Background
What is a Community Food Assessment?
A Community Food Assessment (CFA) is a collaborative, participatory process that takes a systematic, big picture look at a food system including a broad range of community food issues and assets., Additional key elements of a CFA1 include:
- addresses both needs and assets
- focuses on a geographically defined place
- involves a broad spectrum of actors from the community
- emphasizes collaboration among participants
- requires significant time and resources to plan and implement
Community food assessments can vary in their content and scope. Several types of assessments exist that might fall under this umbrella. They are not mutually exclusive and a community food assessment might include one or several of these.
- Local or regional foodshed assessment
- Community food system assessment
- Community food security assessment
- Local food economy assessment
Why conduct a Community Food Assessment?
You might be considering a CFA for several reasons including a lack of recent or sufficient data available to inform food system priorities and/or a need for a clear picture of the local food system to foster greater support for your efforts. Regardless of why you conduct a CFA, there are several benefits and potential uses, some of which are listed below.
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Is a Community Food Assessment right for us?
Depending on your intended purpose or need and your capacity, there may be other types of data collection, visualization, etc. methods that could be right for you. Some of these are separate and distinct, while others are often included as a component of a CFA.
- Asset mapping – Asset mapping is often included in a CFA. It might take the form of spatial analysis, PhotoVoice, Story mapping, asset mapping worksheets.
- Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) – A state, tribal, local, or territorial health assessment that identifies key health needs and issues through systematic, comprehensive data collection and analysis. Here are resources for incorporating food into a CHNA – Engaging the community to understand food needs and Making Food Systems A Part of Your CHNA. Here is an example of a CHNA from Boston Children’s Hospital that includes food security as a focus.
- Feasibility Study – A feasibility study is a tool to evaluate a new project, exploring viability and helping guide investments of time and money.
- Food policy audit – An inventory of formal & informal policies that affect the community food system. Includes (1) a set of audit questions answered from laws, plans, and regulations and (2) conversations with community stakeholders to provide additional information
- Land Inventory – A land use inventory is a database of the lands and their uses within your community including both developed and undeveloped land. See an example here from Everett, MA to examine site suitability for urban agriculture.
- Needs assessment – The needs assessment is designed to describe conditions, identify problems and desired improvements, and to develop strategies to address them. Many Community Food Assessments include one
- Network mapping / Net-Map – Net-Map is an interview-based mapping tool that helps people understand, visualize, discuss, and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes.
Resources
Publications
A Guide to Community Food Assessment
Community Food Security Coalition, 2002
This guide includes overview content about what a CFA is and why to conduct one, extensive step by step information, and case studies of CFAs across the country.
- Key elements of a community food assessment – pg. 15
- Why do a community food assessment – pg. 16
- When a community food assessment may not be right for you – pg. 19
- Basic steps of an assessment – pg. 47
- Defining the scope and sample list of indicators – pg. 53
- Formats for disseminating report – pg. 81
- Appendices (data gathering, sources of data, indicators, data collection techniques) – pg. 86
Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
USDA, 2002
This toolkit is focused on community food security. It provides tips, guidelines, and data collection tools for conducting a food security assessment. It also has some brief overview content that can be helpful for thinking about the “why” for conducting an assessment and what data to collect & analyze.
- Why conduct a community food security assessment – pg. 8-9
- Determining your community’s data needs – pg. 10
- Types of data & data collection techniques – pg. 14-29
Local and Regional Food System: Community/Regional Development
Cornell University
A list of resources applicable to spatial analysis and mapping of food systems and related indicators. Includes links to things like County Health Rankings, Feeding America data on hunger and more that may be helpful in both gathering relevant data and conducting your own mapping & spatial analysis.
Writers, Consultants & Technical Assistance Providers
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) is the regional planning agency serving the people who live and work in the 101 cities and towns of Metropolitan Boston. Their Public Health team provides food system planning services, including producing Community Food Assessments with Massachusetts communities. They have also provided technical assistance in establishing and formalizing local food policy councils.
Health Resources in Action (HRiA)
Health Resources in Action is a non-profit organization working to improve and reimagine public health. Their Research and Evaluation department has provided technical assistance and research support for Community Food Assessments. The Malden Food Policy Council has recently worked with HRiA to gather updated data for their Community Food Assessment.
Northbound Ventures
Northbound Ventures Consulting is a small, woman-owned consulting firm based in Montpelier, Vermont, where their work revolves around food systems, outdoor recreation, population health, and community economic revitalization. Their range of services includes food assessments. The Southcoast Food Policy Council recently contracted with them to complete their Food System Assessment.
The Conway School
The Conway School is a graduate program for sustainable landscape design and planning. Their curriculum is project based and students complete a variety of projects with community partners including food security plans.
Network Insights
Skill Share on Community Food Assessments | April 11, 2024 | Recording & Notes
4 panelists of fellow food policy council leaders shared their experience with conducting community food assessments in their communities. The panel included representatives from Everett, Malden, the Southcoast, and Salem food policy councils.
MA Examples
See a full list of community food system assessments conducted in Massachusetts from 2016-present here.
MA Examples – Additional Resources
Focus Group Questions/Facilitation Guides
- Cambridge – Neighborhood Food Environment Focus Group Facilitation Guide (p. 5)
- Cambridge – Food Pantry Focus Group Facilitation Guide (p. 5)
- Cambridge – Community Agriculture Focus Group Facilitation Guide (p. 4)
- Worcester – Community Conversation (Focus Group) Questions (p. 25-26)
- Worcester – Food Pantry Survey Questions (p. 27)
- Worcester – Site Visit Questions (p. 28)
- Somerville – Focus Group Survey & Facilitation Guide (p. 94)
Surveys
- Worcester – Community Food Assessment Survey Questions (p. 5-24)
- Lowell – Resident Survey (p. 71)
- Lowell – Retailer Survey (p. 93)
- Lowell – Emergency Food Provider Survey (p. 102)
- Lowell – Farmer Survey (p. 109)
- Malden – Stakeholder (Organization) Survey Questions (p. 55-57)
- Malden – Food Security Survey Questions (p. 58-71)
- Southcoast – Supplemental Food Providers Survey (p. 110)
- Southcoast – Consumer Patterns and Preferences Survey (p. 121)
Methodology
- Somerville – Methodology including food asset mapping, food retail assessment, focus groups (P. 18-25)
- Salem – Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Method (Slide 11)
- Salem – Brief description of research process (Slide 13)
- Quaboag Valley – Methods description involving training resident interviewers (p. 3-4)
- Malden – Assessment Methodology undertaken by Core Leadership Team with assistance from MAPC, Mass in Motion technical advisors (p. 14)