Community Food Systems

 

 

What is a Community Food System?

Community Supported Agriculture

Farmers’ Market Resources

Urban Agriculture

Developing a Community Food System

Community Food Assessment Resources

Examples of Community Food Systems

 

 

What is a Community Food System?

 

Community Food Security Programs: What do They Look Like?

At a basic level, community food security (CFS) is about making healthy food accessible to all, including low-income people. But, as this definition suggests, it’s about much more than that. This short article from the Community Food Security Coalition explains what community food security programs may include.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/CFS_projects.pdf

 

 

Community Supported Agriculture

 

*Please visit the SWMN “Marketing Options” section on Community Supported Agriculture for comprehensive information about how CSA’s increase local food security!

 

 

Farmers’ Market Resources

 

*Please visit the SWMN “Marketing Options” section on Farmers’ Markets for comprehensive information about how Farmers’ Markets increase local food security!

 

 

Urban Agriculture

 

Support Community and School-Based Greening

This guide was developed by Openlands which is based in Chicago, IL.

http://www.openlands.org/urbangreening.asp

 

Hartford Food System: Grow Hartford Urban Agriculture Project

Grow Hartford, a project of the Hartford Food System, promotes a sustainable and equitable food system in Hartford by cultivating youth leadership and civic participation through agriculture. Grow Hartford operates three sites in Hartford's inner city that serve as outdoor classrooms for hundreds of Hartford young people and families.

http://www.hartfordfood.org/programs/expansion.html

 

City Farmer News

For the past 30 years, City Farmer has encouraged urban dwellers to pull up a patch of lawn and plant some vegetables, kitchen herbs and fruit. Their message is the same today as it was in 1978 and will be relevant far into the future. This website is a collection of stories about work at City Farmer in Vancouver, Canada, and about urban farmers from around the world.
http://www.cityfarmer.info/

 

Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center to the Urban Fringe

The goal of this guide is to raise awareness of the ways that urban agriculture can respond to food insecurity. The document advocates for policies that promote small-scale urban and peri-urban farming, and thereby prepare the next generation of urban farming leaders.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanag.html

 

Developing a Community Food System

 

Building Community Food Security: Lessons Learned from Community Food Projects, 1999-2003

Building Community Food Security research is based on analysis of CFP project narrative reports from 1999-2003, CFP focus groups, and relevant literature. It outlines a summary of activities for which these projects engaged and include characteristics of successful community food security projects, factors for success, challenges CFP grantees faced, and, lessons learned.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/pubs.html#building

 

Growing a Community Food System

A “community food system” is one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution and consumption are integrated to enhance the environmental, economic, and social and nutritional health of a particular place. This publication from the Washington State University discusses way to create a community food system.

http://smallfarms.wsu.edu/publications/WREP0135.pdf

 

 

Community Food Assessment Resources

 

Community Food Systems Resources: Community Food Security Coalition

This resource list includes several helpful publications for understanding community food systems as well as developing community food projects.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/resource_list.html#cfs

 

Community Food Assessment Reports from Throughout the US

This is a directory of groups from throughout the US who have conducted Community Food Assessments. You can find contact information for each group to learn more abour each assessment.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/cfa_outsideca.html#colorado

 

Food Security Learning Center

This website has more information about the benefits of conducting a community food Assessment.

http://www.worldhungeryear.org/fslc/faqs/ria_080.asp?section=7&click=1

 

Funding to Conduct a Community Food Assessment

The Community Food Projects Competitive Grant is administered by the CSREES of the USDA. The Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program (CFPCGP) has existed since 1996 as a program to fight food insecurity through developing community food projects that help promote the self-sufficiency of low-income communities.

http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/food/in_focus/hunger_if_competitive.html

 

What’s Cooking in Your Food System? A Guide to Community Food Assessment

This publication comes from the Community Food Security Coalition. It provides an overview of potential benefits and outcomes of an assessment.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/CFAguide-whatscookin.pdf

 

 

Examples of Community Food Systems

 

Community Food Security Programs: What do They Look Like?

At a basic level, community food security (CFS) is about making healthy food accessible to all, including low-income people. But, as this definition suggests, it’s about much more than that. This short article from the Community Food Security Coalition explains what community food security programs may include.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/CFS_projects.pdf

 

Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: A Decade of Community Food Projects in Action

From the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona to the densely populated neighborhoods of East New York, Community Food Projects (CFP) grantees are reaching back into the past and ahead into the future to develop new ways to produce and distribute healthy food. This report profiles various Community Food projects from around the country and provides an overview of the progress made in the past decade in the emerging field of Community Food Systems.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/CFPdecadereport.pdf

 

The Hartford Food System: Fact Sheet

The Hartford Food System administers a range of projects, including a 24-acre vegetable farm that grows food for families and social service agencies in the region, an urban agriculture project in Hartford’s inner city, a parents committee that is working to improve school meals, a food policy council, a coalition of small grocery stores, and extensive outreach and advocacy in Hartford’s neighborhoods.

http://www.hartfordfood.org/pubs/factsheet.pdf