Officials said 'no one' wanted Ottawa Food to be impacted. It was anyway.

EDITOR'S NOTE: After this story published, Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs requested the following statement be added: “The Ottawa County Department of Public Health is fully capable of funding its portion of the Ottawa Food collaborative and continuing to provide a dedicated county staff member to the effort. It is instead sadly choosing to engage in theatrics by attempting to needlessly cut high-profile programs in order to score political points, behavior which is a disservice to Ottawa County taxpayers and to all of the hard working staff in the Ottawa County Department of Public Health.”

OTTAWA COUNTY — Despite strong assurances by the Ottawa County administrator and board chair, the Ottawa Food program has suspended operations — directly citing deep budget cuts pushed through by the Ottawa Impact majority of the board.

Despite numerous warnings by embattled Health Officer Adeline Hambley and her staff, Administrator John Gibbs and Board Chair and OI Founder Joe Moss insisted enough funding was in the budget to fund Ottawa Food.

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“The county is not fully funding Ottawa Food (and other programs),” Hambley previously told The Sentinel. “... Ottawa Food is not fully funded because the health education and nutrition/wellness budgets were cut by 48 percent.”

Of particular concern was the full-time coordinator position, which provides the logistical connective tissue between the private and public sectors that participate in the county-wide program. Ottawa Food is a collaboration of over 45 agencies and individuals working to ensure community members have access to healthy, local and affordable food.

"Does anyone want to go on record as against Ottawa Food?" Moss asked during the board's Sept. 26 meeting. "The board is not defunding Ottawa Food," he added. "I’ll just say, on the record, I would not like the health department to cut this program. I don’t think anyone does. I would venture that no one in the room would want this cut."

And yet, the board voted to cut the Ottawa County Department of Public Health Education Team by 48% for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

On Monday, Nov. 13, Ottawa Food announced its membership voted to suspend the current operating model, since the budget for this year was only $8,950, which covers only materials and supplies.

"Following the cuts made in late September, 76% of Ottawa Food members voted to pause the model of Ottawa Food as it’s been operating, rather than continue without a full-time coordinator," the organization wrote in a statement Monday.

The organization said it wasn't disbanding, but admitted without a coordinator in place, certain programs would need to be cut, such as Senior Project Fresh, which distributes farmers market coupons to local seniors through federal funding.

Another impacted program affects produce donations from local farmers markets, specifically in Hudsonville, Spring Lake and Georgetown, which just started this past year, coordinated and launched by Ottawa Food Coordinator Sierra Schuetz.

"As of now, the collaborative still exists, but all regular monthly and quarterly meetings and other activities are on pause," the statement said, adding the organization's board "continues to meet and discuss the best course of action for the continued success and viability of the collaborative and its initiatives and programs."

Schuetz has since been reassigned to another area of the health department. She previously told The Washington Post she struggled as the OI majority fixated on curbing the power and influence of the local health department.

Ottawa Impact is a far-right fundamentalist group created by Moss and Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea after they unsuccessfully challenged the previous board and county health officer over COVID-19 mitigation mandates in 2020 and 2021.

“The problem isn’t that there’s not enough money,” Schuetz told The Post. “It’s not that I am doing a bad job or that the work doesn’t matter. It’s this other reason that’s so far away from who I am and what I do.”

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Gibbs publicly told the board: “Never once has anyone asked Ottawa Food to be cut." He’s previously said any cuts under that budget line would be a “programmatic decision.”

Commissioner Doug Zylstra, the board's lone Democrat, attempted a series of amendments to the budget prior to its approval to protect Ottawa Food, including the transfer of $200,000 or $300,000 from the general fund to the health education line item.

Neither amendment passed.

— Sarah Leach is executive editor for The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter@SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Officials said 'no one' wanted Ottawa Food to be impacted. It was anyway.