Building an Airplane While Flying It: One Community's Experience with Community Food Transformation

Catherine Sands,Sarah Bankert,Carol Stewart,Laura Fries,Alexandra Hillman

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2016.071.012

Catherine Sands, Sarah Bankert + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2016.071.012

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Abstract

Across the country, local and regional food policy councils are collaborating to make healthy, affordable food more available to everyone. What ingredients are needed for a true collaboration that changes social and racial equity dynamics? How can these collaborations influence systems, policy, and awareness in school food environments, specifically? This reflective case study describes some of the accomplishments and challenges faced by the multistakeholder Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council (HFFPC) for nearly a decade. Using a mixed-method participatory evaluation approach to lift up diverse partners’ insights, we conducted key informant interviews with people who were engaged with the project during its eight operating years; focus groups and participatory asset mapping with stakeholders; and reviewed meeting notes from the eight years of the HFFPC. We identify several crucial ingredients that sustain equitable community-based collaboration: changing the dominant narrative, community and youth leadership and advocacy, and aligned multistakeholder partnerships. We also discuss critical structural and values-based challenges to multistakeholder organizing, including issues of trust, transparency, resources, leadership development, and differences in perceptions of racial equity in an underresourced, predominantly Latino community. As such, this case study investigates community engagement and effectiveness. It provides insights for those food policy councils and local coalitions endeavoring to build from within the community while accomplishing policy goals, and will help to further the practice of equity, community food policy and systems change, and governance.

Highlights

Introduction and Literature ReviewA group of diverse dedicated people came together to improve the local food system of Holyoke, Massachusetts
A partner notes: The school food work had a huge amount of integrity because it worked on many levels at once
Getting the young people involved, changing the food culture, continuously trying to engage the food service and not shrinking back from that, even when the foodservice providers changed, knowing that they had to be a critical partner. (Partner, Interview, 2015). Those interviewed discussed the challenges they experienced as part of a coalition working on multiple aspects of the health and fitness environment, such as barriers experienced regarding leadership development and mentoring, trust and transparency over project resources, and perceptions of equity

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and Literature ReviewA group of diverse dedicated people came together to improve the local food system of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Racial segregation, mediocre schools, inadequate transportation, absence of affordable food markets, and high poverty rates contribute to a lack of opportunity in economic, social, geographical, and educational systems (Bell, Mora, Hagan, Rubin, & Karpyn, 2013; Insight Center for Community Economic Development, 2013; Reece et al, 2009) Those living in neighborhoods that contain these negative elements struggle to access the opportunities (such as home ownership, good schools, adequate healthcare, clean and safe parks, affordable healthy markets, and decent jobs) afforded to the more privileged. It is not enough for public health professionals and partnering agencies from outside of these communities and neighborhoods to provide healthier choices: research suggests that when residents take an active role in improving neighborhood conditions, and in changing the systems and policies that preclude opportunities to build health and wellbeing, the result is a more positive impact on health and human potential (Ammons, 2014; Insight Center for Community Economic Development, 2013, Kang, 2015; Wolff, 2016)

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