City of Seattle Food Action Plan

Posted by on November 12, 2012

City of Seattle Releases Food Action Plan

Food Action Plan outlines steps for increasing access to healthy food, promoting public health, and supporting the regional food economy

To mark Food Day (October 24th)—a nationwide celebration and movement toward more healthy, affordable and sustainable food—the City of Seattle released the Seattle Food Action Plan (http://www.seattle.gov/environment/food_plan.htm) at an event held at Stockbox Grocers in South Park.  The Action Plan outlines actions the City will pursue over the next 3-5 years to achieve the following goals:

•         Healthy Food for All: All Seattle residents have enough to eat and access to affordable, local, healthy, sustainable, culturally appropriate food.

•         Grow Local: It is easy to grow food in Seattle and in our region, for personal use or for business purposes.

•         Strengthen the Local Economy: Businesses that produce, process, distribute, and sell local and healthy food grow and thrive in Seattle.

•         Prevent Food Waste: Food-related waste is prevented, reused, or recycled.

The Food Action Plan priorities were guided by input from the community and key stakeholders through a series of listening sessions in March.  The Office of Sustainability and Environment, together with an interdepartmental team, reviewed strategic actions that the City of Seattle could take in our departments, programs, and policies to address those priorities. The Food Action Plan outlines these actions.  The Food Action Plan builds on the work of the Local Food Action Initiative, passed in 2008.

Some highlights of the Action Plan include:

•         Expanding the Farm to Childcare program, which brings healthy food from local farmers into childcare sites, trains child care providers on nutrition and cooking, and brings kids to local farms.

•         Growing the successful P-Patch community gardening program, which will expand to 90 gardens throughout Seattle by 2013.

•         Leasing underutilized City-owned land to urban farmers, who want to expand food production in Seattle.

•         Providing technical assistance to neighborhood stores to improve profitability by increasing their selection of healthy foods.

•         Continuing to implement the Zero Waste Strategy, including establishing composting at municipal facilities.

See Mayor McGinn’s blog post (http://mayormcginn.seattle.gov/) about the Food Action Plan or read the plan (http://www.seattle.gov/environment/food_plan.htm).

The City of Seattle’s food policy work is coordinated by the Office of Sustainability and Environment, a department that develops and promotes innovative urban sustainability policies and initiatives that address environmental challenges for the City of Seattle.  Learn more about our work at (http://www.seattle.gov/environment).