Food Policy Resources

Girl Power: Urban Farming. Three young women push a wheelbarrow of freshly picked lettuce to opening day of the West Broadway Farmers Market in North Minneapolis, MN. These and other local youth working with WBFM partner, Appetite for Change, grow produce at various urban gardens just blocks from the site of the market.

Image credit: DeVon Nolen, West Broadway Farmers Market; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2015.

By downloading this image, you agree to use the photo within the context that it was taken. You also agree to never use it for commercial purposes. The image always belongs to the original photographer and should be attributed to the photographer and Center for a Livable Future Food Policy Networks Photo Contest.

This past Food Day, stakeholders from across sectors joined City Council members on the South Lawn of Los Angeles City Hall at the LA Food Policy Council's event designed to create broader public awareness on the state of our local food systems, commemorate forward movement on innovative food policies, and highlight the City's leadership in bringing Los Angeles closer to a more equitable and sustainable food system. Pictured are our triumphant Good Food Champions alongside our Leadership Board Chair Michael Flood as he acknowledges each of them for their dynamic contribution toward a better food system.

Image credit: Camille de la Vega, Los Angeles Food Policy Council; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2015.

By downloading this image, you agree to use the photo within the context that it was taken. You also agree to never use it for commercial purposes. The image always belongs to the original photographer and should be attributed to the photographer and Center for a Livable Future Food Policy Networks Photo Contest.

This beautiful photo of two laying hens perfectly demonstrates food policy in action. By City ordinance, Portland allows homeowners to keep domesticated chickens, which supports the Mayor's Initiative mission to promote and increase access to locally raised food. These hens live in the St. John Neighborhood of Portland and, with their 4 sisters, provide nearly 3 dozen eggs weekly to their owners and local residents. They are named Click and Clack.

Image credit: Stephanie Gagne, The Mayor's Initiative for a Healthy and Sustainable Food System Portland, Maine; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2015.

By downloading this image, you agree to use the photo within the context that it was taken. You also agree to never use it for commercial purposes. The image always belongs to the original photographer and should be attributed to the photographer and Center for a Livable Future Food Policy Networks Photo Contest.

Mayor Bill Peduto and Councilwoman Deb Gross stand alongside representatives from Pittsburgh City Planning, Burgh Bees, Grow Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, and Pittsburgh Pro-Poultry People after a press conference celebrating Pittsburgh City Council's unanimous approval of amendments to Pittsburgh's Urban Ag Zoning code. The changes will make keeping chickens, bees and goats permitted by right, while significantly reducing the permit fee, and allow for easier sale of produce grown on private lots. Leaders from these groups have worked collaboratively, over the past three years, to craft and eventually pass these changes.

Image credit: Dora Walmsley, Pittsburgh Food Policy Council; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2015.

By downloading this image, you agree to use the photo within the context that it was taken. You also agree to never use it for commercial purposes. The image always belongs to the original photographer and should be attributed to the photographer and Center for a Livable Future Food Policy Networks Photo Contest.

In early 2015 Food Shift was hired by the Santa Clara County Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission's Technical Advisory Committee to research where and why food is being wasted in the region, to identify community insights and solutions, and to make tangible recommendations to the county to make food recovery more efficient, effective, and equitable. Food Shift's research process consisted of interviewing and surveying numerous food businesses (restaurants, grocery stores, schools, etc.), food assistance groups (soup kitchens, food banks, senior centers, etc.), and food recovery groups (gleaning organizations, food recovery apps, etc.). This report gives a summary of food rescue policies and efforts in Santa Clara County, data and key findings from surveys and interviews, barriers to food rescue, recommendations for the county, and examples of successful programs across the nation.

Created by Dana Frasz, Hanna Morris, Ruth Abbe, Marie Mourad, and Emily Rehberger.

Small food retailers in low-income neighborhoods often want to sell healthier, more affordable food, but many lack the resources necessary to do it. The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is a flexible federal funding program that provides communities with resources to address a wide range of needs. Initiatives to support small store owners who wish to carry healthy foods may be eligible for CDBG funding. This fact sheet provides an overview of the CDBG program and discusses which healthy food retail activities might qualify for funding.

This white paper explains the importance of regulating marketing to kids, describes unhealthy marketing practices and their effects, and outlines the different policy options. It equips jurisdictions with the data and tools necessary to combat the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to young children. It provides a detailed legal analysis of the options available, and discusses strategies communities can use to reduce unhealthy marketing.

Created by Sabrina Adler, Rio Holaday, Seth Mermin, and Amy Ackerman

Local governments across Kansas are interested in ways to manage vacant and derelict land, perhaps even converting that land into sites dedicated as community gardens or open space. In 1996 and 2009, the Kansas Legislature addressed this by authorizing cities to create land banks via ordinance and authorizing counties to create land banks via resolution. This resource discusses the legal requirements set forth by state law and provides sample language to help cities and counties draft an ordinance or resolution establishing a land bank.

This toolkit aims to bolster the efforts to increase food sovereignty on the Navajo Nation by describing existing laws and policies that impact the Navajo food system, highlighting innovative efforts to improve food policy by other tribal and local communities, and offering strategies to advocate for policy change. The toolkit is intended to serve as a reference for community leaders, food advocates, and members of the Navajo government, federal government, state governments, and local Chapter governments.

Created by Sarah Downer, Ona Balkus, Emily Broad Leib, and Kelliann Blazek

This declaration is a call to action on food poverty for Sustainable Food Cities Network local food partnerships and other city-wide organisations in the United Kingdom. The call if for urgent action by government to reduce benefit delays, review how benefit sanctions and welfare reforms are being implemented, and eliminate unnecessary hardship, hunger and distress.

Food Policy Councils (FPC) help to identify and address the priorities of local, state, and regional food systems with the goal of improving food systems through policy. There is limited research describing FPCs' strategies for accomplishing this goal. As part of a larger study examining FPC policy efforts, this paper investigates the role of partnerships in food systems policy change. We conducted interviews with representatives from 12 purposefully selected FPCs in the United States and 6 policy experts identified by the selected FPC representatives to document and describe their policy work. One theme that emerged from those interviews was the role of partners. Interviewees described a range of partners (e.g., stakeholders from government, business, and education) and credited FPC partnerships with advancing their policy goals by increasing the visibility and credibility of FPCs, focusing their policy agenda, connecting FPCs to key policy inputs (e.g., local food community knowledge and priorities), and obtaining stakeholder buy-in for policy initiatives. Partnerships were also described as barriers to policy progress when partners were less engaged or had either disproportionate or little influence in a given food sector. Despite these challenges, partnerships were found to be valuable for FPCs efforts to effectively engage in the food policy arena.

This reports documents and synthesizes research on community food security (CFS) in the United States. It includes research on assessing the impact of food policy councils and other CFS initiatives including CSAs, farmers markets, community gardens, and healthy food retail.

Created by: Wei-ting Chen, Megan L. Clayton, and Anne Palmer.

This legislation establishes a District of Columbia Food Policy Council with 13 voting members to promote positive food policies to advance food access and to build a local food economy in the District. It also establishes a Food Policy Director in the Office of Planning to oversee policies promoting positive food policy, to collaborate with other jurisdictions on food policy, and to advocate for new food ventures in the District.

This proposed assembly bill provides protection to eligible employees from being terminated during a 90-day transition period if a grocery store (15,000 sq. ft. or larger) undergoes a change of ownership. It was modeled after similar ordinances that have were enacted at the local level across California. The bill was signed into law on August 17, 2015.

This new case study series highlights examples of how local governments in four states are improving economic resiliency, environmental sustainability, public health and social equity by their commitments to local food systems. Although motivations, approaches, and allocated resources vary across the communities profiled--which include Catawba County, NC; Decatur, GA; Topsham, ME; and Ann Arbor-Washtenaw County, MI--common themes emerged as leading practices for local leaders. Lessons learned may be helpful to those interested in working within or with their local governments on marketing, coordination, policy and funding for food system activities.

Created by Laura Goddeeris, Abigail Rybnicek, Katherine Takai

This toolkit provides an overview of how stakeholders can advocate for and implement local food procurement policies in a manner that ensures the equitable improvement of local and regional food systems. 

Where does your local food policy council fit within the regional food system? Would you like to play a stronger role in both your locality and at a regional level but not sure how? Functioning with limited resources and volunteer members, it can often be easiest for a food policy council to concentrate locally. By understanding the role of local food policy councils within the context of a regional food system, groups can network across geographies to maximize impact and effectiveness of policy changes.

During this webinar, expert panelists address a number of big picture questions about regional food systems, including: the role of local food policy councils within a regional network; when is it beneficial to connect across a region; how to determine your "region"; best practices and challenges for regional networks.

Presenters: Rich Pirog, Kathy Ruhf, Michael Dimrock

In the fall of 2014, the Ontario, Canada government consulted with stakeholders to develop aspirational local food literacy goals under the Local Food Act, 2013. The aspirational food literacy goals are as follows: increase the number of Ontarians who know what local foods are available; increase the number of Ontarians who know how and where to obtain local foods; and, increase the number of Ontarians who prepare local food meals for family and friends, and make local food more available through food service providers.

This report looks at examples from around the world, but particularly within the United States, where people are creating new ways of participating in democracy; new ways to engage and change our political systems; and, new ways of making autonomy and food sovereignty practical and real.

Created  by Jill Carlson and M. Jahi Chappell

In this research brief, UC Berkeley's Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society summarizes key facts and findings from their report on the US Farm Bill: Corporate Power and Structural Racialization in the US Food System. The report provides a comprehensive and multidimensional analysis of how both corporate power and structural racialization within the US food system leaves marginalized communities disproportionately impacted by the agricultural policies and outcomes generated by the Farm Bill. It lifts up a series of short-term policy interventions and long-term strategies to address the major structural barriers in the United States food system.

Created by Hossein Ayazia and Elsadig Elsheikh