Food Policy Resources

This handbook is a resource for advocates at public health and community and economic development organizations working to increase the availability of nutritious foods and revitalize their neighborhoods. It provides a roadmap for advocacy and implementation of a healthy food financing initiative to encourage food retail in underserved regions.

Created by Brian Lang, Caroline Harries, Miriam Manon, Jordan Tucker, Eugene Kim, Sara Ansell, Pat Smith

This guide is a package of how-to information and examples that can help local governments step into and benefit from the growing market and community demand for local and regional food. Specifically, it offers a process for developing food innovation districts, or business districts that support the co-location and collaboration of food businesses of different types.

Created by Patty Cantrell, Kathryn Colasanti, Laura Goddeeris, Sarah Lucas, Matt McCauley

The Model Produce Cart Ordinance: Increasing Access to Fresh Produce by Creating a Permit Program for Sidewalk Produce Vendors (and Model Findings) created by the National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity, a project of ChangeLab Solutions, sets forth vendor requirements and rules, and includes incentives local governments can provide to encourage vendors. This model ordinance was created to help streamline the permit process to make it easier for produce cart vendors to bring fresh fruits and vegetables directly to a neighborhood.

ChangeLab Solutions developed the Model Licensing Ordinances for Healthy Food Retailers guide to build on and strengthen efforts by cities to establish programs that encourage food retailers, especially corner stores, to stock healthier products. This guide and model licensing ordinance change business licensing policies to require all food stores (not including restaurants) to carry a minimum selection of healthy food and meet other basic operating standards. In short, it sets a "healthy baseline" to improve food quality and accessibility at food stores across an entire community.

The Iowa Food Systems Council launched Cultivate Iowa, a social marketing campaign that encourages low-resource Iowans to engage in food gardening, and other gardeners to grow extra produce to donate to a food bank or pantry in their community. Data collected from organizational stakeholders, such as food pantry and food assistance staff, and from surveys with low-income Iowans and gardeners were used to develop messages and strategies to promote garden produce access among low-income Iowans. The campaign launched in spring of 2013, and was implemented statewide by a network of food system partners. This presentation provides an overview of the development and implementation of Cultivate Iowa, and how social marketing can be used to enhance health in rural communities.

Presenters: Elizabeth Danforth Richey and Angie Tagtow

Aboriginal peoples are among the most food insecure groups in Canada, yet their perspectives and knowledge are often sidelined in mainstream food security debates. This project demonstrates a process in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal partners engaged in a culturally appropriate and respectful collaboration, assessing the challenges and barriers to traditional foods access in the urban environment of Vancouver, BC, Canada. The findings highlight local, national, and international actions required to increase access to traditional foods as a means of achieving food security for all people. The paper underscores the interconnectedness of local and global food security issues and highlights challenges as well as solutions with potential to improve food security of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples alike.

The focus of this policy brief is the concept of "Agriculture Parks" as a strategy local governments in Canada can use to protect farmland and create access to land for farmers while also realizing a full range of other community and environmental benefits. The conventional role of parks is examined with a lens on how Agriculture Parks can be designed and managed to meet public objectives of recreation, ecosystem function and agricultural interest.

Repurposing land within neighborhoods is crucial to the advancement of urban agriculture and to members of households and neighborhoods in the Detroit community realizing its many benefits. How City owned land is sold is important and critical to continuing that growth. The Detroit (Michigan) Food Policy Council encourages the application of the concepts outlined in this position statement to the City of Detroit's public land disposition process. It further encourages evaluation of these concepts to determine if they are applicable to other local governmental or agency led processes for the disposition of public owned land in the city of Detroit.

This document was created in response to the numerous inquiries made by groups across globe to learn from the experience of North America's first food policy council. It is intended to serve as a resource to other communities seeking to establish their own food policy councils, and to food policy researchers. It includes a summary of information gathered from historical papers and documents, as well as from interviews with past and present Knoxville-Knox County Food Policy Council members. 

Food policy councils often find themselves overwhelmed when attempting to identify the specific laws and regulations that impact their food policy goals, analyze these laws and policies, and ascertain the legal or policy levers that can be used to improve outcomes. This toolkit was created to provide a starting place for food policy councils to understand the basic legal concepts surrounding local food systems, develop a base of knowledge about the main policy areas, and discover examples and innovations from other cities and states.

Created by Emily Broad Leib, Alli Condra, Mark Winne

This report is part of a study that explores the structure and constitution of networks of food initiatives in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia, working in partnership with four provincial network organizations. The main purpose of this study has been to enhance our understanding of how organizations in Canada are mobilizing around food-related issues. In particular, the research explores the role that food networks, rather than individual initiatives, play in developing resistance to the corporate, industrial food system.

Created by Charles Z Levkoe, Melissa Bebee, Sarah Wakefield, Evan Castel, Claudia Davila

Inequitable access to food perpetuates poor health outcomes among low-income populations and undermines efforts to improve public health and promote community. This policy brief looks at bright spots of innovation, where local policies promote and increase residents’ access to healthy food.

Created by Ceri Jenkins and Satya Rhodes-Conway.

This manual outlines practical tools to create and sustain effective food policy councils, from development to evaluation.

Created by Michael Burgan and Mark Winne

This report outlines how overlapping limitations and exceptions of trade agreements which relate to Ontario, Canada effectively carve out room for certain local food procurement measures. This regulatory space will be demonstrated through an analysis of public procurement measures of other jurisdictions subject to similar trade agreement restrictions as Ontario, namely: the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, and Nova Scotia.

Created by Kyra Bell-Pasht

Surveys current FPC leaders to learn how FPCs engage in policy processes, the scope of their activities, and the impacts of their work.

With budget cuts at the state and federal level showing no signs of slowing, it is vital that nonprofits speak up on behalf of their constituents and communities. Many nonprofits that serve vulnerable populations depend in part on government funding to continue providing services, and the communities they serve and advocate for often rely on government programs for healthcare and other needs. There are many opportunities for nonprofits and members of the community to get involved in helping policymakers and the public understand the very real impact the budget has on all of our lives.

This Masters Thesis presents a case study about the journey and evolution of the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition. Interviews and observations inform readers' understanding of the motivation for participant involvement and the process required to form the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition.

Created by Gretchen Burak

An in-depth review of what it takes to be a backbone organization in collective impact efforts, and how to evaluate and support its work.

Discusses the design and testing of a new Food Policy Audit tool aimed to build upon the strengths of community food assessments and guide users through the complicated process of uncovering local, regional and federal policies relevant to a local food system.

This document provides public health advocates, policymakers, and community organizers with an overview of key policy and legal strategies being pursued to reduce or prevent obesity by increasing access to healthy food. These strategies can support effort