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Community food security has roots in disciplines such
as community nutrition, nutrition education, public health,
sustainable agriculture, and anti-hunger and community
development. There is no universally accepted definition
of community food security. In the broadest terms, community
food security can be described as a prevention-oriented
concept that supports the development and enhancement
of sustainable, community-based strategies:
- To improve access of low-income households to healthful
nutritious food supplies.
- To increase the self-reliance of communities in providing
for their own food needs.
- To promote comprehensive responses to local food,
farm, and nutrition issues.
Policies and programs implemented under the label of
community food security address a diverse range of issues,
including:
- Food availability and affordability.
- Direct food marketing.
- Diet-related health problems.
- Participation in and access to Federal nutrition assistance
programs.
- Ecologically sustainable agricultural production.
- Farmland preservation.
- Economic viability of rural communities.
- Economic opportunity and job security.
- Community development and social cohesion.
Recent ERS Research
Local Food Systems: Concepts,
Impacts, and Issues—This comprehensive overview
of local food systems explores alternative definitions
of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes
the characteristics of local consumers and producers,
and examines early indications of the economic and health
impacts of local food systems. Statistics suggest that
local food markets account for a small, but growing, share
of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct
marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage
of their sales than for larger farms.
Your Food Environment Atlas—Food
environment factors—such as store/restaurant proximity,
food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and
community characteristics—interact to influence
food choices and diet quality. The Food Environment Atlas
assembles statistics on food environment indicators to
stimulate research on the determinants of food choices
and diet quality and provides a spatial overview of a
community's ability to access healthy food and its success
in doing so. The Atlas currently includes 90 indicators
of the food environment in three broad categories—food
choices, health and well-being, and community characteristics.
Access to
Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding
Food Deserts and Their Consequences—This report
summarizes findings of a national-level assessment of
the extent and characteristics of food deserts—areas
with limited access to affordable and nutritious food,
analysis of the consequences of food deserts, lessons
learned from related federal programs, and a discussion
of policy options for alleviating the effects of food
deserts. Overall, findings show that a small percentage
of consumers are constrained in their ability to access
affordable nutritious food because they live far from
a supermarket or large grocery store and do not have easy
access to transportation. This report fills a request
for a study of food deserts from the Food, Conservation,
and Energy Act of 2008.
Examples of Strategies and Activities
- Farmers’
markets that boost incomes of small local farmers
and increase consumers' access to fresh produce.
- Community-supported
agriculture programs that provide small-scale farmers
with economic stability while ensuring consumer members
high-quality produce, often at below retail prices.
- Farm-to-school
initiatives
that help local farmers sell fresh fruits and vegetables
directly to school meals programs.
- Food
stamp outreach programs that help increase the number
of eligible households that participate in the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program.
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