Healthy Food For All: Facilitator's Guide
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Healthy Food For All: Facilitator’s Guide How To Use The Poster The Healthy Food for All poster can be used for organizing, trainings or workshops to help inspire community change in the food system. The poster is designed to fold into a pamphlet. There are 5 major components to the whole poster: 1. What’s The Problem With Our Food? At the top of the right panel of the poster, this section identified some of the ways our current food system is environmentally destructive, unhealthy for communities and exploitative of workers. 2. New Vision for the Food System. This section, illustrated with a wheel of the food system, describes a vision for a sustainable and equitable food system by looking at each stage of the food chain: production, distribution, processing, retail and waste. By considering every sector of the food system, we can get a clearer picture of opportunities throughout the whole system and can act in more strategic ways. 3. Healthy Food For All. The bottom line is that fighting for environmental balance and community benefit throughout the food system means a healthier planet and healthier communities. The way to get there is summed up in 5 goals. These goals offer an overall frame- work for “greening” the food system and a way to organize our efforts. These same goals will be used in the Planting the Seeds Activity (where they are referred to as “Green Goals.”) For examples of what each Green Goal means, see the sheet “Understanding the 5 Green Goals.” 4. Planting Seeds of Change: Take Action in Your Community. This is an activity designed to engage participants in thinking about strategies for greening their local food environment. Detailed Facilitator Notes to lead the activity are available below. 5. Quick Facts. Need more info? These statistics demonstrate the urgency of the crisis in the food system and the powerful effect sustainable activities could have on the way we eat.
Understanding the 5 Green Goals To effect change, we need broad goals for transforming the food system. The following 5 goals lay a foundation for community action that maximizes environmental, social and economic benefits. 1. Localize • Support markets for local food such as Farmer’s Markets and Community Supported Agriculture programs. • Launch “Buy Local” campaigns to keep wealth and jobs in the community. • Reduce energy & enjoy fresher food by shortening travel between farm & fork. • Celebrate farmers and farmland in your region to ensure regional food security. 2. Protect the Environment • Protect water, soil & other natural resources through sustainable growing. • Reduce food waste and compost leftovers. • Build energy efficient distribution, storage, and microprocessing. • Enjoy seasonal eating and preserve fresh food to last through winter. • Respect all life and treat animals humanely. 3. Ensure Equitable Access to Good Food in Every Community • Make sure everyone has enough to eat. • Honor every community’s right to culturally relevant, safe, and healthy food. • Advocate for more food retail options in underserved communities. • Encourage access for EBT and WIC recipients at all food retail. • Develop a quality emergency food supply • End health disparities in low income & communities of color. 4. Provide Fair and Empowering Jobs for Food System Workers • Demand family-supporting wages, safe working conditions and benefits. • Provide meaningful career opportunities in sustainable food enterprises. • Empower workers voice in the workplace. 5. Community Decision-Making • Inspire community activism to shape a food system that nurtures everyone. • Activate consumers to participate as engaged stakeholders in food system. • Create Food Policy Councils help democratize the food system.
Planting Seeds of Change
Facilitator Notes for Activity
The purpose of the “Planting Seeds of Change” Activity is for participants to
identify specific actions that can green the food system and think strategically
about what broader “Green Goals” each action helps achieve. In the end, the
activity helps participants create a “tool box” of tactics that are organized by
larger goals. The activity is designed to get participants thinking about what
makes the most sense in their own communities, given their local context, priori-
ties and goals.
Instructions
The Guiding Questions for the Activity is • Potential Follow Up Questions for each
“How do we take action to green the food Action Step: Could you see this being helpful
system? What goals make the most sense for in your community? Why or why not? What
your community?” could make it more useful to you and your
community? What will happen if this Action
• Facilitator sets up 6 large cups. On five of the Step is not taken? Which stage of the Food
cups, place one of the 5 “Green Goals” for the System does this Action Step belong to (refer to
Food System (Listed on the right panel of the the graphic New Vision for the Food System on
Healthy Food For All poster). Explain that each the right panel of the Poster).
of these cups represents a visionary goal for
greening the food system. For more ideas about • After all the Action Steps have been placed
what these Goals mean, see Understanding the in the Green Goal cups, review each cup’s
5 Green Goals for the Food System below. items. Explain that each Green Goal cup is
like a little toolbox of tactics to green the food
• Cut out the Action Steps and place in a 6th system. Organizing these Action Steps by their
cup. Explain that these are individual Action corresponding Green Goals allows us to think
Steps that we as communities and individuals strategically about priority projects for our
can take to green the food system. community.
• Each participant pulls an Action Step from Follow Up Questions
the cup. For each Action Step, the participant
figures out which Green Goal it helps achieve • Now that you see all the Action Steps
– it could be more than one! Invite participants organized by Goal, what other Goals or Ac-
to share about why they think the Action Step tions can you think of that can help green the
helps achieve the Green Goal or Goals they food system?
chose. The participant can collaborate with • Which Green Goal cup(s) have the most Ac-
his/her team to make a decision. tion Steps? Do you see an even distribution of
Action Steps?
• If the Action Step helps achieve multiple • For those Green Goals with less Action Steps,
Green Goals at once, ask the participant to what questions do you have that can help you
share their thoughts on why. The group may discover more Action Steps?
decide that some Action Steps do not fit in just • What’s Next? Brainstorm a community
one cup, and you can create a 6th pile of Action project to help green the food system in our
Steps that achieve multiple goals. neighborhood.Action Steps These are examples of actions that an individual or community can take to green the local food environment. Cut these out to use in the Planting Seeds of Change Activity. Start a grocery cooperative, farmer’s market or produce buying club Cultivate a community garden Start a Backyard Compost Host a skill sharing party to can, pickle and preserve summer harvest Train youth in urban agriculture Host a fresh food cooking demonstration Plant a rooftop garden Support domestic and international fair trade food Reduce or compost food waste at restaurants and grocery stores Use environmentally friendly ways to process and distribute food Turn convenience stores into healthy community markets with fresh food Encourage your local grocery store or restaurant to carry local products Strengthen relationships between local growers and food retailers Certify that products were grown or raised in a sustainable and fair way Visit a “kitchen incubator” to help develop a sustainable food business Create a Food Hub where small farmers can store and distribute produce to urban communities Supply your school, hospital or senior center with fresh food from a local farm (AKA “Farm to Institution” Program) Start a landscaping business that turns yards into food gardens Create a policy so that local government buys more local, sustainable food (AKA “local procurement” policy) Create policies to encourage processors and meat packinghouses to work with small farmers Offer zoning & tax incentives for grocery stores to build in underserved neighborhoods Start a Food Policy Council to bring together diverse stakeholders to shape policy about food Increase donations to food banks and soup kitchens Join a gleaning program that gathers would-be wasted food for hungry residents Demand fair labor standards to protect all workers in the food system Expand the number of food retail that accepts EBT and WIC vouchers.
Glossary Composting is method of turning food and yard waste into productive fertilizer for use in gardens, landscape and farms. Composting can happen on small or large scale and is a way to divert food waste from landfills. EBT and WIC – EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer; it refers to the debit card that is used to redeemed federal benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as “food stamps.” WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children and refers to another federal program that sup- ports mothers and small children with nutrition counseling and supplemental food. Farm to Institution refers to programs that help facilitate a direct relationship between small growers and large institutions such as schools, hospitals, prisons or commercial cafeterias. These programs keep small and sustainable growers in business and supply occupants at the institutions with highly fresh food. Food Access refers to the availability of food in a community. Adequate food ac- cess means that a community has diverse ways to obtain healthy food, including from grocery stores, sit-down restaurants, Farmer’s Markets and local gardens. A Food Hub is a place where small growers can combine, store and distribute their produce and other food products. Currently, regional food systems lack of distribution infrastructure available to small and mid-size farmers. Food Hubs allows these growers to reach broader markets and meet larger volume demand. While some Food Hubs exist around the country, it is still an emerging concept. Food Security is when people have regular access to enough safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life at all times. On the other hand, the term “food insecurity” means that a household has limited or uncertain access to ad- equate food, usually due to lack of financial or other resources. Food Policy Councils (FPC) bring together diverse stakeholders to study a local- ized food system and offer recommendations for policy change and community action. Typically, a FPC includes farmers, gardeners, chefs, food processors and wholesalers, grocers, consumers, anti-hunger and food security advocates and government representatives. Fair Trade refers to a relationship between producers, sellers and consumers that is based on equity, respect and transparency. Several labels for “fair trade” certify that a product was cultivated and distributed according to a variety of social and environmental criteria. A Gleaning Program is when edible but unsellable produce is collected from farms and wholesalers and redirected to emergency food programs instead to the landfill. A Kitchen Incubator is a commercial food processing facility that is available for use by small food entrepreneurs and typically offers business planning and other services. Kitchen incubators are important to nurturing local food businesses that may lack the initial capital and facilities needed to launch their business. Local procurement policy means a municipality commits to buying all or a por- tion of food for its own facilities from growers in the local region.
You can also read
