Food Policy Resources

States have the primary authority to create laws that affect the public health and safety of their residents and to control commerce within state lines. This report is intended to serve as a guide for home cooks, policymakers, and advocates, to provide an at-a-glance guide to cottage food and home kitchen laws throughout the country.  As of 2021, all 50 states have expanded upon this exemption in their state laws in various ways to allow for the limited sale of certain foods produced at home.

Prepared by Regina Paparo and Patrick Montgomery.

501(c)(3) public charities can lobby within the generous limits allowed by federal law. This fact sheet explains the two tests charities can use to measure their lobbying.

On March 25, 2021, the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future’s Food Policy Networks project hosted a roundtable about shared gifting with the Maine Network of Community Food Councils, Michigan Local Food Council Network, Community Food Strategies in North Carolina and the University of Minnesota Extension food networks. State network representatives discussed how each network became involved with shared gifting, what makes their processes work, and what they recommend doing differently.

This webinar highlights lessons learned from four different food system mapping projects, three state-wide maps‚ Maryland, Colorado, and Ohio, and a county-level map from New York. Each project provides a brief introduction to their mapping application as well as a live demo. There is also a facilitated discussion about the value of maps, their limitations, tips and lessons learned, examples of how the maps have been used, and the future of food system mapping.

Presented by:

Becca Jablonski, Associate Professor and Food Systems Extension Economist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University.

Sean Quigley, Technologies Program Manager, Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University.

Wajihah Baig, GIS Technology Specialist, Knowledge Exchange, The Ohio State University.

Linnea Carlson, Director, Jamestown Public Market and Chair, Chautauqua County Food Policy Council.

Melissa Keller, Planner, Chautauqua County Dept. of Planning & Development and Member, Chautauqua County Food Policy Council.

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future‚ Food Policy Networks project hosted this webinar on June 22, 2020, with food policy leaders from four cities who talked about their experiences managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn about what strategies were in place before the pandemic, how their cities developed and implemented strategies to respond, the role of the community in their work, and what have they learned thus far. The presenters all hold positions within government and are members of the United States Conference of Mayors food policy working group. 

Presented by: Holly Freishtat, Food Policy Director, Baltimore, Maryland; Milele P. Kennedy, Food Policy and Program Coordinator, Indianapolis, Indiana; Edwin Marty, Food Policy Manager, Austin, Texas; and Latha Swamy, Food Systems Policy Director, New Haven, Connecticut.

The New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council is a democratically based organization, composed of a variety of groups and individuals, working on issues arising from the food and agriculture systems. The Internal Governance documents outlines the mission, vision, goals, membership and other rules of the Council.

This guide is written for anyone seeking help from federal programs to foster sustainable and innovative initiatives in this country associated with agriculture and forestry. Sustainability is commonly understood to embrace the triple concepts of economic, environmental and social viability. Specifically, the guide provides information about program resources pertaining to economic development, farm loans, insurance and risk management, natural resources conservation and management; nutrition and consumer food access, renewable energy and energy conservation, research and outreach, and value added and marketing innovations.

Created by Donale Richards, Margaret Krome, Alejandra Hernandez, and National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's policy staff

One of the fundamental steps to creating a healthy beverage initiative is developing a written policy that defines “healthy” beverage and sets clear, consistent standards. This resource provides definitions and sample standards for the creation of healthy beverage policies that facilitate consistent communication of institutional goals to vendors.

The goal of this toolkit is to help farmers organize around transformative learning and action. The first section provides foundational understandings about racism, how it operates in our food system, and why dismantling racism is central to the pursuit of a just agricultural system. The second section provides guidance, structure, and practical tools for convening conversations about race, racism, equity, and justice. The third section offers guidance around organizing toward direct action based on principles of resource-sharing, reparations, and movement building.

Created by Michelle L. Hughes, Tess Brown-Lavoie, Michelle A. T. Hughes, Leah Penniman, Martin Lemos, Caitlin Arnold Stephano, Sophie Ackoff, Holly Rippon-Butler

The guidebook provides science-based guidance and sample zoning code language designed to reduce the barriers to, and promote production and sales activities commonly associated with urban agriculture. The guidebook addresses the following common urban agriculture uses: aquaculture, bees, chickens, goats, front-yard gardens, community and market gardens, gardening on vacant lots, urban farms, season extenders, composting, Community Supported Agriculture drop-sites, farm stands, farmers markets, food trucks and pushcarts, and urban agriculture districts. Each chapter provides a general description of the activity, and the science-based information on standards and best practices associated with the activity; the public health, safety and welfare concerns commonly associated with the activity; a summary of the commonalities found among municipalities’ codes; and sample code language taken from municipalities that vary both in size and location.

Created by Andrea Vaage, Gary Taylor

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns triggered widespread interest in the art of making sourdough bread. Using technology that is thousands of years old, sourdough is leavened with a starter made up of flour and water that has undergone fermentation as a result of chemical reactions that occur in the presence of naturally occurring bacteria and yeast. Not only is sourdough bread more nutritious than mass-produced bread, it can only be made in small batches and remains fresher longer, thereby reducing food waste. Sourdough bread also avoids the need for commercial yeast, which has a large carbon footprint. I began my starter about a year ago using solely flour and water.  Now that it is a mature starter, I refresh it about once a week, usually when I make a batch of sourdough bread. The bread in this image is typical of what I make, consisting solely of a mixture of bread and rye flours and about 150 grams of refreshed starter per loaf.  It is delicious!

Image credit: Kelly Kogan; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

Part of Carteret Local Food Network's mission is to increase food access and security in our largely spread-out, rural community. Due to COVID-19, our regularly scheduled programming in 2020 (such as cooking classes and farm-to-table dinners) was put on hold. However, we uncovered a great need in our area for access and transportation to local fresh markets. Our goal was to not only increase food access and security but to support our local farmers as well. While our Veggie Van Mobile Market is still in its infancy, we were able to purchase over $10,000 in fresh produce from our farmers, gain approval for SNAP/EBT benefits, and meet those in our community in locations that were easy to access to allow them to purchase local produce that they otherwise would not have been attainable. While COVID definitely handed us some challenges this year, this photo succinctly sums up one of the ways we were able to make an impact in our community.

Image credit: Stacy Macklin; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

The Piedmont Triad Regional Food Council began 2020 engaged in the process of conducting a regional food assessment for the twelve counties of the Piedmont Triad with equity as a central component. On March 19, 2020, North Carolina instituted its first statewide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 crisis. In-person outreach was canceled, and we pivoted to online surveying and community engagement. In early fall, we were able to safely attend outdoor farmers markets and grocery stores to conduct additional survey outreach. As an incentive for survey participation, we offered apples sourced from local farms and a sticker designed in collaboration with the council marketing workgroup that says "Care About Food Equity in the Triad".

Image credit: Jennifer Bedrosian; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

Volunteers sorting and packing emergency food bags for Johns Hopkins employees in need.

Image credit: Brent Kim; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

The Schumacher Center for a New Economics, located amidst the rolling hills of the Berkshire region of Western Massachusetts, dedicates its efforts toward building a regenerative economy based on the health and robustness of local economies. In this spirit, it advocates for the use of collective land ownership models like Community Land Trusts, the rematriation of lands to indigenous ownership, and land gifting as a form of reparations to communities of color. The organization advocates for these models not only because decommodifying land, water, and air sustains communities in an equitable fashion, but also because removing land from the speculative market and placing it in community control liberates small-scale farmers to farm regeneratively over decades, rather than focusing simply on the quickest way to turn a profit from the soil using monoculture or extractive methods. 

The Schumacher Center itself sits on land that belongs to a Community Land Trust; the orchard it overlooks and the garden one of its leaseholders (and the organization's founder) cultivates epitomizes the ecological imperatives of liberating the land for sustainable, gentle cultivation practices. Here, raspberry-picking season is featured in several stages: the height of summertime's abundance, the collection of its fruits, and preservation in jam jars to be enjoyed for months to come.

Image credit: Brittany Ebeling; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

What do you do when someone donates squash transplants to a community garden even though the donor isn't sure what kind of seed they started? Plant them anyway! Volunteers at the Arma Nutrition Council's community garden had no idea the transplants were a cross between pumpkin and butternut squash. That didn't matter in the end because the butterkin pies that were made from the harvests were delicious. The resident-led community garden in the background, which is located in a city park, grew approximately one ton of fresh food that was given away for free through the Arma City Library's food pantry. This community of 1,400 Kansans is nearly 10 miles away from any other sources of fresh produce.

Image credit: Matt O'Malley; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

Our cat, Lavey (short for Lavender Anne), was in dire need of a nail trim. On our way home from the vet, we decided to take a quick detour to San Jacinto Community Garden‚ one of our favorite destinations to get outside and tend to our little veggie plot during COVID-19. Lavey loves exploring the outdoors, and now she loves exploring kale! The garden has been a great way to safely meet others, grow our own food, and get our hands dirty over this past year. What a fun way to spend an afternoon with my cat!

Image credit: Emily Foxman; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

On our last late fall CSA share pickup of 2020 at Newton Community Farm, Jay Vilar, our Operations, Communications, and Events Manager, is bundled for the cold and taking precautions against COVID-19. In other years, our barn becomes like a small market inside, where 40 late fall CSA sharers pick and pack their produce, which may have been harvested by our farm manager, assistant farm manager, field crew, or volunteers. Customers mill around at their leisure and visit with other farm supporters. This year, all staff assisted in the harvest as volunteer numbers were greatly cut back to reduce exposure for staff and the community. Staff also pre-packed items like the leafy greens you see here, and put each share in a repurposed, sanitized crate. Pickups were scheduled in advance and sharers transferred their vegetables, herbs, and fruit into their bags on sanitized tables. Although this may sound like a less personal way to interact, you can see in Jay's expression the absolute joy and pride that Newton Community Farm staff felt when distributing the shares to our wonderful family of customers. The brief, warm exchanges we had with sharers were often the highlight of our week and theirs!

Image credit: Sue Bottino; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

When we got engaged and decided that I would give up my place and move in with my partner, we had no idea that the world was going to come crashing down just a few short weeks later. As weeks of isolation dragged on, I decided to create these mini-gardens as a way to meet the neighbors. These were assembled over a few weeks, with little notes introducing me as their new neighbor and suggesting some uses for the assorted starts. We went for a couple of walks, dropping them off on doorsteps and porches throughout the neighborhood, where the responses ranged from bewildered to enthusiastic.

Image credit: Stephanie Henry; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.

JC Faulk, founder of Bmore Community Food, strikes a pose at their weekly Saturday giveaway. BCF began in March as a COVID-19 response. With passionate volunteers and dedicated leadership, it has grown into one of the largest food rescue and distribution efforts in the city. The mission? End food insecurity in Baltimore, says JC‚ "We're still just touching the tip of the iceberg of hunger in Baltimore. That we have so many people hungry in this city, while we are throwing away so much food. It makes no sense to me". Through community drops, curbside giveaways, and a city-wide delivery network built from the ground up, BCF is currently distributing about 100,000 pounds of food a month. They plan on drastically increasing that number in 2021.

Image credit: Eli Herrnstadt; CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2020.

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.