So What’s to Eat in Your Neighborhood? By- Rhonda Sanders March 4, 2010 Growing Health Communities

Introductions Access to Health Foods Sub- Committee Food Deserts Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance USDA Community Food Security Assessment

What’s the Point? 15.9% of the people in Arkansas suffer from food insecurity Hungry children can’t learn and hungry workers can’t work Hunger and Obesity are directly related

Definitions Food Insecurity Household Food Insecurity Community Food Insecurity

What is a Community Food Security Assessment? It is the collection of various types of data to provide answers to questions about the ability of existing community resources to provide sufficient and nutritionally sound amounts of culturally acceptable food to households in the community

Why Conduct an Assessment? To understand local food systems To inform the setting of goals to improve these local food systems To inform decision making about policies and actions to improve community food security To establish a long-term monitoring system with a clear set of indicators

Purpose of the USDA Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit To provide a standardized set of measurement tools for assessing various indicators of community food security.

Components of the Assessment Profile of community socioeconomic and demographic characteristics Profile of community food resources Assessment of household food security Assessment of food resource accessibility Assessment of food availability and affordability Assessment of community food production resources

Assembling the Pieces Things you want to know Gathering the people with the answers Build ownership

Data and Data Collection Quantitative Data Qualitative Data Existing Data Original Data Compiled Uncompiled

Data Collection Techniques Surveys Observation Focus Groups

Expectations of the Communities Complete Sections 4,5,6,7 and 8 of the assessment toolkit Much of the data will be available on a new tool called the US Food Environment Atlas Return to the Alliance by June 1, 2010

What You Will Receive A tailored workshop in the fall to help you develop a plan to increase access to healthy foods in your community.