The Larger Pittsburgh Meals Motion Plan prioritizes Justice within the Meals System – Meals Tank

The greater Pittsburgh area is the youngest region to develop a formalized and comprehensive regional food action plan thanks to the work of the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council (PFPC).

“The hope was that a Food Action Plan would provide strategic direction and vision for strengthening our regional food system,” Sam Applefield, project coordinator for PFPC, told Food Tank.

The five goals of the Greater Pittsburgh Food Action Plan (GPFAP), as set out by PFPC and its partner organizations, are as follows: Improve coordination among existing food system actors, Equity of the centers, Sustainability and environmental stewardship, Support a regional food economy That is coming benefit all, improve food security and public health, and empower the community.

Gathering input and support from community members was a major priority in formulating the plan, Applefield explains. PFPC and its partner organizations held roundtables and community engagement sessions over many months. He says that transportation, racial justice, and equitable distribution of land and resources were some of the main issues that community members highlighted.

“For the food action plan to be meaningful and relevant, it must be based on the realities of people’s experiences,” Applefield told Food Tank. “Many of the strategies outlined in the plan come straight from comments we heard during these engagement meetings or roundtables.”

Laurie Beyrenevand, director of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems and professor of law at Vermont Law School, advocates for tighter national food policies. She agrees that community input is critical to the success of working with food systems.

Beyrenevand told Food Tank that the public must have significant opportunities to choose how to reconcile competing concerns so that food policies can be developed by the people they serve. She adds that “meaningful public input means identifying action to attract input from traditionally underserved and underserved communities that may not often have equal opportunities to participate in policy making.”

Winton Pitcoff, director of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, also notes the importance of making the process meaningful for community members. “When you have people in a room, you don’t want to just put their wisdom on paper,” he tells Food Tank. “They’re trying to get their buy-in so they feel like they’re part of the process and the outcome. When this is done, you will see yourself reflected in the plan and feel obliged to help you with it. “

While the GPFAP is focused on the Pittsburgh area, it has the potential to make a contribution to food policy at the national level. Beyrenevand said regional nutrition action plans can provide a valuable starting point for a tight federal nutrition policy. “Ideally, a national food strategy gives the federal government the opportunity to learn from these experiences,” she told Food Tank, “to understand how we can model this at the federal level and continue to support these efforts instead of potentially working against them. ”

Not only do food action plans provide an example for the federal government, but they also provide an opportunity for organizations to learn from each other, Pitcoff said. The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative emerged from the Food Action Plan of the Massachusetts Food Policy Council in 2015 and works as a “connective tissue” between organizations doing similar work.

“There are a lot of small community organizations that keep reinventing the wheel,” Pitcoff told Food Tank. “It’s a chance to introduce them to each other and make it clear to them that they are not alone, not isolated. They can learn from each other and share resources and ideas. “

Applefield hopes PFPC can contribute to these shared resources by making the focus on community engagement and racial equality a model for other food policy councils. “Especially in the face of the pandemic,” he told Food Tank, “there are some real opportunities to develop innovative and effective policy solutions, and we hope to make Pittsburgh a leader in strategies that promote equity and justice across the food system . “

Photo by Tim Umphreys via Unsplash

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