Wellesley Board of Health takeaways: Skip the Stuff; Pantry connection; spending opioids settlement funds
Takeaways from the Wellesley Board of Health meeting on Oct. 12 (see Wellesley Media recording for the full thing).
Electronic permitting: The Health Department is embarking on electronic permitting with food establishments to streamline the process. Many other departments in town have already gone the electronic route. We encourage the Health Department to make those permits accessible to the public online.
Skip the Stuff: The Health Department is partnering with the Department of Public Works, Sustainable Wellesley, and others on an effort to encourage restaurants to dole out less plastic (spoons, forks, knives) with take-out orders. Such single-use utensils would only be given upon request by customers. Director of Community and Public Health Lenny Izzo said there’s an effort underway by some residents to bring a article forward at Annual Town Meeting along the lines of what other communities, such as Newton, have done. If the proposal were to pass, it would become a town bylaw enforceable by the Board of Health. Such a change might be just the first of multiple phases designed to reduce plastic use in town.
Food Pantry connection: In the wake of longtime Wellesley Food Pantry Director Cynthia Scott departing that role, the Health Department met with a new pantry supervisor to ensure the continued support. Food insecurity continues to be a huge issues in town, seen frequently by Wellesley social workers and exacerbated by the rise in food prices. “[The issue] hasn’t shrunk, it’s actually increased. We have more apartments coming into town, we have more vouchers coming in with some of these apartment projects and it’s just becoming a bigger challenge,” Izzo said. During the meeting, the Board voted to allow Izzo to spend up to $3,000 on efforts to address food insecurity without going back to the Board for itemized approvals.
Putting opioid settlement funds to work: Wellesley’s in the second year of receiving opioids settlement money that comes through national and state lawsuits against drug makers, distributors, and others for their responsibility in the opioids health crisis. There had been restrictive state accounting rules that made it tough to actually use the hundreds of thousands in funds, but now Wellesley and other communities are do so. Izzo cited the hiring of a recovery coach program in collaboration with five partners. Also, narcan training is underway among staff, and the intent is for them to train other town staff and residents on this medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids. Wellesley has a goal to make narcan available in all town buildings, and is well on its way to doing that. Wellesley is seeking to use its funding to address a range of needs, Izzo said, as opposed to putting it all into one big contract.
Pandemic planning for K-12 schools: Board member Dr. Shira Doran said she met recently with school administration and health officials to start setting up a framework for a pandemic plan, and to discuss what went well or not with the existing plan during the COVID-19 pandemic. One lesson might be codifying interplay between the town and the state’s health leadership, she said. Izzo expressed frustration that during the COVID-19 pandemic, 20 years of training by the town on doing mass vaccinations largely went for naught due to the way the state handled things.