Community Food Assessment Program

Assessment and Hunger Study Project Summaries:

Alameda County

The Growing Youth Project (In Progress)
The Growing Youth Project is an action research and employment project comprised of 11 high-school students from the Alameda Point community who are working through the Alameda Point Collaborative to conduct a community food assessment in their neighborhood. The lack of healthy and affordable food available to youth and their families is the primary focus, as is the lack of interest and knowledge that many youth have in food politics, the food system, and health and nutrition. As part of the project youth will design and implement activities to collect information about food security and nutrition in their neighborhood, outreach to community members to promote awareness around food security and nutrition concerns, and develop strategies for addressing the most pressing needs.
Contact: Kate Casale, Alameda Point Collaborative, kcasale@apcollaborative.org, 510-898-7828

Access to Nutritious Foods in East Oakland and South Hayward 2003
This assessment was conducted by the Alameda County Public Health Department and a graduate student from UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. It identified the perceived barriers to buying and eating nutritious foods for low-income residents of East Oakland and South Hayward.
Click here to download maps of East Oakland & South Hayward
Click here to download PDF file of report
Contact: Alameda County Public Health Department

Alameda Foodshed Report: Assessing a County's Food System 2002
This assessment was conducted by the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) and provides an overview of important trends in Alameda County's food system. It also highlights trends related to development of a sustainable local food system, including information on agricultural production, distribution, and consumption. This project was part of a national study that compared regional food systems in three counties - one urban, one urbanizing and one rural.
Contact: Gail Feenstra, UC SAREP, gwfeenstra@ucdavis.edu

Rethinking Direct Marketing Approaches for Urban Market Gardens in Low and Moderate Income Communities 1999
This assessment was conducted by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) in collaboration with Berkeley Youth Alternatives. The project sought to improve the market garden's economic viability by analyzing the potential market niches and developing a pilot assessment. The research focused on two areas-food purchasing patterns in the surrounding neighborhood and the economic feasibility of a small urban garden.
Contact: Gail Feenstra, UC SAREP, gwfeenstra@ucdavis.edu

Hunger: The Faces and Facts 1997
This hunger study was conducted by the Alameda County Community Food Bank. The project focused on families and individuals that received emergency food assistance in Alameda County. It identified demographic characteristics, income levels, food security status and service needs of low-income clients who access emergency food assistance.
Click here to download PDF file of report
Contact: Allison Pratt, Alameda County Community Food Bank, apratt@accfb.org


Calaveras County

The Development of a Community Action Plan to Address Hunger in Calaveras County 2001
This action plan was developed in response to the requests of emergency food programs in Calaveras County. Its purpose was to develop recommendations for a community action plan that would include strategies for addressing the needs of both emergency food providers and Calaveras County residents who were seeking assistance.
Download in PDF format:
Abstract
Chapter 1: Problem
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Chapter 3: Methodology
Chapter 4: Findings and Interpretations
Chapter 5: Summary and Recommendations
Appendices C-F

Contact: Anna Martin, UC Cooperative Extension, acmartin@ucdavis.edu

Voices of the People Hunger Report 2000: Calaveras County
This hunger study was conducted by the University of California Cooperative Extension in conjunction with Community Emergency Service Programs, Human Resources Council, Inc. The study collected and compiled data focused on demonstrating why Calaveras County residents, in the midst of a reported economic boom, were hungry and seeking emergency food assistance.
Click here to download PDF file of report
Contact: Anna Martin, UC Cooperative Extension, acmartin@ucdavis.edu


Contra Costa County

This assessment was conducted by the Contra Costa Food and Nutrition Policy Consortium. The primary goal of the project was to identify issues around food access for low income residents in neighborhoods in the four cities of Antioch, Brentwood, San Pablo, and Rodeo.
Contact: Maria Ortiz-Padilla, Contra Costa Department of Public Health, mpadilla@hsd.co.contra-costa.ca.us, http://ccprevention.org


Fresno County

The Fresno Community Food Assessment 2003-2005
The Fresno Community Food Assessment (CFA) has trained over 80 local neighborhood leaders, conducted over 850 survey-assessments of consumers and 131 retail store surveys, and collected data by City Council and County Supervisor Districts. The goals of the CFA were to increase healthy food access, reduce nutritional health disparities, link Fresno agriculture business to fresh food access, and to form a Food Policy Council. The CFA project led by Fresno Metro Ministries, recruited local organizations and residents to do the surveying using a train the trainer method. The CFA focused on five low-resource communities in Fresno County. While data collection is complete, the findings and recommendations are still being finalized.
Click here to download PDF file of report
Contact: Edie Jessup, Fresno Metro Ministries, edie@fresnometmin.org, 559-485-1416

Fresno Farm Worker Food Security Assessment
An assessment of food security among farm workers in Fresno County, identifying issues including hunger, diet and nutrition, access to food assistance programs, barriers to food security, and assets to increase food security. The assessment will survey 450 farm workers during the winter and summer, to identify differences in food security based on seasonal variations in employment patterns. A sub-sample of Mixteco farm workers will also be included. The assessment will also include focus groups and key informant interviews with farm workers and other knowledgeable stakeholders.
Contact: Ron Strochlic, California Insitute for Rural Studies, rstrochlic@cirsinc.org http://www.cirsinc.org


Los Angeles County

ACTION: Food Assessment Report 2003-2004
This assessment, fueled solely by volunteer power and in-kind donations, took place from May 2003- January 2004. Over 350 adults and 350 youth participated in the ACTION food assessment at 18 diverse sites in South Central Los Angeles. The assessment was a truly participatory process and included four phases including 1) a Community Food Mapping process, 2) speaking with community awareness and concern about nutrition and food access issues, 3) designing, piloting, and evaluation of tools by residents, and 4) implementation of assessment tools to engage residents, gather data, and generate conversation on food access issues.
Click here to download PDF in English & Spanish
Contact: Neelam Sharma, Community Services Unlimited Inc., neelam@csuinc.org http://www.csuinc.org

Duarte Community Food Assessment 2003
The Center for Community and Family Services enlisted the help of the Teen Nutrition Council (a project of the City of Duarte) along with Cal State LA students to conduct the surveys that were the backbone of the CFA project in Duarte. Three surveys were used including: The Faith Based Organizational Survey, the Store Survey, and the Consumer Survey. No preliminary results or report are available at this time.

Hollywood Food Needs Assessment Report 2002-2003
From October 2002 through September 2003, the California Nutrition Network funded the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger & Homelessness to administer a Food Needs Assessment for the Hollywood area of Los Angeles. Specifically, the Assessment collected information from focus groups, surveys and community meetings, as well as an inventory of grocery stores to determine what were the barriers to obtaining sufficient food among three low-income groups living in the area. Those groups are the homeless (and at-risk), low-income families, and low-income seniors. The project had profound results including only 17% of all the participants surveyed eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables per day, and only 20 % of all participants surveyed are currently receiving food stamps. It also led to the formation of new partnerships among nutrition and anti-hunger advocates, and also involved some of the poorest people in Hollywood in a project designed to lead to improvements in their lives.
Click here to download PDF file of report
Contact: Frank Tamborello and Rose McGuire, LA Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, frank@lacehh.org, http://www.lacehh.org, 213-439-1070

Increasing Fruit and Vegetable Intake Through WIC 2002
This project was coordinated by a PhD student at the UCLA School of Public Health. The overall objective was to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables among postpartum women and their families participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) in an effort to lower their cancer risk.
Contact: Dena Herman, UCLA School of Public Health, dherman@ucla.edu

Community Involvement Groups- Voices for the Strategic Planning Process 2000
This assessment was part of the Los Angeles Project LEAN' s strategic planning process focused on the health and eating habits of two groups of women, one Hispanic and one African American.
Contact: Jean Tremaine, County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services, jtremaine@ladhs.org

Seeds of Change: Strategies for Food Security for the Inner City 1993
The product of a year's work for six researchers (Linda Ashman, et. al.; UCLA Urban Planning Dept.), Seeds of Change is perhaps the most thorough documentation of an urban community's food system. It includes sections on hunger, nutrition, food industry, supermarket industry, community case study, farmers' markets, urban agriculture, joint ventures, and food policy councils.
Go to the Order Form (400+ pp) ($30 + shipping)
Contact: Andy Fisher, Community Food Security Coalition, andy@foodsecurity.org


Monterey County

The Face of Food on the Central Coast
The Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) completed this community food assessment in 2006, with an emphasis on the Salinas Valley food system. It was accomplished through focus groups with a diversity of resident groups, surveys, and field-derived data collection. The goal of the project was to bring small family farmers' produce to economically marginalized farm worker communities. The objectives included:

• Identifying obstacles for small farmers to sell their products locally, especially in low income, farm worker communities.
• Identifying obstacles for low income and farm worker consumers to purchase nutritious, local, organic produce.
• Building awareness about the importance of local produce to our food system, economy and environment.
• Engaging in discussions with an informed voice to build alliances and community-wide strategies for shaping change in the food system.

Back to CFA Home

Community Food Assessment Program Resources:

• Assessment and Hunger Study Project Summaries
  
• Reports From Food Assessments and Related Studies Conducted Outside California
  
• Community Food Assessment Projects Currently Underway in California
  
• Frequently Asked Questions
  
• Survey Tools
  
• Other Helpful Resources for Community Food Assessments
  
• Sources of Data for Community Food Assessments
  
• Community Food Assessments and Policy

Funding provided by the California Department of Health Services and the California Nutrition Network, with funding support from the US Department of Agriculture.