The connection between local food systems, health, and place-making has grown in importance in planning and community development practice in recent decades. Food systems planning is interwoven with public health, improving food access, increasing options for active mobility, and striving for greater equity and inclusion for historically under-served communities. Since 2014, EPR staff have led local food systems planning efforts nationwide through the Local Foods, Local Places Program (LFLP), under contract to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Community Revitalization, and with support from USDA Agricultural Marketing Service.
The LFLP program helps cities and towns protect the environment and human health by engaging with local partners to reinvest in existing neighborhoods using local food enterprises. The program has served over 100 communities since 2014, and EPR staff have supported scores of communities nationwide. Each dot on the map to the right is a story of a community seeking to improve through projects like farmers markets, local food cooperatives, commercial kitchens, community gardens, food pantries, food-related enterprises, food hubs, mobile markets, neighborhood distribution networks, pop-up markets, healthy corner store programs, farmer and small business start-up programs, mentoring programs, events and educational programming, public-private partnerships, youth programs, and more.
The EPR team of consultants, together with EPA and other federal agency partners, visit communities awarded LFLP assistance. The process takes a few months and culminates in a two-day workshop designed to develop a specific and measurable action plan for the next 1-2 years. The process builds and strengthens relationships. Workshops in 2020 went virtual in response to COVID-19. EPR staff adapted. Workshops became a series of 1.5-hour video conference sessions, held over 2-5 days; all designed for interactivity, small group breakouts, polling, and exercises using shared, cloud documents. The EPR team succeeded in convening highly dynamic events that produced tailored and detailed action plans and adding value even during a trying time.
EPR hosted a virtual workshop for Local Foods, Local Places in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Map of Local Foods, Local Places Communities