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From Food Desert to Food Oasis, One Casserole at a Time

Cross-posted from Healthy Food Access Portal

When a leader of a local Baptist church made a plea to teach young people the value of casseroles, I knew we were on to something.

It turns out the casserole, long a staple of church suppers, may be the ultimate example of a do-it-yourself family food experience. The casserole is about efficiency, relying on the know-how to organize multiple, seasonal ingredients into a dish that will stretch the family food dollar. Every casserole is a teaching moment, pulling the kids into the kitchen to learn alternatives to drive-through fast food. The casserole is about friends and family, as parents traditionally kept a couple in the freezer to give to a neighbor suffering a hardship. All roads to a new food system run through the casserole.
 
In our food initiative, led by the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, we had initially used vocabulary from public health — lots of talk about food deserts and food insecurity, all supported by maps. Not a mention of casseroles.
 
The residents we aimed to serve, however, talked about food in different ways. And what we learned from residents helped us re-imagine our strategy. What emerged — the Georgia Food Oasis campaign — is now helping families across the state pursue their own ideas of how to eat, cook, and grow more fruits and vegetables.
 

Florida lawmakers consider lowcost grocery store loans to promote healthy eating

Overview

Concerned with the growing number of Floridians struggling to put nutritious yet affordable food on their tables, state lawmakers are weighing a proposal that would bring full-service stores to their neighborhoods. Florida's Healthy Food Financing Initiative would give low-cost loans to nonprofit organizations or for-profit businesses to put grocery stores in what the federal government calls food deserts. These are Census tracts where a percentage of residents have little money, live more than walking distance from a supermarket selling fresh food, but have no cars to drive to shop.

Communities of Innovation: Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Overview

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is known for its well-regarded agricultural land preservation program. Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, the county of a half-million people uses plans and policies to support agriculture and other components of their economy.

Communities of Innovation: Cabarrus County, North Carolina

Overview

Cabarrus County is an innovative, agricultural community that has experienced both tremendous political successes and setbacks to strengthening its local food system. Between 2008 and 2014, the county government took important steps towards institutionalizing and funding local food systems policy and programmatic work by establishing a food policy council and creating a local food system program coordinator position.

In June 2014, due to significant and unexpected budget cuts, the county government cut financial support for this work and eliminated the local food system program coordinator position. The following feature highlights these successes and setbacks and provides a summary of how the community is moving forward in light of its current struggles with maintaining ongoing political support for local food system work.

Communities of Innovation: Baltimore City, Maryland

Overview

Baltimore City, Maryland faces many of the same food system opportunities and challenges of other post-industrial cities, but the municipal government is aggressively pursuing a “food in all policies” approach by engaging agencies throughout the city. This feature highlights the initial efforts that established this approach, including an effort to institutionalize intergovernmental collaboration, and a few of the subsequent policies aimed at improving food access and supporting urban agriculture throughout the city.

Communities of Innovation: Seattle, Washington

Overview

The ability to address community challenges collectively and adapt to changing needs is critical to community sustainability. Those towns that are able to work cooperatively are usually linked by both economic and social relationships and are able to develop a deep sense of community and even entrepreneurship. Furthermore, these communities encourage diversity, inclusivity and acceptance, and innovativeness, features that contribute to overall quality of life and attracting and retaining new residents. Through a combined approach of visionary leadership, long-range planning, departmental coordination, public-private partnerships, and public funding for innovative programs, the Seattle municipal government is taking a leading role in strengthening the regional food system. The following feature highlights a few of the municipal government’s landmark efforts to improve access to healthy food for its residents while simultaneously improving the viability of regional agriculture.

Fresh food fund helps open grocery store in Waukegan 'food desert'

Overview

A cheery, well lit, Save-A-Lot grocery store — featuring fresh produce, lowcost cereals and meat packaging on site — opened this month on Waukegan's southwest side, an area officials called a "food desert" for underserved residents.The store employs 35 local residents and plans to hire two assistant store managers soon, said Save-A-Lot district manager Thomas Hill, after a dozen officials toured the 10,000squarefoot facility Saturday morning.

The Vermont Farm to Plate Investment Program

Overview

This profile highlights the Farm to Plate (F2P) Investment Program, which was designed to strategically strengthen the state’s food and farm sector and encourage the purchasing of local foods.
 
The Vermont Legislature commissioned the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund to develop a strategic plan to revitalize its food and farm sectors and increase purchasing of local foods. Implementation is under way with more than 350 organizations working together as the Farm to Plate Network, including the Farm to Institution Task Force focused on increasing institutional local food procurement.

Continually Improving Promise Neighborhoods: The Role of Case Management Data

Overview

A robust case management system is critical to tracking progress and success while executing a cradle-to-career continuum of services and supports. Authored by the Urban Institute, this report provides guidance on how to review and utilize case management data to accelerate the achievement of Promise Neighborhoods results.

Postsecondary Success in Promise Neighborhoods

Overview

Authored by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), this guide is a resource for Promise Neighborhoods as they work to improve college and career success for young people living in Promise Neighborhoods. It lifts up strategies to sustain postsecondary results over time and it profiles successful place-based efforts led by the Harlem Children's Zone, the Education Fund of Miami-Dade County, and the Center for Educational Partnerships at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).

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