FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY

How does CFS relate to traditional anti-hunger approaches?

Many anti-hunger advocates focus their attention on strengthening federal food assistance programs (like food stamps and WIC) and educating the needy about their entitlements. With the absence of a comprehensive federal poverty policy, a CFS approach recognizes the importance of a strong safety net that provides families in need with the support to survive until bad times get better. CFS builds upon this baseline of support to allow individuals to invest in endeavors that will give them self-sufficiency for the long-term.

What does CFS mean for family farmers?

A CFS approach believes strongly in the need to protect and promote local family-based agriculture as an alternative to a globalized food system. CFS strategies such as developing farmers' markets and community supported agriculture arrangements in low income communities benefit farmers and consumers by building non-traditional but natural partnerships. Family farmers benefit with an added source of income. Also, greater connection and understanding of local agriculture on the part of urban residents can facilitate regional and state policies that protect and promote local agriculture (such as farmland preservation).

What are some examples of CFS work?

• A bustling farmers' market in Milwaukee that accepts food stamps and WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program coupons. This market improves access to fresh nutritious food, helps revitalize a depressed downtown area, and provides new marketing opportunities for the region's farmers.


• A food-bank sponsored 12 acre farm in the Washington, DC area that provides fresh produce to hundreds of food pantries, free meal programs, and farmstands in the city. This farm is supported by middle-income consumers who purchase a share of its produce through a community supported agriculture arrangement.


• The Austin, Texas food policy council which in its first three months of operation got a new bus route connecting low-income shoppers to good supermarkets, a nutrition column in the local newspaper, and plans for a new community garden.

What is the Community Food Projects Program?

The Community Food Projects Program was passed as part of the 1996 Farm Bill, and established a competitive grants program to make funds available to support projects "designed to meet the food needs of low-income people, increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs, and promote comprehensive, inclusive, and future-oriented solutions to local food, farm, and nutrition problems." The Community Food Projects Program is authorized for $16 million over the course of seven years. In the program's first year, thirteen organizations from Maine to Hawaii received $1 million in funding for FY 1996. $2.5 million will be available for FY 1997.

How would it benefit my community?

Increased funding to local food projects can improve the vitality of local agriculture, provide access to affordable nutritious food for low income residents, create jobs and job training programs, beautify neighborhoods, as well as enhance the sense of empowerment and self-reliance among communities.

What can I do to support the CFS Coalition and advance community food security?

Join the Coalition as a member! A strong coalition is central to advancing a community food security agenda at the national level. Also, develop collaborative projects and food security coalitions and networks at the local and regional levels. Incorporate CFS principles into your organization's programs.

What does the CFS Coalition do?

The Community Food Security Coalition is active on a number of fronts.

• It actively promotes networking and information exchange on food security strategies through its newsletter, conferences, and queries. With the increasing sophistication of many food security practitioners and the burgeoning interest in community gardening and farmers' markets, both new and established organizations benefit from the experiences of each other.


• The Coalition encourages dialogue on food security issues as a way for communities and organizations to develop a vision for their activities and understand the "big picture".


• The Coalition is active on the national front in developing federal agriculture and food policy. It has authored and is advocating for the passage of the Community Food Security Act of 1995. It has also requested the USDA to conduct an internal review of its programs with regards to enhancing community-based solutions to local agriculture, hunger and poor nutrition problems.


• On more of a long-term front, the Coalition is building links between diverse and normally separate constituencies, such as sustainable agriculture, anti-hunger, environmentalists, and community development as a way of developing the political wherewithal to create a more sustainable food system.

What does CFS mean for the community?

Community food security is as much about building community as it is about providing food for hungry people. CFS is about building partnerships between public and private sectors, between consumers and producers. The food policy council, which brings together stakeholders from the diverse sectors of the food system to address problems and create solutions, embodies the community food security approach.