Community Food Assessment

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Reports From Food Assessments Conducted Outside California

Colorado

La Plata County, Colorado: Growing Partners of Southwest Colorado
In Progress
This assessment will profile the community's food needs and resources, as well as the social, cultural, agricultural and environmental factors affecting the food system. The goals include increasing awareness about the local food system, strengthening existing food networks, and creating an evaluation and monitoring process for local food projects. The project is a partnership between five non-profit and volunteer organizations: Southern Ute Community Action Program, The Garden Project of SW Colorado, La Boca Center for Sustainability, Turtle Lake Refuge, and Southwest Marketing Network.
Contact: Shari Fitzgerald, thegardenprojectsw@yahoo.com

Connecticut

Making Room at the Table. A Guide to Community Food Security in Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut. Connecticut Food Policy Council
Completed 1998
Contact: Hartford Food System at: info@hartfordfood.org

Iowa

Iowa Community Food Assessment Project Report 2001-02 (in PDF format)
Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University
Completed 2002
This report's goal is to examine low-income rural and urban areas that have no or few grocery stores to determine how food and social environment influence diets and health of limited income people. A mixed methods process utilizing focus groups and surveys of grocery stores and residents are used over a two-year period. This report summarizes the focus group and grocery store item pricing and availability methodologies used in year one (2001-02) of the project. Then, preliminary findings will be used to guide the development of a resident survey in year two.
Contact: Lois Wright Morton, lwmorton@iastate.edu

Kentucky

Bringing Kentucky's Food and Farm Economy Home (in PDF format)
Frankfort, Kentucky: Community Farm Alliance (CFA)
Completed 2003
This report is an attempt to establish where Kentucky agriculture is now, what important changes have taken place over the last 20 years, and a vision of potential economic revitalization for Kentucky's rural and urban areas. Documenting the nature of Kentucky's present food economy and suggesting areas for improvement is essential to the statewide food system planning now underway.
Contact: Pernell Path and Roger Blobaum, www.communityfarmalliance.org

Massachusetts

Household Food Security Study Summaries (link to website)
Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Center on Hunger and Poverty
Completed 2001
This publication comprehensively surveys the rapidly growing field of household food security measurement, providing summaries of all studies released since 1997 that use the USDA Food Security Core Module. The report features detailed summaries of 40 separately released or published reports from 22 states and Canada, as well as easy-to-use indices of study summaries, including a state location index and an index by the population or topic investigated (welfare recipients, legal immigrants, low-income populations, and others).
Contact: Center on Hunger and Poverty, venner@brandeis.edu

Hunger and Food Insecurity in the Fifty States, 1998-2000 (link to website)
Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Center on Hunger and Poverty
Completed 2002
Using federal food security supplement data, this report ranks all states in the nation on the prevalence of both hunger and food insecurity for the three-year period ending in 2000. The analysis also identifies the number of individuals in food secure and hungry households in each state.
Contact: Center on Hunger and Poverty, venner@brandeis.edu

Montana

Our Foodshed in Focus: Missoula County Food and Agriculture by the Numbers (link to website)
Missoula County, Montana: University of Montana
Completed 2003
As a component of the Missoula County Community Food Assessment, this report compiles existing statistical data, primarily from U.S. census reports and other government sources, to describe patterns in the local food system and how these have changed over time. Seven chapters detail relevant trends on the following indicators of the food system: demographic; agricultural resource base; agricultural-related environmental impacts; economic productivity in agriculture and food distribution; employment in farming and food-related businesses; food consumption; and food security and access.
Contact: Neva Hassanein, neva@hassanein@umontana.edu, http://www.umt.edu/cfa

Food Matters: Farm Viability and Food Consumption in Missoula County (link to website)
Missoula County, Montana: University of Montana
Completed 2003
This is the third and final report of a community food assessment conducted in Missoula County, Montana in 2003 and 2004. The report presents findings related to two central research questions: (1) what will it take to keep farms and ranches viable in Missoula County? and (2) what concerns do area residents have about food? Over 700 residents participated in interviews, focus groups, and surveys. The report makes six major recommendations, including the creation of a food policy coalition to prioritize and implement strategies for change.
Contact: Neva Hassanein, neva@hassanein@umontana.edu, http://www.umt.edu/cfa

New Hampshire

The Community Food and Nutrition Profile (CFNP)
University of New Hampshire (UNH), Department of Animal and Nutritional Sciences (ANSC)
In Progress
This report is a profile tool that integrates multiple disciplines and societal sectors to inform systemic assessments, interventions and evidence-based evaluations to improve health and integrity across the entire food system. Specific components of the study include characterization of community members' food resources and acquisition behaviors and diet and health practices/status. These will be integrated with assessment of the economic, cultural and ecological resources of the community's agriculture and foodways. The CFNP findings will be used to provide baseline data on the University's sustainability and status in terms of food, nutrition and health practices, and will also be used as a benchmark from which progressive interventions and policies will be developed and evaluated.
Contact: Dr. Joanne Burke, Director, Dietetics Program, University of New Hampshire, 603-862-1456, jburke@cisunix.unh.edu or Dr. Tom Kelly, Director, Office of Sustainability, 603-862-2040, tom.kelly@unh.edu

New York

Community Food Security in Tompkins County
Ithaca, NY: Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County
Completed 2000
Contact: Helen Howard, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, ehh2@cornell.edu

Northeast Farms to Food: Understanding our Region's Food System (in PDF format)
Belchertown, MA: The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group/New England Small Farm Institute
Completed 2002, Updated 2004
This report provides a comprehensive look at the Northeast food system from production through processing and distribution to consumption. It includes over 100 charts and graphs, farm and food facts, explanatory text, and a chapter on findings and recommendations. The data for Northeast Farms to Food was gathered over a period of several years from numerous sources.
Contact: Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, nesawg@smallfarm.org

Oklahoma

Poteau, OK: The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture
In Progress
The Kerr Center is currently researching and writing a report about Oklahoma's food system in which information about food, health, and agriculture in the state will be compiled in a user-friendly format. Goals of the food system assessment include identifying threats to health and food security within Oklahoma; the extent that Oklahoma can increase its food self-reliance, and the potential economic and social benefits of doing so; and policy recommendations to address specific problems and opportunities identified in the report.
Contact: Maura McDermott or Doug Walton, Kerr Center 918-647-9123 or mailbox@kerrcenter.com Information about other grant activities is online at http://www.kerrcenter.com/community_food/index.htm

Oregon

North/Northeast Portland Community Food Security Project
Portland, OR: Coalition for a Livable Future, Food Policy Working Group
Completed 2003
Contact: Dawn Burgardt, Growing Gardens, dawn@growing-gardens.org

Pennsylvania

Food in Garfield
Pittsburgh, PA: Healcrest Urban Community Farm
In Progress
This is an assessment of the food retailers in the 15224 zip code of Pittsburgh (Garfield). We will be mapping out food venues (stores, restaurants, food pantries, cafes) and creating a document that details what is available, what isn't available, affordability of products in comparison with local fresh food, food co-op and chain grocery store products and prices, and the flow of food money in and out of our community. We will also be pairing this information with demographics of neighborhood (including info on age, race, class, transportation, family size, household income, etc) and presenting this info at a community forum by summer of 2006. Our hope is to facilitate our neighborhood in getting a visual of the food issues in Pittsburgh, particularly among low-income, working class and African-American neighborhoods and to make the connection between urban farming and gardening and affordable, accessible food in our neighborhoods.
Contact: Maria Graziani and Ricardo Robinson, Healcrest Urban Community Farm, mothermoonbeam@aol.com, 412-661-0252 or 412-628-8392

Tennessee

Community Based Food System Monitoring System
Knoxville, TN: Knoxville Food Policy Council
Ongoing
Contact: Gail Harris, Knoxville Food Policy Council, gharris@KNXCAC.org

Texas

Access Denied: An Analysis of Problems Facing East Austin Residents in Their Attempts to Obtain Affordable, Nutritious Food (link to website)
Austin, TX: Sustainable Food Center
Completed 2001
This study describes an East Austin, Texas neighborhood food system and shows how it fails to meet community needs. Why do hard-working families regularly depend on government food assistance? Why do some families participating in food assistance programs still go hungry? How have charitable food donations become such a crucial part of survival for so many Americans? The answers to these questions reveal a loss of food security in our city and offer solutions to help low-income consumers become more self-sufficient for food.
Contact: John P. Kloninger, Sustainable Food Center, jpkloninger@sustainablefoodcenter.org

Vermont

Burlington Community Food Assessment: An effort to improve nutrition for school-aged children and develop a more sustainable food system (in pdf format)
Burlington Food Council. Burlington, Vermont
Completed 2004
This report is part of a larger project called Growing Farms, Growing Minds: the Burlington School Food Project. The Project is the culmination of a movement that has been growing in Burlington in recent years to produce 10% of the community's food needs within the city and to strengthen the local food system. Data was collected from Spring 2003 to Fall 2004 through personal interviews, written surveys, focus forums, and secondary data sources. The task of defining a Burlington Community Food Assessment raised the awareness of all the Food Council participants of their ability to positively affect Burlington's food system through stronger linkages between their respective agencies, including establishment of new collaborations.
Contact: Community and Economic Development Office, 802-865-7144
http://www.cedo.ci.burlington.vt.us/legacy/

Washington, D.C.

From Farm to Table
Washington, D.C.: Capital Area Food Bank
Completed 2001
Contact: Capital Area Foodbank, cfoodbank@cfoodbank.org

Community Food Assessment of the District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.: DC Hunger Solutions
In progress (Goal of completion: February 2006)
The goal of this assessment is to determine the availability of affordable, nutritious food throughout DC. Its findings will aid in implementing DC Hunger Solutions' Ten Year Strategic Plan to End Childhood Hunger and will provide recommendations to the recently convened Mayor's Commission on Food and Nutrition concerning issues of food access and local sustainability. The assessment includes analysis of the DC's farmers' market system, community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, emergency food networks, federal nutrition programs, supermarket access and affordability, and the potential for farm-to-school and community gardening initiatives.
Contact: Shana McDavis-Conway, DC Hunger Solutions, smcdavis-conway@frac.org http://www.dchunger.org

Wisconsin

Fertile Ground: Planning for the Madison/Dane County Food System
Madison, WI: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Completed 1997
Contact: Marcia Caton-Campbell, University of Wisconsin-Madison mcatoncampbe@wisc.edu

Food System Assessment Study
Milwaukee, WI: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Center for Urban Initiatives and Research
This study assessed food availability, quality, and pricing in specific census tracts in Milwaukee. Four reports were published on the results of this study:

Food Insecurity in Milwaukee: A Qualitative Study of Food Pantry and Meal Program Users
Completed 1998

Comparative Study of Food Pricing and Availability in Milwaukee
Completed 1996

Perceptions and Experiences of Consumer Access to Food in Milwaukee's Inner-City Neighborhoods
Completed 1998

Socio-spatial Relationships and Food Programs in Milwaukee's Food System Completed 1996

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