Community Food Security Coalition

The CFSC Grapevine is a quarterly e-newsletter that provides our members with timely information about CFSC's programs and resources, and invites their input and participation. Each issue includes information on new publications, upcoming events, training and technical assistance opportunities, and profiles of member organizations.

From 2001-2013, CFSC published a print newsletter. Issues included articles on the Community Food Projects grant program, CSAs in low income communities, and a special issue on Schools and Food. Read these issues at the Newsletter Archive.

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Click on the titles below for more information on the following publications. Some can be downloaded for free as PDF files; others can be purchased from our Membership/Publication order page.

Good Laws, Good Food: Putting Local Food Policy to Work for Our Communities

By the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic under the supervision of Emily Broad Leib in partnership with the Community Food Security Coalition. July 2015, 104 pages.

This toolkit is intended to serve as a reference for food policy councils, food advocates, local policymakers, and non-profit entities interested in enacting change in their local food system. The toolkit provides background information, tips and resources on topics that a food policy council may wish to explore such as Food System Infrastructure, Land Use Regulation, Urban Agriculture, Consumer Access, School Food and Nutrition Education, and Environmental Sustainability.

Community Food Project Indicators of Success, FY11 Results

By the Community Food Security Coalition with funding from a Training and Technical Assistance Community Food Project Grant through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. June 2015, 74 pages.

This report demonstrates the results from the work of USDA Community Food Project grantees during Fiscal Year 2016 (October 2015-September 2016). This was the second year utilizing the more comprehensive CFP Indicators of Success and Participant Impact Survey to compile results from across all of the Community Food Project Grantees. It uses the core fields of practice outlined in Whole Measures for Community Food Systems to organize the collective impacts.

Whole Measures for Community Food Systems (WM CFS): Stories from the Field

Over the past two years, CFSC has worked with numerous organizations through a mentoring and learning community to implement WM CFS. Stories captures the lessons learned and best practices of nine of these dynamic communities working with WM CFS. The document highlights practices for engaging community, core capacities for WM CFS implementation, and experiences of these communities.

Community Food Project Indicators of Success, FY10 Results

This report demonstrates the results from the work of USDA Community Food Project grantees during Fiscal Year 2015 (October 2014-September 2015). This was the first year CFSC utilized the more comprehensive CFP Indicators of Success and Participant Impact Survey to compile results from across all of the Community Food Project Grantees. It uses the core fields of practice outlined in Whole Measures for Community Food Systems to organize the collective impacts.

Food Safety and Liability Insurance: Emerging Issues for Farmers and Institutions

Kristen Markley, Marion Kalb, and Loren Gustafson, funded through USDA Risk Management Agency: Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership. December 2015, 34 pages.

This report is a compilation of a year-long project to study food safety and liability insurance issues and offer recommendations that emphasize proactive and cooperative attention. If you are a cooperative extension educator, agricultural professional, non-profit staff member, institutional food service provider, or producer involved in the institutional produce market, this report will help you better understand the history of these issues, the challenges for small or limited resource producers, and options for addressing these challenges.

Recommendations for Food Systems Policy in Seattle

By the Andy Fisher and Susan Roberts, commissioned by the Seattle City Council. April 2016, 48 pages.

This report was presented to the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods by the Community Food Security Coalition. These recommendations for next steps on food systems policy take into account national examples and reflect local knowledge of efforts already underway. These next steps can include job creation, community building, hunger elimination, and improvement of the local and global environment. This report recommends a framework and series of actions that CFSC believes will help Seattle become a more economically vibrant, environmentally sustainable, and equitable city through preserving and protecting its foodshed.

The Activities and Impacts of Community Food Projects, 2010-2014

Jeanette Abi-Nader, Michelle Kobayashi, and Lee Tyson, in collaboration with the National Research Center, Inc. October 2015, 28 pages.

This report captures the results of five years of data collected from Community Food Project (CFP) grantees using the Common Output Tracking Form (COTF). The COTF has been the only cross-program tool used to measure the work of CFPs. This report highlights the broad reach of CFPs and the impressive results of their work to advance economic and social equity, healthy food access, and environmental stewardship. It builds on the earlier CFSC research report Building Community Food Security, which highlighted best practices of successful CFPs.

Real Food, Real Choice: Connecting SNAP Recipients with Farmers Markets

By Suzanne Briggs, Andy Fisher, Megan Lott, Stacy Miller, and Nell Tessman in collaboration with the Farmers Market Coalition. July 2015, 84 pages.

In the past fifteen years, the number of farmers markets has almost quadrupled to nearly 6,000. Americans annually spend $1.3 billion at farmers markets. Yet food stamp recipients have been almost entirely excluded from using their benefits at farmers markets because of social, economic, and technological challenges. To better understand this issue and to find solutions, the Community Food Security Coalition and Farmers Market Coalition undertook a year long study. This report is the final product of this investigation. It examines this issue from a variety of perspectives, including the capacity of farmers markets to operate programs to accept EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards; the types of programs that markets have created; the barriers low-income shoppers face in patronizing farmers markets; and state and federal level policies that affect the usage of EBT cards at farmers markets. The report concludes with a road map for change, which features primary and secondary tiers of recommendations.

This report was funded by The Convergence Partnership Fund of the Tides Foundation, which is a collaboration between The California Endowment, Center for Disease Control, Kaiser Permanente, Kresge Foundation, Nemours, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the WK Kellogg Foundation, as well as private donations to CFSC.

Delivering More: Scaling Up Farm to School Programs

How can farm to school programs reach more students and more schools? This booklet looks at CFSC's work with four farm to school programs seeking to answer this question through strategic planning related to distribution capacity. This booklet profiles each program's planning efforts, describes the related work of The Farm to School Distribution Learning Community, and explores the implications of the results.

Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned

By Alethea Harper, Annie Shattuck, Erik Holt-Giménez, Alison Alkon and Frances Lambrick. December 2014, 66 pages.

Based on an in-depth survey of 48 Food Policy Councils, the authors found that despite dozens of successful case studies, Food Policy Councils tend to encounter similar challenges, challenges that can sometimes stymie progress, and must be countered with careful planning and evaluation. This report contains tips and case studies for successful councils, warns of common red flags, and includes ample resources for citizens and local governments who may be interested in establishing or helping run a Food Policy Council.

Whole Measures for Community Food Systems: Values-Based Planning and Evaluation

By Jeanette Abi-Nader, Adrian Ayson, Keecha Harris, Hank Herrera, Darcel Eddins, Deb Habib, Jim Hanna, Chris Paterson, Karl Sutton, and Lydia Villanueva. September 2014, 40 pages.

This new planning and evaluation tool provides a lens for community food projects to dialogue about how their work affects whole communities. It includes a set of six core fields of value-based practices against which projects can measure the impact of their work. In 2015, CFSC, in partnership with the Center for Popular Research, Education, and Policy and Seeds of Solidarity, will be working with a core group of CFP grantees interested in utilizing Whole Measures CFS as a central planning or evaluation tool for their project. The core fields included in Whole Measures CFS are justice and fairness; strong communities, vibrant farms, healthy people, sustainable ecosystems, thriving local economies.

State Implementation of the New WIC Produce Package:
Opportunities and Barriers for WIC Clients to Use Their Benefits at Farmers' Markets

The new WIC fruit and vegetable package will create a $500 million market annually for produce. Even if 10% of these benefits were spent at farmers markets, it would provide a big boon for access to local food and to small farmers. This report discovers that half of the states are shutting farmers markets out of this potentially lucrative market, and looks at the reasons why.

Sowing Opportunity, Harvesting Change: Community Food Projects in Action

This brief slide show highlights the types of projects supported by the CFP Program and their impacts on communities. It is an accessible and engaging introduction to community food work, and can be modified to include a local project. It includes 20 beautiful slides and a suggested narrative that takes 10-12 minutes to read. The presenters' guide includes the narrative, a handout with action ideas, and tips on how to use the slide show to inspire local action.

Fueling Disaster: A Community Food Security Perspective on Agrofuels

Industrial agrofuels are already exacting heavy costs on food security and rural communities around the world. The anticipated increase in agrofuel production could lead to catastrophic impacts on community food security. This report addresses these impacts and identifies responses that would buffer communities from increased hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation.

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

This first of its kind research project was conducted by Dr. Kami Pothukuchi with support from Jeanette Abi-Nader of the CFSC Evaluation Program. 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.

Food and Agriculture Related Policies and Practices to Benefit Limited Resource Farmers

This new report highlights a variety of approaches for supporting the success of limited resource farmers and ranchers. It features examples from the work of 14 organizations that directly support limited resource producers, and summaries of 36 state and local government policies and practices that support these producers, sometimes indirectly.

This publication will be especially valuable to organizations working with limited resource producers (or other local and family-scale farmers), Food Policy Councils, and advocates working on farm policy issues at the local and state levels. It was authored by Martin Bailkey and produced by the Food Policy Council Program of the Community Food Security Coalition, with support from the USDA Risk Management Agency.

Farm to Hospital: Supporting Local Agriculture and Improving Health Care

By Moira Beery, Center for Food & Justice, and Kristen Markley, Community Food Security Coalition. July 2012, 6 pages

This brochure introduces interested farmers and hospital food service departments to the ins and outs of developing partnerships between hospitals and local farms. Included are examples of ways hospitals can improve the food they offer, issues for farmers to consider if they are interested in selling products to area hospitals, and specific case studies of successful programs.

Nuevos Mercados Para Su Cosecha (New Ways to Sell What You Grow)

By Rex Dufour, NCAT; Illustrated by Robert Armstrong; Translated by Martin Guerena, NCAT; Edited by Karen Van Epen, NCAT and Kristen Markley, CFSC. July 2012, 8 pages, illustrated, in Spanish.

Federal Policy Advocacy Handbook, 2012 Edition

By Barrett Ebright and Sarah Borron. 2012 Edition edited by Steph Larsen. 21 pages.

This handbook contains basic information about the policy process to enable its readers to become more effective advocates for community food security and related issues. Contains two main sections: the basics of the Federal Policy Cycle and the basics of effective participation in the federal policy process. Also includes a glossary of policy-related terms and a tip sheet for lobbying.

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

This document highlights the advances in community food security made through the Community Food Projects grant program provided by the USDA CSREES since the inception of the program in 1996. It includes profiles of eight Community Food Projects, lists all 240 grant recipients since 1996, and contains basic information on how to apply.

Health Benefits of Urban Agriculture

By Anne C. Bellows, PhD Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Katherine Brown, PhD Southside Community Land Trust; Jac Smit, MCP The Urban Agriculture Network. A paper from members of the Community Food Security Coalition's North American Initiative on Urban Agriculture. 2004, 12 pages with 15 page bibliography.

Health professionals increasingly recognize the value of farm- and garden-scale urban agriculture. Growing food and non-food crops in and near cities contributes to healthy communities by engaging residents in work and recreation that improves individual and public well-being. This article outlines the benefits of urban agriculture with regard to nutrition, food security, exercise, mental health, and social and physical urban environments. Potential risks are reviewed. Practical recommendations for health professionals to increase the positive benefits of urban agriculture are provided.

Feeding Young Minds: Hands-on Farm to School Education Programs

Focusing on educational activities that complement local purchasing for school meals, this booklet highlights farm to school experiential education programs from around the country. These range from cooking classes in New Mexico, to school fundraisers in Ohio, to kindergartners tasting watermelon radishes in Pennsylvania. Each program is unique, yet offers insights and possibilities of what can be achieved when farm-fresh products in the cafeteria are linked with experiential education activities. A resource section is also included.

Building the Bridge: Linking Food Banking and Community Food Security

This document surveys the linkages between food banking and community food security, with case studies and interviews of 10 leading food banks and food bankers. Created in conjunction with World Hunger Year.

NEW Third Edition!
Community Food Project Evaluation Handbook and the Community Food Project Evaluation Toolkit (which includes the TOOLS ONLY CD ROM)

By the National Research Center, Inc. with coordination by the CFSC Evaluation Program (CFP Handbook is 224 pages, CFP Toolkit is 291 pages and includes the Tools Only CD-ROM with 52 sample tools and worksheets for you to download and modify.)

The CFP Evaluation Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to developing and implementing outcome based program evaluation, specific to community food security projects. The CFP Evaluation Toolkit includes evaluation protocols and template surveys for program satisfaction, training and technical assistance, focus groups, farmers' markets, community gardens, community support agriculture projects, farm to school projects, coalitions and the Common Output Tracking Form.

$22 to purchase either the Handbook or the Toolkit + Tools Only CD-ROM individually - $40 for all.
Go to the order form.

Tell Us What You Think! Submit a feedback form on the CFP Evaluation Handbook and Toolkit. Your feedback is important to help us develop tools and materials that are useful for practitioners.

For questions concerning these documents, please contact Jeanette Abi-Nader, CFSC Evaluation Program Manager at jeanette@foodsecurity.org.

Linking Farms with Schools: A Guide to Understanding Farm-to-School Programs for Schools, Farmers & Organizers

Details the benefits, challenges, and strategies for success for building successful farm to school projects and includes case studies of innovative projects and an extensive resource list.

Farmer Resource Guide: Managing Risk Through Sales to Educational Institutions

By Community Food Security Coalition and the Center for Food & Justice, Occidental College, 2004

An extensive compilation of resources that address the many different issues within farm to institutional purchasing projects, including how to approach food service directors, how to organize supply and distribution of the products, characteristics of different institutions, pricing issues, and several case studies of different types of farm to institution projects.

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

Prepared by the Urban Agriculture Committee of the Community Food Security Coalition, February, 2003 (30 pp)
Principal Authors: Katherine H. Brown & Anne Carter
Contributors: Martin Bailkey, Terri Buchanan, Alison Meares-Cohen, Peter Mann, Joe Nasr, Jac Smit, and the many workers in urban agriculture and food security.
Editors: Anne Carter, Peter Mann, and Jac Smit

Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center To the Urban Fringe is prepared by the Urban Agriculture Committee of the Community Food Security Coalition 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.

Weaving the Food Web: Community Food Security in California

By CFSC in partnership with the California Community Food Security Network, 2002

This photo-rich, 21-page booklet features eight innovative community-based food projects drawn from around the nation's most populous state. Also included are:
- Articles by leading organizations working on critical public issues such as hunger, obesity and using garcinia cambogia, the grocery gap, and the diminishing numbers of independent farms.
- A resource guide of key organizations working in the diverse arenas that comprise community food security.
Weaving the Food Web is a valuable tool for educating your community members, public officials, and the media about community food security. It offers many points of entry to this growing field of work. As such, we invite your assistance in getting copies of the booklet into the hands of those would benefit from it.

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

By Kami Pothukuchi, Hugh Joseph, Andy Fisher, and Hannah Burton, 2002 (123 pages)
Edited by Kai Siedenburg and Kami Pothukuchi

Learn about Community Food Assessments, a creative way to highlight food-related resources and needs, promote collaboration and community participation, and create lasting change. This Guide includes case studies of nine Community Food Assessments (see PDF file); tips for planning and organizing an assessment; guidance on research methods and strategies for promoting community participation; and ideas for translating an assessment into action for change.

A Guide to Community Food Projects

This guide features case studies of seven diverse and innovative projects funded by USDA's Community Food Projects grant program. It also includes basic information about the CFP program and sources for more information.

The Healthy Farms, Food and Communities Act:
Policy Initiatives for the 2002 Farm Bill And the First Decade of the 21st Century

This policy document includes a legislative initiative to be incorporated into the 2002 Farm Bill, and a broader set of policy principles and legislation endorsed by CFSC. Both policy platforms create the basis for furthering the goals of healthy farms, healthy food, and, ultimately, healthy communities.

Healthy Farms, Healthy Kids:
Evaluating the Barriers and Opportunities for Farm-to-School Programs

This report documents the barriers and opportunities for school food services to purchase food directly from local farmers. Case studies and policy recommendations are included. Detailed description

CFS: A Guide to Concept, Design, and Implementation

This guidebook details such issues as the concept of CFS, community food planning, needs assessments, building collaborations and coalitions, project implementation, entrepreneurship, funding, program sustainability, case studies, and multiple attachments.

Getting Food on the Table: An Action Guide to Local Food Policy

By Dawn Biehler, Andy Fisher, Kai Siedenburg, Mark Winne, Jill Zachary. Community Food Security Coalition and California Sustainable Working Group, 1999 (70 pp)

The guide includes a department by department inventory of local programs, policies and functions that provide opportunities for supporting community food security. The guide also includes case studies, advice from experienced food policy advocates, a resource guide and federal funding sources.

Hot Peppers & Parking Lot Peaches:
Evaluating Farmers' Markets In Low Income Communities

Farmers Markets, WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Programs, case studies, Electronic Benefit Transfer, farmstands, policy issues, guidelines for successful markets and policy recommendations.

Homeward Bound: Food-Related Transportation Strategies for Low Income and Transit Dependent Communities

By Robert Gottlieb, Andrew Fisher, et. al; UC Transportation Center, 1996 (77 pp)

Food access, transportation policy, and innovative transportation programs highlighted in this groundbreaking report.

Seeds of Change: Strategies for Food Security for the Inner City

The product of a year's work for six researchers, Seeds of Change is perhaps the most thorough documentation of an urban community's food system. Sections on hunger, nutrition, food industry, supermarket industry, communmity case study, farmers' markets, urban agriculture, joint ventures, and food policy councils.

How to order publications

Coalition members receive a 20% discount. For Rush orders or International rates, please contact Emily. Fill out the Order Form online, or you may email emily@foodsecurity.org, phone (503-954-2970) or fax (503-954-2959) us your order. Please note the publication you would like, add the appropriate shipping & handling fee according to the chart below, and mail a check made payable to CFSC, 3830 SE Division, Portland OR 97202.

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