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From YouTube: Commissioner's Chat March 13
Description
Interim Commissioner discusses her trip to Washington D.C. and our food drive for National Nutrition Month.
A
We
met
with
Senator
Tina
Smith's
office
and
representative
ilhan
Omar's
office.
A
couple
of
things
that
we
were
lobbying
for
was
our
emergency
preparedness
funding.
That
is
an
area
that
we
have
seen
steady
declines
in
the
amount
of
federal
funding
that
we
have
been
given
so
working
on
increasing
the
amount
of
federal
funds
for
emergency
preparedness.
A
Another
item
that
we
talked
a
lot
about
was
a
repayment
program
for
public
health
officials
for
tuition
and
that
legislation
passed
both
the
house
and
the
Senate,
but
it
was
unfunded
and
so
Senator
Tina
Smith,
along
with
a
colleague
in
the
house,
have
written
a
letter
to
her
colleagues
requesting
that
be
funded
at
100
million
dollars,
and
so
we
were
lobbying
for
that.
What
that
program
would
help
is
to
increase
both
the
capacity
and
the
diversity
of
our
Public
Health
Workforce.
A
It
would
require
three
years
of
a
commitment
in
public
health
careers
and
then
folks,
who
were
in
those
positions,
would
be
eligible
for
between
fifty
thousand
and
a
hundred
and
fifty
thousand
in
repayment
for
that
tuition.
So
we're
really
excited
about
that
again.
We're
really
glad
that
it
was
passed
through
both
the
Senate
and
the
house,
but
we
really
need
to
get
those
that
that
legislation
funded
so
that
we
can
Implement
that
we
also
brought
a
number
of
priorities
from
the
City
of
Minneapolis,
including
funding
and
programming
for
opioid
work.
A
We
have
continuing
funding
for
General,
Public,
Health,
Workforce
and
infrastructure.
We've
had
a
lot
of
Grants
and
a
lot
of
funding
come
in
and
so
so
making
sure
that
those
are
stable.
Sources
of
funding
will
be
an
important
part
for
us
to
be
able
to
continue
the
sustainability
and
the
resiliency
of
our
Public
Health
infrastructure
that
we've
built
and
our
building
and
then
I
wanted.
A
To
just
note
that
we
were
lucky
that
commissioner
Damon
chaplain
was
able
to
join
us
for
those
meetings
and
so
he's
well
on
his
way,
hitting
the
ground
running
to
getting
to
know
some
of
the
priorities
and
the
issues
that
are
facing
us
on
the
federal
state
and
local
level
for
the
City
of
Minneapolis.
Now,
turning
toward
the
next
item
that
I
wanted
to
discuss
on
commissioner's
chat
this
month
is
a
nutritional,
Awareness
Month
the
month
of
March,
there's
a
number
of
activities
that
we're
doing
to
commemorate
nutritional
Awareness.
Month.
A
One
item
that
we'll
be
sending
more
information
around
via
email
is
a
nutritious
food
drive.
So
look
for
an
email
from
me
on
that
we
will
be
placing
a
bin
for
non-perishable
food
items.
We
would
prefer
that
they
are
nutritious
items
and
also
anything
that
would
be
non-perishable
and
culturally
specific
is
of
benefits
so
that
bin
will
pop
up
in
the
break
room
and
folks
can
take
the
next
couple
of
weeks
until
the
end
of
March
to
bring
in
their
non-perishable
food
items
again
with
a
focus
on
nutrition
and
culturally
specific
items.