Project Overview
In 2022, the City of Flagstaff Sustainability Office received a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (UAIP) grant to fund a multi-year project titled "Assessing and Growing a Sustainable Community Food System." This multi-year project supports
- The development of a Comprehensive Food Systems Assessment (CFSA), which is a data collection tool for improving the understanding of gaps and opportunities related to food access and distribution.
- A community-wide engagement process focused on the CFSA findings to inform goals and focus areas moving forward.
- An innovative food business feasibility study, which assesses the practicality of a proposed local business to support urban agriculture and food systems.
- The creation of a Food Action Plan, which will guide the City in improving the local food system through recommended programs and actions.
This project is a collaborative effort among community partners, including New Venture Advisors, Flagstaff Foodlink, Pinnacle Prevention and numerous other food systems stakeholders throughout northern Arizona.
What is a Food Action Plan?
The Flagstaff Food Action Plan is a roadmap for how our community can create a healthier, more resilient food system. It outlines goals, objectives, and actions to improve food access, strengthen local food businesses, support public health, and address climate challenges. The plan identifies what needs attention now and offers clear actions to move us forward.
This is a community plan supported by the City of Flagstaff, but its success will require everyone’s involvement. Residents, advocates, farmers, food businesses, nonprofits, pantries, funders, and public agencies all have an important role to play. Together, we can build a Flagstaff food system that is healthy and resilient for all.
The action plan will outline a vision for Flagstaff's food system, setting goals and identifying priority actions to create a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient food system. Through community-informed processes, priority focus will be on increasing affordable food access, ensuring farmers, ranchers and food producers can thrive, promoting environmental resilience, and strengthening the local food system network.
Informed Process
Phase 1: Community Food Systems Assessment
Together, the City of Flagstaff, Flagstaff Foodlink, a local resident steering committee, and the team at New Venture Advisors facilitated a twelve month-long assessment process. The process culminated in the publication of the Community Food System Assessment (CFSA), which establishes a comprehensive understanding of the Flagstaff and northern Arizona food system, creates a baseline of crucial food system metrics, and sets the stage for the Flagstaff Food Action Plan. Here is a brief overview of the assessment process:
- Extensive secondary data collection: information was pulled from the key county, state, and national datasets that focus on our food system. Sources include the U.S. Census, the USDA Census of Agriculture, CDC, County Health Rankings, Feeding America, and local community health assessments.
- Community-wide survey: community members from across the five-county region were invited to share their experiences and perceptions of the regional food system. We received 1,041 total responses.
- Focus groups: thrity-four key food system stakeholders participated in focus groups to share their on-the-ground insights and experiences. Focus groups covered six food system audiences: Food Retail Outlets, Farmers/Ranchers, Funders in the Food System, Institutional Food Purchasers, Emergency Food Access, and Food Waste/Recovery.
Phase 2: Community Conversations
Following the conclusion of the assessment the City of Flagstaff, Flagstaff Foodlink, and Pinnacle Prevention hosted six community conversations and two stakeholder gatherings engaging over 140 community members in the fall of 2024. This community engagement was an opportunity for community members and stakeholders to share and reflect on the data and information from the CFSA, to understand how the community is making meaning from the data, understand perspectives on overall needs, gaps, and barriers. The information from these meetings informs the development of a food action plan and helps guide decision-making efforts in the future.
Phase 3: Food Action Plan
Analysis of the data collected from the CFSA and Community Conversations identified overarching themes and priorities to include in the Food Action Plan. After numerous steering committee meetings and two policy workshops with local stakeholders (farmers, food distribution, food access, community groups, and organizations) Goals, Objectives, and Actions have been identified.
We are now seeking input to prioritize the identified actions from this three-year community engagement process.
Draft Goals and Objectives
The goals, objectives, and actions outlined below were developed through a robust community engagement process that has been ongoing since 2023.
Ensure long-term community food security and equitable access to affordable, healthy, and culturally relevant foods for all residents.
- Objective 1: Invest in and support initiatives that increase the affordability and accessibility of healthy, locally produced foods in institutions (e.g. schools, hospitals) and community markets (e.g. farmers markets and grocery stores).
- Objective 2: Strengthen and scale food rescue and redistribution efforts to ensure that excess adequate food goes to people.
- Objective 3: Promote and support initiatives that empower people to grow, prepare, preserve, share, and compost food, including educational opportunities that build self-sufficiency and community resilience.
- Objective 4: Build and design neighborhoods to ensure all residents enjoy food access and opportunities to grow healthy food.
Invest in building a thriving local food system where farmers, ranchers, food makers, and food businesses can sustainably grow, raise, process, sell, distribute, and share food for and with the community.
- Objective 1: Invest in and support development of food infrastructure to strengthen production, processing, distribution, storage and transportation for small- to mid- scale operations.
- Objective 2: Provide current and aspiring food producers and entrepreneurs (including cottage food businesses) resources to start, grow and sustain their businesses and expand opportunities to market and sell their food.
- Objective 3: Strengthen local market development initiatives to boost the local food economy and expand awareness and access to locally grown, raised, and value-added foods.
- Objective 4: Increase access to viable and affordable land for farmers and ranchers, particularly Indigenous and new/beginning, to grow and/or raise food.
Protect and enhance the resilience of the region's food systems—including land, water, air, and people—to ensure food production, distribution, cultural traditions, and access can thrive amid the challenges of climate change.
- Objective 1: Expand and promote awareness of City of Flagstaff composting services and programs.
- Objective 2: Equip farmers, ranchers, and food businesses with resources, tools, and infrastructure to practice climate-smart agriculture, conserve soil and water, and adopt energy- and water-efficient operations.
Strengthen existing and future food system coordination and partnerships and City engagement to support current and new initiatives success.
- Objective 1: Establish new and coordinate existing food system programs, partnerships, and initiatives.
- Objective 2: Strengthen community education about the benefits of a resilient local food system and expand opportunities for community input on local food projects, policies, and planning efforts.
Feedback Survey
Each goal includes the following:
- Objectives: Specific targets that focus on community-identified opportunities and barriers in that part of the food system.
- Actions: Specific policies and programs to achieve those objectives.
