Food Policy Resources

Local Produce Link (LPL) is an initiative funded by the New York State Department of Health Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (NYSDOH HPNAP) that connects regional farmers with food-insecure communities in New York City. Using the community-supported agriculture model, 8 farmers make weekly deliveries during the growing season to provide fresh produce to 49 food pantries in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Designed with the hub-and-spoke concept, one food pantry serves as the hub host and receives weekly deliveries containing multiple shares of vegetables during the months of June to November. The host pantry keeps one vegetable share to distribute in the next two days to their clients as part of a balanced food package, while other food pantries pick up the remaining shares to serve their own communities. LPL is unique in that the arrangement is intentional; these farm-delivered vegetables are not gleaned or rescued. Each farmer is contracted to grow these crops for the pantry communities and is compensated a market rate for their harvest. As the program name indicates, Local Produce Link only provides shares of fresh produce for its food pantries, but many of the farmers participating in the program also raise livestock. On a recent farm trip, this pig posed perfectly for the paparazzi up on Hearty Roots Community Farm in Germantown, New York. What a ham!

Image credit: Jennifer Horan, United Way of New York City, CLF Food Policy Networks Photo Contest, 2018.

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 Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future Food Policy Networks project presents Evolved and Dissolved: Lessons Learned from the Transience of Food Policy Councils, part of the webinar series, "Edible Inquiries: Food Policy Research Connections". Edible Inquiries: Food Policy Research Connections is part of our broader efforts to cohesively connect researchers and food policy councils, with the aim of fostering research on FPCs that is relevant, proactive, and responsive. This webinar features a discussion about how the transitory nature of FPCs affects their ability to influence policy change and what elements can contribute to the sustainability of FPCs. This webinar highlights lessons learned from Nicole Debose about the revival of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition, Monica Cuneo on the dissolution of the Portland Multnomah FPC, and Raychel Santo on the instability of FPCs.

This series of three virtual workshops, presented by noted leaders in network development June Holley and Yasmin Yonis, discusses different aspects of network approaches, including the value of networks and networked councils, communication tools, strategies for self-organizing, and mapping funders. Links to each of the three workshops is in Related Content. 

Presented by: June Holley and Yasmin Yonis.

A diversity of cross-sectoral, multi-scalar networks are emerging to connect place-based food governance initiatives, such as food policy councils and partnerships, aimed to foster sustainable food security. Yet little research has explored how local food policy groups (LFPGs) are (horizontally) connecting to share knowledge and resources, or interacting (vertically) with other scales of food governance. To address this gap, we examine the trans-local dimension of food policy networks—and its potential to facilitate transformative food system reform. We build on alternative food network, social network, and assemblage thinking to develop an analytical framework that unveils the mobile, unstable, and relational processes and spatialities of LFPGs and the networks which connect them. Through an action-research project comprising a comparative analysis of the Food Policy Networks project in the US and Sustainable Food Cities Network in the UK, we explore how LFPGs connect across different scales and emerge as social-spatial assemblages of food system knowledge, practices, and infrastructure.

Food policy councils (FPCs) are collaboratives that work to strengthen food systems. Over 300 FPCs exist in the United States, Canada, and Tribal Nations. In 2015, we surveyed the types of initiatives FPCs undertook and identified food sector targets and domains of potential impact in an effort to inform comprehensive FPC impact assessments. FPCs (N=66) reported 317 policy, systems, and environmental initiatives. At least half of these were focused on food production, and many were focused on institutional food service and the food assistance sectors. Commercial food service, food processing, and food waste were less often the focus. Potential impacts of their initiatives were classified into six domains: supporting resilient food systems (235, 74%); increasing access to healthy foods (171, 54%); supporting economic development (115, 36%); promoting equity in the food system (94, 30%); promoting environmental sustainability (82, 26%); and increasing knowledge of or demand for healthy foods (27, 9%). Many initiatives were likely to impact multiple domains.

Edible Inquiries interactive webinar series is part of the Food Policy Networks project's broader efforts to connect researchers and food policy councils, with the aim of fostering research on food policy groups that is relevant, proactive, and responsive. This second webinar in the series focused on the politics of the Farm Bill. Two political scientists who have studied the history and interests that gave rise to and sustained the Farm Bill over the decades, explored how growing partisanship, geographical differences, and ideological positions could influence the current and future Farm Bill renegotiation processes.
 
Presented by: Christopher Bosso, Adam Sheingate, and Mark Winne.

Over the past ten years, staff at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) have witnessed a surge in food-related activities in communities around the country, including the formation of food policy councils, expansion of healthy food purchase incentives, and growth of urban agriculture initiatives. While non-profit and community organizations are driving much of this work, city governments are also playing a leading role in developing and strengthening policy to support food systems. This webinar featured food policy council organizers from Milwaukee, Columbus, and Baltimore who shared their accomplishments and relationships with city government. CLF and Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence staff also discussed how to use data and tools to understand your jurisdiction's food system.

Presented by: Nya Taryor Jr., Tim McCollow, Cheryl Graffagnino, Jalisa Dawkins, Holly Freishtat, Caitlin Misiaszek, and Kat Klosek.

The majority of food policy councils subsist on a budget of less than $10,000 a year, making funding food systems policy work among the top challenges of food policy councils.  While we still don't know how to reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, we know some people that can offer directions. The Food Policy Networks project of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future hosted this panel of funders and food policy council leaders for a virtual roundtable conversation about how to express the value of your work and make the case for support for your food policy council. Hear about why healthcare foundations, private foundations, and public charities are supporting food policy councils.  Learn from the experiences of peer FPCs about how to talk about the impact of your work. 

Presented by: Alison Babb, Jill Egland, Laureen Husband, Christine James, and Ken Morse.

The information in this fact sheet pertains to the federal rule that addresses menu labeling in restaurants and similar retail food establishments. This fact sheet provides information about what regulatory options remain for state and local governments. It answers common questions about how state and local governments can enforce the federal rule and the authority these governments have to implement other menu labeling regulations.

Across North America, civic-oriented groups are conducting grass-roots projects to develop community food systems. Projects are addressing issues such as local food security, healthy food access, and agriculture economic development. Local governments are paying increasing attention to this new policy arena; however, policy environments that support these projects are often lacking. Using the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), this paper presents the case of Franklin County, Ohio to illustrate how a civically-oriented group transitioned into an advocacy coalition.

The Edible Inquiries interactive webinar series is part of the Food Policy Networks project's broader efforts to connect researchers and food policy councils, with the aim of fostering research on food policy groups that is relevant, proactive, and responsive. This inaugural webinar featured four researchers who have recently published academic research about monitoring the internal organization and evaluating the external impacts of food policy groups.  
 
Presented by: Larissa Calancie, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina Center for Health Equity Research; Jill Clark, Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs; Caitlin Marquis, Healthy Hampshire Coordinator; Ana Moragues Faus, Research Fellow at the Cardiff University School of Geography and Planning.

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future has collaborated with the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative since 2012 to examine the physical food environment in Baltimore City. The CLF has conducted research – focused on food retail and healthy food availability – and analysis using geographic information systems technology to identify gaps and opportunities in Baltimore City’s food environment. The research reports and accompanying maps can be used as policy and planning tools to guide and assess strategies in creating a healthier and more equitable food environment in Baltimore City.

This comprehensive analysis explores federal, New York state, and New York City policies and programs that can support nutrition education; offers first-hand insight into publicly supported nutrition education from New York State players; and provides specific recommendations for policymakers to improve the nutrition education landscape.

Created by Claire Uno, Julia McCarthy, Pamela Koch, Alison Hard, Callie Troutman, Georgia Simatou, Isobel R. Contento

This resource includes a 20-minute presentation on the Appalachian Foodshed Partnership network map, a pdf of the slides from the presentation and the surveys that were used to populate the map (individuals and organizations).

Not all efforts to influence public policy meet the definition of lobbying, so 501(c)(3) organizations can play a significant advocacy role while still staying within their annual lobbying limits. This fact sheet outlines the types of decisions that are designed to influence federal, state and local agency rules (including school boards), executive orders, and regulations.

Federal tax law controls how much lobbying 501(c)(3) organizations can engage in. Public charities can choose to measure their lobbying under either the insubstantial part test or the 501(h) expenditure test. While lobbying is not defined under the insubstantial part test, this fact sheet provides an overview of how lobbying is defined for organizations that measure their lobbying under the 501(h) expenditure test.

Those working within Cooperative Extension organizations and community development professionals are often asked to engage in the development of local food councils. This free online course provides information and a basic set of skills to equip professionals with the tools they need to feel more confident leading or assisting with this work. More than 20 Cooperative Extension and community development professionals contributed to this self-paced, no-cost course, which contains videos and resources that can be used during food council meetings.

The Staple Foods Ordinance amends Minneapolis, Minnesota city codes to require all small food retailers and grocery stores stock a variety of dairy products, proteins, bread, cereal, vegetables and fruit - most of which must be fresh. Though the initiative was born from concerns for public safety, as policy makers were concerned that stores chiefly selling alcohol, tobacco, and highly processed foods were magnets for crime, the ordinance also served to make Minneapolis the first city to regulate nutritional standards in food stores.

Sharing a powerful food policy story is vital to garnering support for new policies. Esri Story Maps, a web-based tool that combines maps with narrative text, images, and multimedia content, provides one platform to develop and share these stories. This webinar provides an overview of the types of story maps available, how they have been used to tell impactful food policy stories, and a brief demonstration to help you get started making a story map of your own. Presenters include the head of Esri's Story Maps team as well as a practitioner that has used story maps to communicate about her work on environment, agriculture, and food policy in Missouri. Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future staff members also shared their experiences using story maps to support food policy in Maryland. 

Presented by: Allen Carroll, Esri; Melissa Vatterott, Missouri Coalition for the Environment; and Carrie Burns and Jamie Harding, Center for a Livable Future.

The top tier of EPA's Food Recovery Hierarchy is source reduction, which is reducing the volume of surplus food generated.  Source Reduction can be challenging to understand, quantify and implement. Businesses and organizations can learn to effectively prevent wasted food by taking source reduction steps such as inventorying supplies, changing processes and buying less.  Looking through a Sustainable Materials Management lens, preventing wasted food provides the greatest potential for cost savings and resource conservation relative to the other Food Recovery Hierarchy activities, as demonstrated by the US EPA Waste Reduction Model. This webinar introduced progressive examples from a state agency and the business community that prevent wasted food at the source.

Presenters: David Allaway, Stephanie Barger, Brian Balukonis, Marc Wincott, André Villaseñor