COUNTY HOLDS FOOD SUMMIT

10% IN COUNTY ARE FOOD INSECURE

County Considers What To Do About It

Following in the footsteps of hundreds of communities across the U.S. and around the world, the Food Policy Council (FPC) of Tompkins County has united with more than 50 businesses and organizations, and more than 2,000 residents to identify opportunities for making the local food system more sustainable. e FPC’s published materials explain that “a food system is many things, but ultimately, it’s the path food travels to get to you and me. It’s the web of activities, resources, and people involved along the way.” It continues saying, “Our food system includes how we produce, supply, consume, and dispose of food in Tompkins County. A thriving local food system provides equitable access to healthy food for all people, economic opportunities for businesses and individuals, and supports ecological and climate resilience through healthy soil, air, and water.”

According to the FPC, the pandemic revealed long standing structural inequities and vulnerabilities in the Tompkins County food system. Over the last two years, the group has put together a plan to address those issues to be more prepared for future shocks to the food system. e FPC initiated the community food system planning process with funding and support provided by the Tompkins County Planning, Development & Environmental Quality Committee, the Tompkins County Legislature, the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, and Tompkins County Recycling and Materials Management.

A er two years of planning, the group announced their plan to create a more sustainable food system in Tompkins County during their Food System Summit event that took place at Stewart Park on September 27. e event was organized by Community Food System Plan Coordinator, Katie Hallas.

Hallas recently told e Ithaca Times “the event was intended to share more about the food system plan and invite folks to look at ways to join that e ort and to think about our roles in the food system as interconnected and interdependent.”

According to Hallas, “the plan is raised around three big directions. Building resilience, cultivating equity and economic opportunity, and promoting human and ecosystem health.” She continued saying, “within those, there are nine goals. ose goals aim to ght climate change, to grow our ability and capacity to produce more food locally, and to build stronger support and systems within our food system.”

Another of those goals is doubling local food production. Hallas says that doubling local food production “is obviously a very huge target.” She knows that these are aspirational goals, but says they’re intended to get the community thinking about what it would really take to strengthen the local food system.

She continued saying, “there are other goals as well around radically reducing food insecurity, growing opportunities in the food system, protecting natural resources, expanding recovery, and integrating more nutritional support throughout the community.”

Hallas says that some weaknesses that have been identi ed in the local food system throughout the planning process range from agricultural, environmental, and labor issues to food access and insecurity.

According to Hallas, “We’ve been working to address challenges in the entire food system from agriculture and production to processing, transportation and manufac-

Hallas says weaknesses that have been identified in the local food system include agricultural, environmental, and labor issues, and food access and insecurity. (Photo: Cornell Cooperative Extension)

By Matt Dougherty

Community Food System Plan Coordinator Katie Hallas says around 11,000 County residents are experiencing food insecurity. (Photo: Steve Cukrov)

turing — to food access and security, food retail environments, personal consumption and health, and even food waste recovery.”

Hallas told the Times, “we have more food insecurity in this community than anyone is comfortable with. It uctuates up here, but it’s something around 11,000 residents experiencing insecurity,” She continued saying, “it’s not that we don’t have resources and services, it’s that many people who could utilize them are not…whether it’s utilizing pantries and other free and low-cost food options or utilizing programs like SNAP and WIC.”

While both SNAP and WIC are federally funded health and nutrition programs to help low-income families and their children, they are di erent.

SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It provides a monthly dollar amount on a preloaded Electronic Bene ts Transfer (EBT) card which can be used, like a debit card or credit card, to buy food for individuals and their family. A pre-determined amount is loaded onto the EBT card based the individual’s or family’s household income.

WIC is the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. WIC does not provide a dollar amount to buy food items. e program offers nutrition education, breastfeeding support and referrals and selected food based on its nutritional value, USDA standards, and the individual’s situation. For example, food provided may be di erent if the recipient is a pregnant, breastfeeding, postpartum, an infant, or a child. Individuals receive a WIC card which can be used like a debit card or credit card to obtain quali ed products.

SNAP is dramatically underutilized in Tompkins County, said Hallas. e Executive Summary of the Tompkins County Food System Plan explains that of the “Tompkins residents who are eligible for SNAP, only 30–40% are enrolled.” It continues saying that neither SNAP nor WIC cover all food costs and the enrollment process and eligibility are challenging to navigate. For example, “one-third of food insecure residents earn too much to qualify for public food assistance programs yet struggle to stretch a limited food budget.” e Food System Plan also explains that another weakness in the local food system is that large food businesses that operate in the County won’t share data or provide transparency about their operations here. As a result, the public doesn’t know how many food dollars leave the County or where the large distributors are sourcing from. is reliance on multinational supply chains creates more vulnerabilities in the local food retail environment.

Additionally, Hallas says that “land access is a really huge challenge in terms of a high cost of land making the barriers to entry for beginning farmers really high. If you don’t have some sort of existing wealth or capital assets, it’s really hard to get into it.”

As a result, larger farms that are contributing to the local economy, but not necessarily growing food for people who live in the community, are purchasing land once owned by smaller local farmers that contributed more to the local food system.

Hallas also said that “the average age of farmers in New York is 55 years old and there’s not always someone in the family who’s ready to take over the farm. Sometimes those farms get lost to development.” She continued saying, “there’s de nitely important work to be done to help connect that land to people who want to farm it.”

According to the Food System Plan, it’s clearer than ever that the current structure of the food system is unsustainable. It’s characterized by extreme climate events, racial and economic injustices, environmental destruction, increasing food insecurity, geopolitical instability, supply chain vulnerabilities and worsening public health outcomes. As a result, the FPC says that “the time to transform our food system is now.” e FPC says that “Changes must be made locally so that we can participate more fully in regional food systems to reduce our reliance on the global food system and reimagine a local food system that sustains people and the planet.” ey continue saying that “Climate change, equity and community food security are three of the most signi cant and interconnected challenges we are prioritizing in this work.”

Hallas told e Ithaca Times that the FPC is introducing a community food system pledge and is inviting community members to sign on to show support for the goals outlined in the Food System Plan. e pledge can be found at https://www. tompkinsfoodfuture.org/pledge.

The FPC describes a food system as “how we produce, supply, consume, and dispose of food.” (Photo: Alexander Raths)

Small local farmers, who produce for the local community, are too often being replaced by larger operations that don’t necessarily produce for local consumption. (Photo: GroundPicture)