chlupach directed attention to posters and a
"toolkit," included in the committee packet, that were created
by a group of organizations to clarify the food code about
acceptable donations, food storage, and processing (slide 17).
1:22:37 PM
MS. FOOTE advised prior to enactment of the 2014 Farm Bill, the
Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) began working with vendors
to procure traditional food items; she noted some traditional
foods cannot be purchased so she harvested several items
herself. Items that can be purchased include reindeer,
fiddlehead ferns, beach asparagus, salmon, and fish heads. Ms.
Foote personally harvested items such as spruce tips,
dandelions, and berries. In addition, the Alaska Professional
Hunters Association and others donate game meat (slides 19-21).
She said there are 32 ANMC traditional foods donation locations
throughout the state that supply foods and ingredients from many
regions via partially-donated shipping arrangements (slides 22
and 23). Slide 24 listed ANMC 2017 traditional foods that were
donated by professional hunters, recreational fishers, and other
sources. In 2018, donations included harbor seal; in 2019,
donations so far include beach greens (slides 25 and 26). Ms.
Foote described several ANMC menu items and how to prepare
herring eggs (slides 27-29).
1:28:40 PM
MS. FOOTE explained ANMC obtains seal meat from a subsistence
hunter in Ketchikan who teaches traditional methods of hunting.
The meat is shipped to ANMC where she makes and serves
complimentary meals of seal soup to patients every Tuesday, in
conjunction with the ANMC culture committee (slide 30). She
described additional menu items, noting only wild caught salmon
is served at ANMC (slides 31-33). Slides 34 and 35 illustrated
the ANMC patient menu which changes as items become available.
1:32:27 PM
CO-CHAIR TARR asked whether reindeer sausage was made at the
ANMC kitchen from donated products.
MS. FOOTE said donated products are labeled caribou, but all
products labeled reindeer are purchased from a farm. She
described other menu items that are made from donated items.
Ms. Foote continued to slide 36 and informed the committee
Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC)/Mt.
Edgecumbe Hospital implemented its traditional foods program in
2017 with a donation of deer harvested by its chef; additional
donations have included mountain goat, fish, plants, and berries
(slide 37).
MS. CHLUPACH directed attention to Utuqqanaat Inaat, Maniilaq
Association's 18-bed, long-term care facility in Kotzebue, that
previously was a senior care facility. Due to differing
regulations between senior care and long-term care facilities,
traditional foods that were served at the senior care facility
were no longer available, and the elders longed to return to a
menu including traditional foods. In response, DEC and [the
Division of Health Care Services, Department of Health and
Social Services] directed that the tundra should be considered
the elders' garden and permitted kitchens were allowed to
receive traditional game. To provide the game in 2015, plans
were made by various organizations for Maniilaq Association to
build the Siglauq, a traditional foods processing facility. The
first traditional menu item supplied by the Siglauq was 200
pounds of muskox confiscated from poachers by the Division of
Alaska Wildlife Troopers (DWT), Department of Public Safety
(slides 39-41).
1:41:32 PM
MS. CHLUPACH added seal meat and seal oil are offered to elders
at Niqipaq, a monthly potluck especially for elders (slides 42
and 43). Slide 44 pictured a wheelchair-accessible tundra
garden built by the Maniilaq Association. She turned attention
to schools and noted traditional foods are challenging for
schools because traditional foods must be donated, thus the
schools cannot be reimbursed; however, donations can be made by
commercial fleets directly to commercial processors through Fish
to School programs in Sitka, Cordova, Valdez, Dillingham, and
Bristol Bay (slide 46). She continued to the Alaska Food Bank
and coalition program, Help Meat (sic) the Need, that allows
hunters to donate wild game to the Food Bank of Alaska, which is
then processed into ground meat, packaged, and transported by
Northern Air Cargo to Anchorage (slide 48).
1:45:38 PM
REPRESENTATIVE RASMUSSEN asked whether formula and breast milk
can be transported by air cargo.
MS. CHLUPACH was unsure and deferred to the Alaska Food Bank or
ANMC. She then related inmates at the Department of Corrections
need the healing that is provided by traditional foods; at Yukon
Kuskokwim Correctional Center fish are donated to the center to
minimize food costs and provide traditional foods to inmates
(slide 50). Ms. Chlupach returned to the issue of seal oil and
advised in 2015, the Seal Oil Task Force - formed by a group of
Native organizations and state government - sought to develop
safety procedures for traditionally rendered seal oil that would
allow the seal oil to be offered to healthcare facilities, long-
term care facilities, senior meal programs, and schools. The
Maniilaq Association began its own seal oil project with staff
at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), Kodiak Seafood and
Marine Science Center, who tested pH and water content, and with
Professor Eric Johnson, University of Wisconsin, who studied
samples of blubber and seal oil related to botulism type E. She
said the study continues and is supported by DEC; in fact, once
a safe process is developed, DEC will offer a variance of the
prohibition [against seal oil] to the Utuqqanaat Inaat elders
(slides 51-53).
1:50:30 PM
CO-CHAIR LINCOLN commented on the use of seal oil in his
community.
REPRESENTATIVE RAUSCHER asked for more information on food
hazards.
MS. FOOTE acknowledged any food item is potentially hazardous,
for example, botulism is found in improperly packed tomato
sauce. Seal oil is processed differently in regions of the
state and there is a history of safely processed of seal oil in
the Kotzebue area, but there are higher occurrences [of
contamination] elsewhere. She cautioned all food processing
must eliminate opportunities for bacteria growth such E. coli.
MS. CHLUPACH added hazard analysis critical control point
(HACCP), relates to problems during the growing, harvesting,
hunting, or consuming of food products. She said seal oil is a
superfood and the Maniilaq Association seeks to combine
thousands of years of Native science with Western science. She
advised Alaska has the highest number of botulism cases in the
U.S., if not in the world.
REPRESENTATIVE RASMUSSEN asked whether the state utilizes new
technology that can test for bacteria that cause food poisoning.
1:55:26 PM
MS. FOOTE said no. At ANMC, all food is screened, and food
safety temperature guidelines are observed; the state has tools
to identify parasites in wild game and fish. The policy at ANMC
is that donated food in a suspect condition is not served, but
may be donated to the zoo or returned to the land.
1:57:28 PM
REPRESENTATIVE HANNAN gave her personal experience working as a
roadkill salvage crew and harvesting and delivering items to
local food pantries. She asked whether there are commercial DEC
certified meat processors in Kotzebue, Nome, or other
communities.
MS. FOOTE advised organizations can write their own policies as
to how meat is processed, with the exception of seal. For
example, in Sitka, game is processed "in-house."
MS. CHLUPACH described the policy at SEARHC; she concluded there
are three best practices for processing: in-house; processing
as done by ANMC; processing as done by the Maniilaq Association.
2:01:51 PM
MS. FOOTE further described how the ANMC program was envisioned
and advised each concept must be suited to and supported by the
local community.
MS. CHLUPACH related SEARHC educated DWT on certain regulations
that were not understood, and now they are "a great resource for
Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital."
CO-CHAIR LINCOLN questioned whether there are more barriers to
the use of Alaska's wild game and subsistence resources.
CO-CHAIR TARR surmised food sharing is common in everyday life;
however, the sale of wild [and home] products presents barriers.
She restated the undeniable health benefits of wild foods.
2:05:52 PM
MS. CHLUPAC agreed wild foods improve the quality of life.
Slides 57-60 illustrated resources available to support the use
of traditional foods; she noted the most importance resource is
the knowledge of elders (slide 61). Slide 62 listed supporters
of the Alaska Traditional Foods Movement. She closed with a
quote from the Traditional Food Guide for Alaska Native Cancer
Survivors, 2008 (slide 63).
CO-CHAIR LINCOLN asked how the legislature can remove barriers
at the state level.
MS. CHLUPACH recalled a proposed bill that would help schools
offer traditional foods without having to relinquish
reimbursements.
MS. FOOTE stressed processing of the foods is expensive and not
being able to collect reimbursement is a barrier to contractors
who provide food services at schools; also, contractors need to
be informed of new regulations. Finally, she suggested
variances should be available for fish because the usual
practice is to fillet fish; furthermore, she urged for a system
that would keep bycatch in Alaska for processing and use by
Alaskans.
2:13:27 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Resources Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 2:13 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska Traditional Foods Movement Presentation House Resources Committee 3.18.19.pdf |
HRES 3/18/2019 1:00:00 PM |
Traditional Foods |
| Traditional_Foods_Poster.pdf |
HRES 3/18/2019 1:00:00 PM |
Traditional Foods |
| 2015_Trad_Food_Toolkit (002).pdf |
HRES 3/18/2019 1:00:00 PM |
Traditional Foods |