The Food Coalition's Participatory Budgeting Process
The Food Coalition used Participatory Budgeting (PB) to engage the community in developing proposals that address community identified needs in the food system and respond to the pandemic. The Coalition secured $20,000 in grants to fund projects through PB. Through this process the community developed nine proposals.
Food/Meal Backpacks
Heritage Cooking Class
Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership (GGP)
Snack Program
Online Pagosa Farmers Market
Gift Cards
Ingredient Box/Pagosa Fresh
After Hours Pantry
Biodegradable Food Containers
The proposals were then brought to the community for voting. You can learn more about each project below and view their online presentations via short videos. The Coalition had over 300 community members register to vote in the PB process. As a result of the voting, the following projects were funded by the PB process:
Food/Meal Backpacks
Heritage Cooking Class
Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership (GGP)
Online Farmers Market
Gift Cards
After Hours Pantry
The Coalition is committed to working with the other projects to address the food need in our community.
The Coalition wants to express our gratitude to the PB Steering Committee, community members who generated ideas for the PB process, individuals and agencies who developed proposals, and everyone who engaged in the PB process through viewing the proposal presentations and voting on projects. A special thanks to Educe for facilitating the first community PB process and for working along side the Coalition as we learned through this first PB cycle.
What is Participatory Budgeting (PB)
Participatory Budgeting is a process where community members can directly decide how to spend public funds. The idea behind PB is that budgets are better spent when everyone participates in decision-making. Through a series of public gatherings, community members generate ideas for how money should be spent, those ideas are developed into project proposals that include the concrete details of completing the project, proposed projects are presented, and then the community votes on which ones to fund.
How did the Coalition Use PB?
Thanks to the Food System | Food Equity Coalition, our community had $20,000.00 to spend on projects that address COVID-19 relief and any aspect of our local food system. The Coalition recognizes all of the good and hard work our farmers, ranchers, backyard growers, food pantry operators and volunteers, restaurants, and food processors do for our community. The Coalition not only wanted these funds to support the local food system, it believes the local community should make decisions about where to spend this money. PB has been used in cities, organizations, and schools all over the world since it began in 1989. Archuleta County will be the first ever large scale participatory budgeting initiative in Colorado! More than 300 people took part in this groundbreaking effort!
Here is a brief video describing participatory budgeting process for the Coalition.
How PB worked in Archuleta County...
After a virtual idea collection phase in October, 2020, those who were interested in being a part of participatory budgeting in Archuleta County, completed the voter registration form. Eligibility requirements for proposal submission and voting were established by the steering committee. If you would like to get more detailed information about the process here in Archuleta County, please feel free to look over our rulebook. If you have any other questions, please email the Food Coalition.
Useful information Calendar of Events for the PB Process
Idea Collection (October 10th - October 18th)
Virtual Idea Collection - Monday, October 12th at 5:30pm
Pagosa Springs High School Idea Collection - Tuesday October 13th & Thursday October 15th during Advisory
Proposal Development (October 19th - November 5th)
Proposal Presentations (November 6th - November 13th)
Voting (November 14th - November 22nd)
In the News October 8, 2020 Pagosa Sun - Click HERE for the link to the Preview and read the article on page 2. October 28, 2020 MJ LIVE - Click HERE for the link to see the interview with Executive Director of the Pagosa Chamber November 4, 2020 KSUT Radio Station - Click HERE for the link to listen to the interview on KSUT. November 5, 2020 Pagosa Sun - Click HERE for the link to the Pagosa Sun and read the article on the front page. November 10, 2020 KWUF - Click HERE for the link to listen to the interview on Good Morning Pagosa on KWUF.