A Coastal Enterprises official was heading to Washington, D.C., February 3, for a White House meeting on strategies for food access, according to Coastal Enterprises (CEI) and federal spokesmen.

As of mid-afternoon Monday, the CEI official, Gray Harris, was still at the Portland Jetport, waiting for a flight out amid weather delays elsewhere. Harris, director of the Wiscasset nonprofit’s sustainable agriculture and food systems program, said she still expected to be able to make it to Tuesday’s meeting, however.

“It’s a great opportunity, and a wonderful honor for CEI to be invited to be at the table,” Harris, of Jefferson, said in a telephone interview from the jetport.

The closed-door meeting in Washington would include representatives of the U.S. departments of treasury, agriculture and health and human services, said Department of Agriculture spokesman Wendy Wasserman.

The White House Domestic Policy Council's senior policy advisor, Doug McKalip, will be among those taking part in the session, Wasserman said February 3.

“The (meeting's) goal is some excellent peer-to-peer learning,” she said.

Participants were expected to look at strategies that have helped communities have access to healthy food; and discuss which of those means might also work in other communities, Wasserman said.