Action

Baltimore Food Policy Initiative (Maryland)
The Baltimore Food Policy Initiative’s Resident Food Equity Advisors are a group of Baltimore City residents who work with City staff on food policy recommendations that respond to the experiences of residents. The advisors are selected to reflect the racial and socioeconomic diversity of the city. Thus far, advisors have worked on issues around corner stores, federal nutrition programs, and public housing.

Charlottesville Food Justice Network (Virginia)
The Charlottesville Food Justice Network is a collaboration of 20 organizations working together to build a healthy and just food system by improving access to healthy, nutritious food. Under the leadership of the Thomas Jefferson Health District, a member of the collaboration, the Network successfully advocated for the City of Charlottesville to support a Food Equity Initiative and allocate $65,000 toward the coordination of activities for the Initiative. The Initiative will compile research about the local food system, establish mechanisms for community members to inform initiative activites, and to present recommendations to improve food equity for all Charlottesville residents.

Dane County Food Policy Council (Wisconsin)
The Dane County Food Policy Council partnered with the County Office for Equity and Inclusion to offer $5,000 Partners in Food Equity Project Grants. The grants encourage the innovative development of projects that advance equity and access in local food systems across Dane County. They can be used for projects to increase access to healthy food, ease access to land for growing food, or address issues of food waste and recovery.

DC Food Policy Council (Washington D.C.)
The DC Food Policy Council (DCFPC) has a Food Access and Equity Working Group that seeks to improve access to healthy food in low access neighborhoods. The goals of the working group are to establish a Good Food Investment Fund to support locally-owned food businesses, increase grocery options in underserved communities and promote nutrition education programs. Additionally, DCFPC has partnered with DC Greens to host community meals in underserved areas of the District. During the meals, council members hear from residents about the challenges that they face with food access and their ideas for change as well as share about the work of the FPC.

Detroit Food Policy Council (Michigan)
The Detroit Food Policy Council has been intentional about naming equity in its planning and actions. The council revised its mission statement and developed a set of values that center equity. It initiated a Food Justice and Equity training so that council members are all starting with a similar understanding of the food system in Detroit. The council is using multiple methods to ensure those that are most affected by food systems injustices are included in the development of plans and policies, including sharing with the community any work of the FPC to check that it accurately reflects the community’s issues.

Los Angeles Food Policy Council (California)
The Los Angeles Food Policy Council created a 10-week intergenerational and multilingual training course, Food Leaders Lab, for community advocates and residents to build skills in leadership, advocacy, community organizing and storytelling. The training gives participants the knowledge and confidence to be effective community advocates and leaders for a healthy, resilient and just food system in Los Angeles. The LAFPC was also instrumental in advocating for the passage and implementation of state Senate Bill 946, The Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, that decriminalized sidewalk vending. The City of Los Angeles is home to 50,000 street vendors, many of whom are women and immigrant entrepreneurs and vend food.

Mississippi Food Justice Collaborative
The Mississippi Food Justice Collaborative spent over a year with its eight partner organizations that represent black farmers, Vietnamese fishermen, immigrant communities, and Choctaw Indians, to create a framework of beliefs, values and principles to hold the partners accountable to transformational food systems change. The Collaborative also established a year-long Food Systems Fellowship to build the capacity of people of color to transform food systems across the state.

Minnesota Food Charter Network
The Minnesota Food Charter Network created a Food Access Planning Guide to help planners and community food advocates in Minnesota advance strategies to improve access to healthy, safe, affordable food. The guide includes a section highlighting the importance of equity in ensuring food access. It provides tools, resources, and example policy, planning and zoning language to design communities that promote equitable access to healthy, safe and affordable food.

Northside Fresh (Minnnesota)
Northside Fresh is a neighborhood-based food policy council that created a Policy Action Team to educate its members about the policy process. Prior to the formation of the Policy Action Team, the coalition worked to build trust within the community by supporting collaborative projects like a growers’ cooperative and a fruit and vegetable prescription program at a farmers market. The Policy Action Team continues to engage the community by bringing them into the policy process. In 2018, the Policy Action Team, with extensive community input, created a Food Justice Policy Platform that offers policy recommendations to incoming elected officials centered on a collective vision of food justice.

Oakland Food Policy Council (California)
The Oakland Food Policy Council partnered with HOPE Collaborative to create a Food Justice Curriculum to promote food justice and teach participants about the influence of the food system. The curriculum explores how the food system affects individual and environmental health from production to consumption, including food access in Oakland and the role of labor in the food system.

Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council (Pennsylvania)
The Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council (FPCA) formed an Equity Working Group made up of leaders in FPAC who are people of color to guide the council in making a foundational commitment to racial and economic justice. The Working Group started with drafting a community vision and values that will be vetted by the community and used to inform a strategic plan for how to achieve the vision.

Pioneer Valley Grows (Massachusetts)
Pioneer Valley Grows instituted a Racial Equity Working Group in 2013 with the aim of investigating and addressing systemic racism and inequities in the local food system. The council organized workshops and discussions around racial equity in the food system, including hosting a regional forum focused on immigration, food access, and land access.