Conducting a Community Food Assessment

Four Key Steps

Organize Research

• ❦  Identify key stakeholders
• ❦  Organize initial meeting(s)
• ❦  Determine the group’s interest in conducting an assessment
• ❦  Identify and recruit other participants, representing diverse interests and skills
• ❦  Continue to organize and engage constituents throughout project

  Plan

• ❦  Review other assessments
• ❦  Determine assessment purposes and goals
• ❦  Develop an overall plan and decision- making process; clarify roles
• ❦  Define geographic and population boundaries
• ❦  Identify and secure grants, in-kind resources, and/or project sponsor
• ❦  Recruit and train staff and volunteers

❦ Develop questions and indicators
❦ Identify existing data and information

needed
❦ Develop research tools and methods ❦ Collect and analyze data
❦ Compile and summarize findings

Advocate

❦ Discuss findings with community and develop recommendations

❦ Create action plan to implement priority recommendations

❦ Clarify roles and determine whether additional partners should be recruited

❦ Develop media strategy (build relationships, frame message, create news)

❦ Disseminate findings to the public, policymakers and journalists

❦ Advocate for policymakers and others to take action based on recommendations

❦ Evaluate assessment project

For more information contact:

Raquel Bournhonesque, Community Food Security Coalition, raquel@foodsecurity.org or 310.822.5410

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