Agenda Abstract - 01-30-2018 Assembly of Governments

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24 To: Chapel Hill Town Council; Carrboro Board of Aldermen; Hillsborough Town Board CC: Orange County Board of Commissioners From: Orange County Food Council Re: Orange County Food Council background Date: January 16, 2018 Prior to our meeting to discuss the Orange County Food Council with the Assembly of Governments, we wanted to share some background information. We hope it will be helpful in understanding how the mission of our Food Council fits within an emerging civic engagement movement to improve food access, equity, and sustainability. Food Councils: An Overview Around the country, food councils are actively supporting local government in policy and systems -level work to structure local and regional economies around an overarching vision of a just, healthy and sustainable food system. Though food councils have existed since the 1980s, recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in their numbers. From 2010 to 2012, the number of food councils almost doubled, from around 111 to 193, and by now there are more than 300. In North Carolina, 30 food councils cover 36 counties.' Food councils -- sometimes called food policy councils - -do not provide direct services. The work of food councils is not to directly provide food to people in need. Rather, food councils identify gaps within the local food system and seek ways to address those gaps by bringing the right people to the table to determine solutions. This may take the form of match - making of public - private partnerships, making policy recommendations or conducting educational campaigns. Food councils can be administered at the city or county level, or as a partnership of the two. They function much as our Partnership to End Homelessness does, to facilitate and coordinate the work of agencies and practitioners who do provide ' "Food First: Exploding Myths & Inspiring Change," a national network and think tank on food systems https://foodfirst.org / publication/ food - policy- councils - lessons - learned /; "Good Laws, Good Food: Putting Local Policy to Work for Our Communities" (toolkit for food policy councils), Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic, July 2012, https://www.chli2i.org / /wp- content /ui2loadsj2013 /12 /FINAL - LOCAL- TOOLKIT2.pdf; Food Policy Networks, http :/ /www.foodpolicynetworks.orgl; Community Food Strategies (web site on North Carolina food councils), https :l /communityfoodstrategies.com.