In 2011, FPAC released a report and recommendations for school food, Building Healthy Communities, which focused on school food and children’s access to healthy food. Since then we have been working to advocate for increased access for all New Orleanians through support for the 2016 Louisiana Farm to School Bill 404, healthy vending in city and state buildings, and, most recently, connecting local school food providers and farmers to get more local food in schools, corner stores, and institutions.
Currently, this working group is focused on policies intended to increase access to fresh healthy food to our community.
2018-2021 Priorities (from the FPAC Plan for the Future)
Food Access: seeks system-level changes in our community, institutions, and schools to make it easier for residents to access healthy food.
(1) Support Farm to Institution initiatives
(a) Connect schools, institutions, and food service providers with fresh, safe local food
(b) Support the continued implementation of Farm to School Bill 404 and advocate for increased funding for Farm to school policies and programming.
(c) Support partner organizations doing farm to institution work and make connection where needed
(d) Support reinstatement of funding for fresh food procurement through Louisiana Food Bank Association.
(2) Support federal, state, and city funding for healthy food access
(a) Advocate for Federal fresh food incentives and programming in the 2018 Farm Bill
(b) Advocate for state level Fresh Food Retail Initiative (FFRI) programming
(c) Advocate for continuation of local FFRI programming and expansion to farmers markets and mobile markets
(d) Advocate for reauthorization of Child Nutrition Nutrition Reauthorization Act
(3) Support implementation of current healthy vending policies
(a) Provide clarification on current healthy vending policies and technical assistance to address barriers and support implementation.
(4) Continue to work with City of New Orleans on policies and programming addressing food access in New Orleans through the Department of Health and other departments when applicable.
Interested in joining this group or attending the next meeting? Let us know.
Our work is made possible by the generous support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Humana Foundation.
