Food Policy Resources

Public interest in food systems and national prevention strategies focusing on cross-sectoral, community and systems level approaches paved the way for growing numbers of food policy councils. These councils function as organizations to discuss food-related problems, foster coordination across sectors, and influence food policies. Extension professionals can serve as ""change agents,"" bring a wealth of experience and knowledge, form cross-sectoral collaborations, take leadership roles, and build community capacity through food policy councils. Based on expert interviews and our experiences in establishing a council, we present practice recommendations to serve as a concise how to guide for Extension professionals.

Describes how to achieve more collaboration and efficiency in local/municipal FPC work through systems thinking and analysis.

This report identifies state and federal policies that are helping New England grow its capacity to feed itself, policies that are hindering this growth, gaps in the existing policy framework, and opportunities for new policies to strengthen our food system.

Created by Ben Bowell, Cris Coffin, Christophe Courchesne, Ivy Frignoca, Max Greene, Anthony Iarrapino, Jennifer Rushlow, Kathryn Ruhf

This memorandum provides background information, policy research and analysis to support the Rhode Island Food Policy Council's efforts to implement a land-linking program for public land in Rhode Island. It provides an overview of farmland access in Rhode Island, describing land access and preservation problems, and the successes and shortcomings of current legislative and programmatic efforts to promote farmland preservation and land access. It also provides a short introduction to the major players working on farmland preservation in Rhode Island.

This report offers strategies for the Detroit (Illinois) Food Policy Council to increase engagement with Detroit community members in food policy decisions. Involving those most impacted by our broken food system in meaningful and educational dialogue is essential to creating a more fortified community.

Created by Brenda Mutuma

The report outlines specific ways in which public and private health care programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and new marketplace health insurance plans can support both nutrition counseling and the provision of nutritious, medically-tailored foods via home-delivered meals.

Created by Malinda Ellwood, Sarah Downer, Emily Broad Leib, Robert Greenwald, Duncan Farthing-Nichol, Eusebius Luk, and Adrienne Mendle

Assessment of the food retail environment is part of a comprehensive approach to undertaking healthier food retail initiatives. This document provides public health practitioners with an overview of how to develop an assessment of their state's or community's food retail environment through focusing, planning, and implementing the assessment and communicating the findings.

This report describes the realities of current and past food systems from the perspectives of Southern women of color. Shorlette argues that we can achieve equitable food systems change by 1) changing the narrative; 2) identifying food systems policy that directly affects women and children; 3) developing women of color leadership to lead the policy change; 4) building capacity and developing organizations; and 5) finding ways to sustain family farms.

Created by Shorlette Ammons

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) provide financial services and credit to benefit underserved neighborhoods. Because a growing number of CDFIs are financing the development of grocery stores and other food retail options in underserved communities, they have become an important partner for public health advocates seeking to increase access to quality, affordable food. While there have been concerted efforts to educate community development finance professionals about the benefits of expanding access to healthy food, less of an effort has been made to educate public health practitioners about the goals and operations of CDFIs. This document describes the role CDFIs play in financing healthy food retail and identifies how public health practitioners can partner with CDFIs to expand access to fresh, healthy food.

New England Food Vision describes a future in which New England produces at least half of the region's food‚ and no one goes hungry. It looks ahead half a century and sees farming and fishing as important regional economic forces; soils, forests, and waterways cared for sustainably; healthy diets as a norm; and access to food valued as a basic human right. It explores what could happen if society were to commit to supporting sustainable food production in New England, improving New Englanders' diets, and ensuring the right to healthy food for all.

Created by Brian Donahue, Joanne Burke, Molly Anderson, Amanda Beal, Tom Kelly, Mark Lapping, Hannah Ramer, Russell Libby, Linda Berlin 

This report summarizes themes about food access that emerged from three focus groups with 18 community members in San Jose, California.  The report concludes with a set of recommendations to address unequal access to healthy foods that exists in communities of color and for low-income communities in San José.

This resource is the result of a yearlong food hub feasibility study to determine the viability of and optimal strategy for the development of a regional food hub that will strengthen the local food system, expand production of fresh fruits and vegetables, and improve access of locally produced food across the metropolitan area, through institutional settings such as hospitals, schools, mobile markets and food banks.

This resource provides guidance for public health practitioners on how to develop, implement, and partner on initiatives and activities around food retail to improve access, availability, and affordability of healthier foods and beverages. The guide is designed for state-level public health practitioners, particularly those working in nutrition and obesity prevention. However, many action items and examples are applicable at regional and community levels. The Guide is organized around public health roles, including facilitating partnerships, conducting assessments, providing technical assistance, or coordinating the work of local public health or communities.

Created by Carla Linkous, Allison Karpyn

This document will outline the main components of a successful resolution, providing examples of each component within a sample resolution, and concluding with next steps one can take to create a food council via resolution.

This document includes three checklists that outline and illuminate the different steps, considerations, and elements that are required to draft an effective policy.

Enabling legislation that instructed the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund to create a strategic plan for agricultural economic development by gathering existing data, studies, and analysis about the components of Vermont's food system. The primary outcomes of the legislation are to: Increase economic development in Vermont's food and farm sector; Create jobs in the food and farm economy; and Improve access to healthy local foods.

Though many hospitals express an interest in purchasing and serving local and sustainable foods to patients, staff and visitors, and many sustainable farmers and producers are interested in selling to hospitals, this market remains largely untapped. This reporr documents lessons learned from a project aimed at demystify the health care market so that sustainable farmers and producers can access and help hospitals become a more significant and growing market for fresh, local, sustainably produced food and beverages.

Created by Anna Claussen

This cluster evaluation documents the strategically executed efforts and results achieved by four “healthy food incentive programs” to motivate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) customers to purchase healthier foods with their benefits, and to address financial challenges experienced by local farmers.

There has been a proliferation in the number and recognition of "food hubs" across the United States, as well as a substantial increase in foundation and public funding to support their development. In addition to generating economic value within a local economy, funders and policy makers are also acutely attentive to the impact of food hubs on local agricultural producers. While there is a substantial and growing literature that examines food hub activities, there have been few comprehensive, data-driven economic impact assessments completed to date. The study developed a replicable empirical framework to conduct impact assessments for food hub organizations.

Created by Todd Schmit, Becca Jablonski, David Kay

This report outlines the activities that California health care systems, hospitals, and clinicians are currently engaged in through the Healthy Food in Health Care Program. The data in this report are drawn from the 2013 California Healthy Food in Health Care survey conducted by San Francisco Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility. Eighty-five facili- ties completed the survey, representing 76 percent of California HFHC hospitals at the time the survey was administered.

Content coordinated by Kendra Klein and Lucia Sayre.