Food Policy Resources

This Chesapeake Foodshed Network food systems webinar showcased a panel of three food and farm coalitions/councils enacting direct advocacy & farmer engagement. Panelists represented West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition, Johnson County Food Policy Council, and Rural Vermont.

Presenters: Spencer Moss, Michelle Kenyon, Graham Unangst-Refenaccht, Andrea Stander

This webinar is intended for Good Food Purchasing Program local coalitions and national partners and covers highlights regarding Chicago's GFPP city-wide adoption; nitty gritty details of GFPP implementation, commitment and assessments, cost, and updated standards, and a brief overview of communications resources available to local coalitions and national partners.

Presenters: Colleen McKinney, Rodger Cooley and Christina Bronsing-Lazalde

This webinar is intended for food system practitioners interested in commissioning an economic impact assessment. It offers an introduction to the concept and provides an overview of different tools to assess economic growth. Speakers cover both standard commercial models and alternative, community-based approaches. The webinar includes an example of an economic impact assessment underway for the craft beer industry, highlighting the lessons learned so far.

Presenters: Megan Phillips Goldenberg, Ashley McFarland, Kathryn Colasanti

Local governments can play a significant role in addressing wasted food through the development of plans to guide city, county, or state actions. This webinar covered the creation and application of the Center for a Livable Future's recently released report, Governmental Plans to Address Waste of Food. Compiled with insights from 93 governmental plans addressing wasted food and 17 interviews with authors of those plans, the report shares key trends identified across plans along with words of wisdom from the interviewees. Practitioners in Houston, Oregon, and Philadelphia then discussed the development and implementation of their food waste plans, as well as ways that food policy councils can work in tandem with their local government on such efforts.
 
Presented by: Roni Neff, Nic  Esposito, Dave Yanke, and Ashley Zanolli.

This guide provides a road map for how local laws and policies can impact local gardening efforts, recognizing that each community will need to assess how the specific local and legal context of their community impacts specific gardening efforts.

In the report, IPES-Food--an independent panel of food systems experts--assesses the negative health impacts of food systems and explains how these systems are locked into cycles that produce poor health. The members of IPES-Food brought their collective wisdom and diverse perspectives to this challenge, outlining the unacceptable harm caused by our current food systems, and calling for precaution, prevention, and collective action. The Global Alliance for the Future of Food worked closely with IPES-Food to: understand the broad range of evidence that informs the report's findings; analyze how and why food systems are making people sick; expose the health costs externalized by the food system; understand how to internalize these costs through healthier food systems practices and explore potential levers for change.

Created by Cecilia Rocha

A food hub, a community development financial institution and an economic development center - three different roles, all working on increasing equity through food systems. This webinar will explore how organizations and businesses in these roles have been proactive and thoughtful in how they incorporate equity and inclusion considerations into their efforts, including where those have been successful, and where there is opportunity to improve. This webinar is inspired by an unprecedented collaboration. The Federal Reserve System and USDA partnered to develop a book focused on the community and economic development opportunities of regional food system investments. The full report explores many positive community impacts of investing in regional food systems.

Presenters: John Flory, Jaime Villalaz, Benjamin Bartley, and Olivia Rebanal

How can we apply equity and anti-racism principles to our food system work? In answer to this question, this webinar provides three examples from the Cooperative Extension System of efforts to promote equity and undo racism in local food systems. Kaitlin Wojciak, from Michigan State University Extension, describes a recent training and learning group dedicated to exploring issues of power, privilege, and racial equity for the state's Community Food Systems team. Shorlette Ammons, from North Carolina's Center for Environmental Farming Systems, discusses the Center's efforts to embed an equity lens and practice into all areas of its work. Heather Manzo, from Penn State Extension, describes work with an urban food policy council to engage diverse community members and positively impact equity issues in the metropolitan food system. Listen to the discussion to learn how these equity initiatives have evolved, the challenges they have faced, and the supportive factors that contributed to the success of their efforts. This webinar was hosted by the working group on Undoing Inequality in the Food System and the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association.

Presenters: Kaitlin Wojciak, Shorlette Ammons, Heather Manzo 

Aligned with the Maryland Food Charter, this report delivers an assessment of Maryland's current policies and provides examples and suggestions of related policies throughout the United States that Maryland could emulate.

Created by Emma Clippinger, Ariel Ardura, Kaitlin Beach, Sydney Montgomery, and Katherine Sandson

This toolkit provides assistance for those seeking to ensure that all kids and families have access to healthy foods in their neighborhoods. It includes resources on healthy food financing programs to overcome barriers to having food stores in underserved areas. The toolkit provides resources for advocates to build a campaign; recruit other advocates; and engage, communicate to, and mobilize diverse audiences. It includes resources on lobbying; media training; example flyers; posters and other advertisements; meeting with legislators; and success stories. 

Many food policy councils strive for diverse representation across races, classes, occupations, genders, and ages to ensure they prioritize the food systems issues and solutions most appropriate to their communities. However, councils continue to be challenged to find effective strategies for engaging and empowering those most impacted by food systems issues. Learn about strategies for effective community inclusion and lessons learned from food policy practitioners. 

Presented by: Nathan Ballentine, Tallahassee Food Network; Winona Bynum, Detroit Food Policy Council; Holly Freishtat, Baltimore Food Policy Initiative; Natilee McGruder, Montgomery Roots; and Helen Schnoes, Douglas County Food Policy Council.

Tackling the problem of wasted food has the potential to pay off in economic, environmental, and health gains, and the number of governmental plans addressing wasted food has dramatically increased since 2000. To investigate how US cities, counties, and states are taking action and how they can improve their strategies along the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy, the Center reviewed 93 governmental plans and interviewed 17 people involved in their development and implementation. Using a specified search strategy and criteria, we sought to collect as many governmental plans as possible from within the US, and to provide a representation of plans from other countries. Our report shares key trends and words of wisdom from this analysis to guide future government and cross-sectoral efforts to address the waste of food.

Created by: Irena Gorski, Sameer Siddiqi, and Roni Neff.

The intention of this policy scan, presented in a series of six themed papers, maps and summary tables is to inform and contribute to a conversation on building a national food policy in Canada that addresses the inter-related issues of hunger, health, and sustainability.  Current policies at the municipal, provincial/territorial and federal level are explored under each theme. From these policy scans and discussions it is clear that the existing agri-food policy landscape in Canada is highly complex, uneven and dynamic.

This 2017 report assesses the Baltimore food system's strengths and weaknesses related to resilience and recommends strategies for protecting the system against threats that would increase food insecurity in both short-term and long-term crises. Appendix A of the report provides a summary and listing of other city and county food plans, primarily from North America, that relate to resilience.

Created by: Erin Biehl, Sarah Buzogany, Alice Huang, Gwen Chodur, and Roni Neff.

Cities across the United States have started to adopt urban agriculture zoning ordinances which provide access to land and encourage food production in low-income black and brown communities. However, many cities fail to use an anti-racist lens in the creation and implementation of these policies. According to scholars and activists, anti-racist practices in urban agriculture zoning require that first, community organizations and policy makers co-create policy with black and brown communities and second, develop secure land tenure arrangements for urban agriculture. The graduate student capstone provides a case study of the development of an urban agriculture zoning ordinance by the Bridgeport Connecticut Food Policy Council.

Created by Chelsea Gazillo

A guide to orienting new members of the policy working groups (i.e. subcommittees) of the Denver (Colorado) Sustainable Food Policy Council. One of the primary purposes of the Denver Sustainable Food Policy Council is to “Provide Recommendations to the City on Regulations and Policies” by providing Mayor and city staff detailed policy analysis and recommendations. To accomplish this purpose, the council established policy working groups made up of city staff, council members, and interested community stakeholders.

On June 19, 2017, Baltimore (Maryland) City Council passed unanimously City Council Resolution 17-0029R: Request for City Action - Supporting the Paris Accord. The resolution requests that the City recognize the importance of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement; oppose the ill-advised decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement; and commit to practices that disrupt short-sighted trends in consumption of natural resources and degradation of human health to create a liveable, economical, equitable, and just energy future for all Baltimoreans regardless of age, race, income, or zip code.

This resource is intended to facilitate a shared understanding of the early care and education sector and the natural opportunities to integrate farm to school initiatives into early care and education settings. This shared understanding can support enhanced connectivity between the local food and early care and education communities in order to advance farm to early care and education across the country. This resource includes a basic overview of the early care and education sector, information for getting started with farm to early care and education, and a list of state early care and education agencies and contacts.

Across the country, food banks are looking at their mission through a number of new lenses: health, education and technical assistance, farming, economic and workforce development, business enterprise, and community empowerment and advocacy. Feeding the Line, Or Ending the Line? Innovations among Food Banks in the United States, a new report by Reinvestment Fund and Bank of America looks at how food banks are adopting a variety of approaches within each of these categories to feed the hungry and permanently end food insecurity. These findings emerge from interviews conducted with 16 food banks and hunger-relief organizations.

Created by Patricia Smith, Tess Hart

The objective of this report is to provide insights into the factors that enable the development and delivery of urban food policies and how these enablers can be harnessed and barriers overcome. By exploring a series of case studies, the report shares lessons that cities of all sizes and at all stages of food policy development — from small towns that are taking their first steps in designing food-related policy, to big cities that are striving to maintain highly-developed, integrated policies — can learn from as they work to improve their food system.

Created by Corinna Hawkes and Jess Halliday