Food. Everybody needs it. It is linked to health and health disparities. It is what gives a six year old the energy needed to perform in a learning environment. Access to it in urban areas often separates the haves from the haves not. In some areas, where food is grown speaks silently about what it is grown in so that soil quality takes on new meaning, especially for immigrant populations who come to urban areas from places where agriculture is a way of life.

Food is a symbol of community and brings people together to celebrate life, death, and all the milestones and challenges along the journey. More and more people are relying on emergency food to meet their family’s need. There is often not an understanding about the relationship between food and nutrition and those who need healthy food most often cannot afford it. Research indicates that the cost of a healthy diet is not an options for too many people.

More and more school systems are redefining their relationship with food and it’s showing with up more locally grown and sometimes even organic fruit, produce, meat, and value added products. Most foods travel at least 1,700 miles to a supermarket near you. And because we depend heavily on complex transportation systems, most cities could not feed its residents for two weeks if transportation systems were interrupted in some way.

Over the next 12 months follow us as we work to bring together a community of persons interested in healthy food for the next generation.

The development of a community of persons interested in systematic changes in how we look at and deal with food will provide a role for residents, youth and adults, city government in partnership with private sector, profit and non-profit organizations, educational institutions, farmers, and medical institutions to play in decreasing food insecurity, improving health, and increasing the sustainability of our food system. Such a partnership will undertake a comprehensive food system assessment in order to identify priority areas for developing policy and program recommendations, educating and engaging the public, leveraging resources for food system improvements, and strengthening linkages among food system components.

If you want to make healthy food for the next generation a reality, please contact us to join a growing movement of people who care not only whether people eat but what they eat and where they buy what they eat. There’s room for you, please contact us today: or .