Oakland Food Policy Council

Published in April, the Prevention Institute’s report, Recipes for Change, offers program and policy recommendations to make healthy food more accessible for all communities. This recipe focuses on four main ingredients: the food retail environment, healthy food and institutions, federal food and nutrition assistance programs, and regional food and agricultural systems. Each area is broken down into specific strategies and opportunities for policy action leading towards improved access to healthy foods, which are defined here by the Dietary Guidelines, breastfeeding recommendations, and sustainable and fair production practices. 

Suggestions range from concentrated local change to national policy change like the Farm Bill, while including calls for both system-wide and community-based initiatives. Actions are not limited to building more healthy food outlets in underserved neighborhoods, but take into account the influence of institutions on improving access to healthy foods. For example, having schools and hospitals provide high quality, local foods and government agencies act as models through the food they serve. There is an emphasis on continued improvements to federal nutrition programs, such as streamlining the application process and making federally funded food more nutritious.

A broad perspective in revamping whole local food systems from “farm to fork” is a theme illustrating overlap between the report’s four areas of focus. There is a section on food policy councils created as city, county, and state level initiatives. Councils are lauded for their ability to work with an entire food system as opposed to other government policy strategies that may only address narrowly defined aspects of a local food environment.

With recommendations in so many different areas, Recipes for Change encourages work in a variety of sectors leading to improved food access in all communities. The report offers examples of actions already taking place on the local and national levels. These steps are meant to address the food system’s health implications in addition to its potential economic, social, and environmental consequences. It seems this recipe can be blended, tossed, and mixed in any number of ways. The spices we add here in Oakland as we cook up some changes for the local food system and the unique, inspiring flavors we will create remain open possibilities.

For a full copy of the report visit the Prevention Institute webpage here.