Food Policy Resources

In 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021, the Center for Regional Food Systems and the Wallace Center at Winrock International conducted the National Food Hub Survey to identify economic growth trends for food hubs across the nation and monitor changes in services offered and the variety of customers served. These surveys help shape national understanding of food hubs and inform policy and program initiatives; gain greater exposure for food hubs nationally; and inform new potential relationships between food hubs and investors, grant makers and other food hubs looking to find success.

Since 2013, the California Food Policy Council, Roots of Change, and now the California Food and Farming Network have produced an annual report summarizing relevant state food and farm bills and the status of those bills at the end of the state legislative session, and analyzing the performance of California state legislators and the governor related to food and agriculture policies.

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps brings actionable data, evidence, guidance and stories to support community-led efforts to grow community power and improve health equity. Works to improve health outcomes for all and close health gaps between those with the most and fewest opportunities for good health. The project includes resources and tools that support community-led efforts to accurately diagnose core problems, understand and account for historical context and implement evidence-informed solutions.

The Healthy Food Access Portal brings together the rapidly growing body of research, best practices, resources, and policy information for community members, practitioners, advocates, entrepreneurs, and others who are committed to ensuring that all communities have equitable access to healthy, quality, affordable food. The Portal provides a one-stop shop for a wide range of research and technical support tools, successful stories and examples of policy and practice in action, and up-to-date information on the development of federal, state, and local food access policies.

Various public and private institutions purchase, serve, and sell food to specific populations. Such institutions include schools, universities, healthcare facilities, shelters, correctional facilities, and agencies that provide free meals to people with low-incomes. These entities are a consistent source of food for millions of people in the United States. They hold significant purchasing power that could be better leveraged to support healthy eating. Implementing healthy food service guidelines is an evidence-based strategy to improve the food environment in these settings. The toolkit provides resources to support the improvement of food and beverage options served and sold through vending machines, cafeterias, concession stands, meetings, and events.

This guide provides an in-depth look at dozens of federal programs and policies most important to sustainable agriculture, and details how they can be accessed by farmers, ranchers, and grassroots organizations nationwide. This guide is organized into ten chapters, along with a quick-reference overview chart, glossary, and additional resources page.

A self-evaluation tool for leaders to measure the participation, decision-making, cohesiveness, productivity, and general organization of their meeting procedures.

A chart to guide strategic plan development.

The Healthy Food Policy Project identifies and elevates local laws that seek to promote access to healthy food while also contributing to strong local economies, an improved environment, and health equity, with a focus on socially disadvantaged and marginalized groups. The site contains a curated, searchable database of local food policies organized by food system category and type of law, and case studies that showcase healthy food policy initiatives around the country.

This annotated bibliography provides current research on structural racism in the U.S. food system for practitioners, researchers, and educators. Structural racism in the United States has been defined as the “normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics—historical, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal—that routinely advantage whites while producing cumulative and chronic outcomes for people of color.” This resources crowdsources references in an ever-growing listing of literature that links the social construction of whiteness and its intentional or consequential impact on structural racism within the United States’ food movement. A 9th edition of the bibliography was published in 2022 featuring more than 500 citations.

Created by Rachel Kelly, Rich Pirog, Kimberly Carr, Anel Guel, Jane Henderson, Kyeesha Wilcox, Taylor Wimberg, Vanessa García Polanco, Daniel Babayode, Kelsey Watson, and Emettra Nelson

In 2011, the New York City Council established reporting requirements for a variety of City agency initiatives related to food through Local Law 52 of 2011. The Food Metrics Report provides a snapshot of data from those programs as well as trends over time. The report has expanded every year to include the broad range of programs and initiatives that the City is doing to address food insecurity; improve City food procurement and food service, increase healthy food access and awareness, and support a more sustainable and just food system.  

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.

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

Supermarkets sit at a critical juncture and play an important role in determining how and what food we buy. During this Edible Inquiries discussion, Dr. Allison Karpyn and Darya Minovi discussed how supermarkets use placement, promotion, and price to induce impulse purchases of unhealthy foods and how similar strategies can be used to nudge healthier purchasing. What does the current research tell us about the effectiveness of shelf tagging, product placement in the store, and taste testing? And what are effective retail policies at the state and local level that communities can pursue to create a food retail environment that supports healthy eating?

Presenters: Allison Karpyn and Darya Minovi

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality worked with Portland State University's Community Environmental Services to conduct a five-part study on wasted food generation in the State of Oregon. The Oregon Wasted Food Study tracked wasted food in both urban and rural households—using quantitative and qualitative research methods—to increase our understanding of how much, what, and why food is discarded by Oregonians. The main research objectives were to understand the causes of waste, collect reliable data on wasted edible food, and provide basic methods for establishing wasted food baselines and assessing shifts in waste prevention behaviors or levels of awareness.
 
Created by Christa McDermott, Debi Elliott, Laura Moreno, Cameron Mulder, Reed Broderson