Food security

Six basic principles of community food security

Community food security includes a comprehensive strategy to address many of the ills affecting our society and environment due to an unsustainable and unjust food system.

Here are six basic principles of community food security:

Low-income food needs
Like the anti-hunger movement, community food security focuses on meeting the food needs of low-income communities, reducing hunger and improving individual health.

Broad goals
Community food security addresses a broad range of problems affecting the food system, community development and the environment. Problems include:

• increasing poverty and hunger rates
• disappearing farmland and family farms
• inner-city supermarket redlining
• rural-community disintegration
• rampant suburban sprawl
• air and water pollution from unsustainable food production and distribution patterns

Community focus
A community-food-security approach builds community’s food resources to meet the community's own needs. Resources may include supermarkets, farmers’ markets, gardens, transportation, community-based food-processing ventures and urban farms.

Self-reliance and empowerment
Community-food-security projects build the abilities of people to provide for their food needs. Community food security builds upon community and individual assets instead of focusing on deficiencies. Community-food-security approaches engage community residents in all phases of project planning, implementation and evaluation.

Local agriculture
Stable local agricultural is key to a community-responsive food system. Farmers need more access to markets that pay them a decent price for the results of their labor. And farmland needs land-use planning to protect it from suburban development. By building stronger ties between farmers and consumers, consumers gain a greater knowledge of and appreciation for their food source.

Systems-oriented
Community-food-security programs are typically inter-disciplinary. They cross many boundaries and incorporate collaborations with multiple organizations.

How do you define community food security?

For more information, contact

Sharon Thornberry, Community Food Programs Advocate
Oregon Food Bank, 1-800-777-7427
sthornberry@oregonfoodbank.org

Information courtesy of the Community Food Security Coalition.