Using local and state policy and programs to change the food system Anne Palmer

1. Using local and state policy and programs to change the food system Anne Palmer Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future June 16, 2010 State Fruit and Vegetable Coordinators conference

2. Overview • Status of our current food system • What is happening in Baltimore City • What is happening around the nation • How you can do this where you are

3. Food System Everything required to produce, process, move, sell & consume food. Why look at it from a systems perspective? • Everyone eats, everyone is impacted • Emergent properties • Avoids silos & duplicative efforts • Consequences of changing one part of system • Limited resources

4. Farm as a factory Production non-local, vertically integrated Inputs: Pesticides, fertilizer, irrigation, fossil fuels Outputs: Waste, contamination, product Goal is to increase yield at lowest cost Cheap, unhealthy foods, externalized costs What is our current food system?

5. Setting the stage in Baltimore What happened before us?

6. The Perfect Accident • Sustainability plan • State Department of Agriculture • Baltimore county farm efforts • Rewrite of the Baltimore zoning code

7. Baltimore City’s Sustainability Plan: food related pieces • Increase the percentage of land under cultivation for agricultural purposes • Increase demand for locally-produced, healthy foods among schools, institutions, supermarkets, and citizens • Develop an urban agriculture plan • Compile local and regional data on various components of the food system • Improve the quantity and quality of food available at food outlets • Implement the Food Policy Task Force recommendations

8. Chance opportunities • Dr. Franco’s doctoral presentation of the research to health department - Healthy Foods, Neighborhood Characteristics, Dietary Patterns and Body Mass Index • Health Commissioner becomes intrigued by issue and asks CLF to call a meeting

9. Healthy food availability slide 43% of AA neighborhoods lowest (worse) category of healthy food availability compared to 4% of white neighborhoods. 68% of white neighborhoods highest category of healthy food availability compared to 19% of African American neighborhoods. (Franco 2008)

10. Getting to know you • Joint meeting conducted in Dec. 2007 with planning, health, university and community representation Goals of meeting • Achieve a better understanding of each organization’s current & planned activities re food security and food environments • Discuss possible areas of collaboration

11. Shall we dance? • January meeting • Identifying potential collaboration & mutual support • Decide to seek funding for joint project: planning dept leads RWJ bid • CLF offers to hold workshop to learn about food policy councils

12. Should we do this here? Mark Winne event - stakeholders – MD Hunger Solutions, MD Hospitals for Healthy Environment, MD cooperative extension, Slow Food, ABC, MD MedChi. What are Food Policy Councils and How Can They Improve a Community’s Food System?

13. What we learned from Mark: Local Food Organizations (LFOs) and Businesses Begin to Fill the Gap with Projects • Non-profit organizations (farmers markets, CSAs, community gardens) • Community Development Corporations (supermarket development, new farm enterprises) • Faith-based institutions (food pantries, food banks) • Government Services and Programs (food stamps, WIC, farmland preservation) • Schools (child nutrition programs, farm-to-school) • Cooperative Extension (farmer assistance, nutrition education) • Private entrepreneurs (market-based enterprises, coops) From Mark Winne, Closing the Food Gap: Food Policy Councils and Coalitions: Making the Right Prevalent, Baltimore, MD Feb. 12, 2008

14. What we learned from Mark:But the LFOs are never enough… • Never enough money • Don’t become large enough to make a major impact • Replication and expansion are stymied • Many food and agriculture problems too entrenched and complex • LFO efforts are often fragmented and uncoordinated From Mark Winne, Closing the Food Gap: Food Policy Councils and Coalitions: Making the Right Prevalent, Baltimore, MD Feb. 12, 2008

15. FPCs Can Complement and Extend the Work of LFOs Since state and local governments don’t have “Departments of Food”, FPCs can: • Represent a variety of private and public food system interest groups and agencies • Cut across government department lines and focus on food, nutrition, and agriculture issues 3. Serve as a food system planning venue and promote coordination between food system stakeholders 4. accept responsibility for ensuring that major food and farming goals are met From Mark Winne, Closing the Food Gap: Food Policy Councils and Coalitions: Making the Right Prevalent, Baltimore, MD Feb. 12, 2008

16. Workshop results – participants ideas • Establish a mission statement • Develop white paper to justify need and provide direction • Obtain city council resolution

17. What happened next… • Working group formed – meets twice with representation from workshop • LOTS of discussion about how we should proceed – city gov. vs private entity vs. citizen organized • Who should be invited to participate? • City Health Commissioner decides to co-chair task force with Director of Planning to look into FPC model (April ‘08)

19. Next steps were… • Advisory group sanctioned by Mayor • 3 meetings to be held over 6 months • Report written on feasibility of FPC • Received HEAL grant from Kaiser to help fund start up activities

20. Baltimore Food Policy Task Force Mission: Ensure universal access to healthy and affordable food for all citizens by improving distribution of, increasing access to and demand for healthy food. T

21. Our task force members • Seema Iyer, Department of Planning (Co-chair) • Joshua Sharfstein, Department of Health (Co-chair through March 2009) • Olivia Farrow, Department of Health (Co-chair after March 2009) • Will Beckford, Baltimore Development Corporation • Viola Bell, Park Heights Community Health Alliance • Maureen Black, University of Maryland School of Medicine • Wanda Durden, Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks • Deborah Flateman, Maryland Food Bank • Anthony Geraci, Baltimore City Public School System • Joel Gittelsohn, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health • Jin Kang, Korean American Grocer’s Association • Anne Palmer, Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health • Larysa Salamacha, Baltimore Development Corporation • Rob Santoni, Santoni’s Supermarket and the Maryland Retail Association • Joyce Smith, Operation ReachOut Southwest • Gregory Ten Eyck, Safeway Inc. / Eastern Division • Stephen Teret, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health • Paulette Thompson, Giant of Maryland • Elected Officials including: • Congressman Elijah Cummings • Delegate Shawn Tarrant

23. How we got funding • Invited proposal - Kaiser Permanente – Mid Atlantic Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers Green Funders Affinity Group • Abell Foundation • Annie E. Casey Foundation • Baltimore Community Foundation • Krieger Foundation

25. State and Local Governments Local Government – position sits in City planning office. State Government – Department of Agriculture; Farm to School (DOE) Need greater involvement from agricultural/farming community (city vs county)

26. What resources are required? Need institutional partners: hunger, ag, health care, public health sectors Business sector: supermarkets, restaurants, corner stores What in-kind contributions are available? Go beyond volunteers

27. First Year Benchmarks • Active and engaged Food Advisory Committee that has met at least 4 times during the project • Increase in community gardening/ patronization of farmers markets (updated garden map of community gardens; MD Hunger Solutions SNAP/EBT data from the farmers’ markets pilot) • Identification of communities interested in food-related issues

28. First Year Benchmarks • Increase in community activities related to food and nutrition issues (number of meetings held with community associations and requests for assistance) • Identification of policies and proposed zoning ordinances that support access to healthy food options.

29. How do they get started? • Community Food Assessment and inventory of government programs and services (food policy assessment) • Community engagement and participation • Crisis, such as a major hunger report or loss of land or programs, can precipitate FPC • Convene a forum; prepare a white paper

30. Farm to Table (non-profit) includes Council, Network and Farm-to-school projects • Council - Strong legislative agenda - provide updates, action steps • Access to Healthy Foods Act; New Mexico Grown Produce in School Lunches; ($500,000 ’07-’08) • Identify opportunities for new markets for farmers (need to quantify benefits - .60 for every $1.00 spent) • Public food programs – expand farmers’ market nutrition progams; new WIC package. • Increased funding for small farm program

31. Started in 1997 to recommend and support legislation that promotes food security. • Promote the preservation of farming and farmland. • 12 members – 6 state agencies, 6 private sector • Receives small annual appropriation administrative support dept. of agriculture, staff support from the Hartford Food System (non-profit organization) • Introduced EBT at farmers’ markets • Addressing lack of slaughter and processing infrastructure in state • Prepared Connecticut Farm Map which helped farmers • Supported farm-to-school funding proposals • Promoted the development of “Connecticut Comes First” - public institutions buy Connecticut grown food

32. Convene a parents committee advocating for healthier school meals, • Started a 24-acre nonprofit farm that grows food for local families and social service agencies • 3 urban agriculture sites on a formerly abandoned lots, • Corner store retail project • Extensive outreach and advocacy in the Hartford community.

33. Ohio Food Policy Council • Convened by Governor Strickland in 2007 • “environmental, social, and economic benefits that Ohio's food and farming system contributes to the state….of critical importance is helping Ohioans who do not have access to healthy and fresh foods.” • Four Task Forces: Food System Assessment, Agriculture Viability, Healthy Food Access, Market Connections • Farmland protection, improving food access, marketing farm products.

34. Getting started: Community Food Assessment in SW Baltimore Goal: - Store survey - measure the availability of healthy food in their neighborhood. • Residents’ survey - identify key food and nutrition issues that community members are facing. Objectives: -Identify institutional barriers strengths to accessing healthy foods -Identify individual barriers and strengths to consuming a healthy diet -Identify educational and communication opportunities to increase awareness of the benefits of healthy eating

35. Getting started: Food insecurity • 11% US households “food insecure” 14% in Balto • Community Food Assessment in SW Baltimore • 76% - NO fruit for sale • 69% - NO vegetables for • sale • 35% - “sometimes” • unable to buy healthy food • due to lack of resources • -- 17% - “often”

36. Getting Started:Diet and Food Access • Participants who live in neighborhoods with low healthy food availability are more likely to consume a lower quality diet (as evidenced by a pattern of high consumption of fats and processed meats). (Franco, 2009)

37. The Planning View • Strategy: “Ensure proximity to neighborhood amenities and services” • National Planning Trends • Links between Planning and Public Health • APA Planning Food Systems Guide

38. Community gardens map

39. Possible Funding Sources • What resources are available for other cities and states to use? • USDA Community Food Planning Grantshttp://sustainableagriculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/NSAC_FoodSystemsFundingGuide_FirstEdition_4_2010.pdf ) • HUD, EPA