Collaboration Meets Opportunity: The Baltimore Food Policy Initiative

Abstract

As cities across the nation seek to improve healthy food access, this participant observer case study highlights how one midsized city successfully developed a collaborative infrastructure to understand and address inequity in healthy food access. We trace the genesis and evolution of Baltimore's Food Policy Task Force, the hiring of a food policy director, and the establishment of the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative, which is an intergovernmental partnership to increase access to healthy, affordable foods in urban food deserts. While some cities have approached food access issues through community coalitions pressuring city government or government edicts, Baltimore successfully identified its need, used available research to drive and inform action, established priorities, and acted expeditiously with a focus on sustainability. This case study is relevant and applicable for those seeking to influence change in local food policy in midsized urban settings.

What’s on the menu? A global assessment of MUFPP signatory cities’ food strategies

“…overarching frameworks that explicitly set out integrated food policy efforts across an administration's sectors, possibly in interaction with broader governance networks. Various of these urban food governance initiatives and associated policy frameworks have already attracted considerable scholarly attention, e.g., those of Belo Horizonte (e.g., Rocha and Lessa 2009), Toronto (e.g., Blay-Palmer 2009), and Baltimore (e.g., Santo, Yong, and Palmer 2014). However, despite the major exploratory value of these singleand small-n case studies, very little systematic comparative analyses of existing urban food policy initiatives have been performed (but see : Coppo, Stempfle, and Reho 2017).…”

Print E-mail Dissolved: Lessons Learned from the Portland Multnomah Food Policy Council

“…A handful of recent individual indepth case studies attempt to fill this gap. These include research on the Oakland Food Policy Council's efforts to influence zoning policy to expand urban agriculture (McClintock, Wooten, & Brown, 2012); the Toronto Food Policy Council's "nutrition-sensitive food systems approach" (Mah, Baker, Cook, & Emanuel, 2013); the development of the Food Alliance, a food policy-oriented organization aimed at integrating public health and ecological issues in the Australian state of Victoria (Caraher, Carey, McConell, & Lawrence, 2013); citizen efforts to formulate food policy to protect farmland in Edmonton, Alberta (Beckie, Hanson, & Schrader, 2013); the development of "new political spaces" to support urban agriculture in New York City (Cohen & Reynolds, 2014, p. 221); the Rhode Island Food Policy Council's capacity to model inclusivity and democracy through a food justice orientation (Packer, 2014); and Baltimore's efforts to increase healthy and affordable food access through collaborative food policy (Santo, Yong, & Palmer, 2014). This body of research seeks to understand the intricacies of particular FPCs while also offering guidance for food systems advocates engaging in public policy.…”

Does Urban Agriculture Improve Food Security? Examining the Nexus of Food Access and Distribution of Urban Produced Foods in the United States: A Systematic Review

“…Urban agriculture (UA) has sparked growing civic interest, urban farming projects, and scholarship from academic institutions across the U.S. in the past decade [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Over the past 10 years, there has been a proliferation of articles citing the multifaceted array of benefits attributed to urban agriculture.…”