Food Systems and Gardens

Healthy eating is important to maintaining healthy lives (read more about healthy eating and its connection to obesity), yet healthy eating is not always as simple as it should be. Many supermarkets, restaurants and fast food chains sell high calorie processed foods, and access to fresh fruits and vegetables can be difficult, especially in food deserts where the nearest grocery might be miles away.

Fortunately, there has been a recent explosion in interest in the food we eat – from its origins, to its production methods, to its relationship to our health. This has led to a growth in healthy and sustainable food production and consumption, through an expansion of backyard and urban gardens, local farmers’ markets, and community supported agriculture, which has resulted in healthier items on the menu. Our communities will see direct health benefits from increased access to healthy food.

News

Regional

National

  • Health of rural communities threatened by loss of grocery stores
    KHI News, October 14, 2013
    2013-10-14 08:59
More News

Resources

National

  • A Half-Empty Plate: Fruit and Vegetable Affordability and Access Challenges in America

    Food Research and Action Center, December 2011

  • It’s Dinnertime: A Report on Low-Income Families’ Efforts to Plan, Shop for and Cook Healthy Meals

    APCO Insights, January 2012. Link will open a pdf.

  • Agriculture: Investing in Natural Capital

    Makes a case for investing in “greening” the agriculture3 sector, emphasizing the potential global benefits of making this transition. It provides evidence to inspire policymakers to support increased green investment and guidance on how to enable this transformation, which aims to enhance food security, reduce poverty, improve nutrition and health, create rural jobs, and reduce pressure on the environment, including reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs). United Nations Environment Programme, 2011.

  • application/pdf iconTransforming U.S. Agriculture: Achieving sustainable agricultural systems will require transformative changes in markets, policy

    Science, VOL 332, MAY 6, 2011.

  • The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters

    Policy Link

  • Promising Strategies for Creating Healthy Eating and Active Living Environments

    Prepared by the Prevention Institute

  • Healthy Food for All: Building Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems in Detroit and Oakland

    Policy Link, July 2009

  • Food prices, access to food outlets and child weight

    Economics and Human Biology; Vol 7, 2009; Lisa M. Powell, Yanjun Bao

  • Food Politics blog, by Marion Nestle

    Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University.

  • Farm to School

    Farm to School connects schools (K-12) and local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing agriculture, health and nutrition education opportunities, and supporting local and regional farmers.

  • CivilEats.com

    CivilEats.com - Civil Eats promotes critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems as part of building economically and socially just communities.

  • Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences

    U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 2009

  • Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food

    Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences, U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 2009

  • 2007 Census of Agriculture

    U.S. Department of Agriculture, February 2009

Regional

  • application/pdf iconLunch Lines, Waistlines and Supply Lines: Improving School Food

    Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition (link will open a pdf)

  • application/pdf iconImproving Access To Healthy And Local Food

    Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition (link opens a pdf)

  • application/pdf iconHCF Community Gardens Grant Report
  • The University of Missouri Extension
  • The Kansas City CSA Coalition

    Working to increase food access and food security in the Kansas City metropolitan area by promoting Community Supported Agriculture initiatives including CSA farm operations, market and community gardens, urban and rural agricultural sites, and value-added product operations, and by addressing the rapid decline of family farms and the loss of agricultural land by linking small and medium-scale food producers to new markets in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

  • The Kansas City Community Gardens

    is a not-for-profit organization that provides self-help and educational assistance to low-income people, children and community groups in the metropolitan area to grow their own food from garden plots located in backyards, vacant lots, schoolyards and at community sites.

  • Kansas State University Extension

Facts

Regional

  • The Food Desert Oasis Act of 2009 would officially designate Kansas City, Missouri – and 19 other cities as food deserts.

    H.R. 3100 Food Desert Oasis Act of 2009: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3100.IH:

  • Since 2006, 82 of 213 grocery stores serving Kansas communities with populations of 2,500 or less have closed.

    David Procter, director of the Center for Engagement and Community Development at Kansas State University: http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/news/story/rural_grocerystores062410.aspx

  • Number of low-income residents in the HCF service area living more than one mile from the nearest grocery store:

    • Jackson County - 36,713
    • Cass County -9,951
    • Lafayette County - 4,757
    • Wyandotte County - 12,914
    • Johnson County - 9,853
    • Allen County - 2,268

    U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Environment Atlas: http://www.ers.usda.gov/foodatlas/

National

  • 23.5 million Americans lack access to a supermarket within a mile of their home.

    Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences, U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 2009

  • Of all the households in the United States, 2.3 million, or 2.2 percent, live more than a mile from a supermarket and do not have access to a vehicle. An additional 3.4 million households, or 3.2 percent of all households, live between one-half to 1 mile and do not have access to a vehicle.

    Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences, U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 2009

  • The number of small farms, as well as their diversity of crops, is growing in the United States.

    2007 Census of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture

From the Blogs

Local Health Buzz