New Report: Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned

Posted by on January 11, 2010

New report highlights tools to fight hunger and fix the food system

Just weeks after the USDA announced that one in seven Americans would go hungry at some point in 2009, a new report from Food First and the Community Food Security Coalition highlights a useful tool that city, state and local governments can use to fight hunger, diet-related diseases and other symptoms of a failing food system. Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned is based on an in-depth survey of 48 Food Policy Councils established in North America over the past 30 years, and comes up with some surprising, hopeful stories.

Food Policy Councils are advisory boards that bring together representatives of different food system sectors, from farm to fork to recycling, and different walks of life, including neighborhood leaders, local business and concerned citizens. Food Policy Councils analyze problems around food, agriculture, diet, nutrition, hunger, and economic development as part of a holistic food system in their local area, and make recommendations on ways to solve those problems.

According food policy expert CFSC Food Policy Council Project Director Mark Winne,

“Local governments are the testing grounds for innovative policy ideas. What state and local governments do, and don’t do, has a profound effect on health and hunger. While many government departments, businesses, and advocates touch on these issues, Food Policy Councils can build platforms for coordinated action.”

Councils for example have been involved in bringing fresh local produce to schools, re-routing transit to make access to full service groceries stores easier, protecting farmland, helping support new locally owned businesses, and getting food stamps accepted at farmer’s markets.

Food Policy Councils are spreading rapidly across the country. Over 100 have been established in the past 30 years, many in the last several years. Co-author Annie Shattuck says “Food Policy Councils have shown a tremendous potential to not only address hunger and health, but local economic development as well.”

The report’s co-author Alethea Harper of the Oakland Food Policy Council notes, “There is no one size fits all solution to the problems facing our food system. What works in Oakland may not be appropriate in Omaha. But Food Policy Councils can be effective tools to build locally appropriate solutions.”

The authors emphasize that despite dozens of successful case studies, Food Policy Councils tend to encounter similar challenges, challenges that can sometimes stymie progress, and must be countered with careful planning and evaluation.

Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned contains tips and case studies for successful councils, warns of common red flags, and includes ample resources for citizens and local governments who may be interested in establishing or helping run a Food Policy Council.

“With hunger at record levels in America,” Winne notes, “it is time local governments connect the dots between growing jobs and growing food.”

The full report is available free at http://www.foodfirst.org

About Food First

Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy works to end injustices that cause hunger and environmental destruction.

About the Community Food Security Coalition

CFSC is a national coalition dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food to all people at all times.

Contact: Annie Shattuck, Policy Analyst

Institute for Food and Development Policy (510) 654-4400 ext 223

Mark Winne, Food Policy Councils Project Director

Community Food Security Coalition (505) 983-3047

Alethea Harper, Coordinator

Oakland Food Policy Council (510) 654-4400 ext 233