Healthy Food Access

The Healthy Food Access (HFAWG)welcomes all community partners working towards a fair food system to create healthy, local food for all. This Working Group addresses the reality that in both rural and urban areas, low-income families experience high levels of food insecurity and poor dietary options. This lack of access can lead to hunger, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. Many rural communities across Appalachia exist in food deserts, where residents have limited access to fresh and healthy food. This Working Group hopes to draw connections between food producers, food pantries, and food-insecure families who need access to healthy, fresh, local food.

GOALS

1. Expand peer exchange for the replication of successful healthy food access models.
2. Create models for advocacy and coalition-building for long-term state appropriations to support HFA initiatives.
3. Measure the economic impacts of healthy food access programs on local agriculture. Producers and processors as well from investments in HFA programs.
4. Explore the role that gardening and nutrition education play in fostering community food security and individual and regional self-reliance.
5. Increase the connections between value chain distribution efforts and healthy food access.

For more details about each goal, view the pdf of HFAWG five year work plan – click here.

WHO SHOULD JOIN

Regional actors, from farmers markets to food pantries, are collaborating to improve food access by connecting low-income families to fresh, healthy, local foods. Advocacy, education, and investment in food access are critical to ensuring healthy rural people and economies. We have an open invitation to all who are invested in increasing access to healthy foods to join the conversation.

MEETING DETAILS

Healthy Food Access Working Group meets every third Monday at 2pm EST via Zoom.

Contact our Working Group Coordinator to join the meetings.

• Tessa Wieneke – tessa@opencirclestudio.com

CO-CHAIRS

• Alexis Close, Program Director with Appalachian RC&D Council
  • alexis@arcd.org
• Leslie Schaller, Director of Programs with Appalachian Center for Economic Networks
  • leslie@mtassociation.org

WORKING GROUP PRODUCTS

A Fair Food System: A Summit on Scalable Solutions to Creating Community Food Systems