Best Practice Action Detail

Best Practice Action 27.5

GreenStep City Best Practices: Resilient Economic and Community Development

Local Food No. 27

Strengthen local food production and access.

Best Practice Action 5

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Assess, plan for, and enhance the community’s local food system.

Implementation Tools
Star-level Examples

Contact your local SHIP Coordinator for funding and technical assistance.
Assessments:
- A Community Food Assessment (CFA) can help define your community food system, identify goals and take stock of assets, and work with key stakeholders to develop strategies and actions that lead to an improved food system.
- The Twin Cities Metropolitan Region Food Resource provides a map of food shelves, free groceries, free meals, grocery stores, convenience stores, speciality stores, farmers markets, Fare For All, and Twin Cities Mobile Markets.
- Community-Based Food System Assessment and Planning guide (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, 2018)
- How to Conduct a Community Food System Assessment - A new guide for planners (APA, 2015)
- Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit (USDA, 2002)
- The Food Sovereignty Assessment Tool from the First Nations Development Institute is a guide to doing community food assessments for tribal nations. It contains case studies as well as worksheets for several activities.
- See examples of community food assessment reports from West Central, MN and Olmsted County, MN.
- See BPA 24.5 for resources related to community planning initiatives.
Plans:
- Food System Resilience: A Planning Guide for Local Governments (2022) is a guide from Johns Hopkins University developed with the support of many partners, including UMN Extension and Cass Clay Food Partners. This planning guide is composed of six modules that provide background information on important concepts, as well as a set of tools for developing food system resilience strategies. The strategies can be used to create a stand-alone food system resilience plan or components to embed into other local government plans, policies, or programs.
- GROWING LOCAL: A Community Guide to Planning for Agriculture and Food Systems is one of the best guides for creating a food system plan. Based on the work of 11 cities across the U.S., including Minneapolis, this guide explains important principles and practices as well as example policies and other tools cities can use.
- Developing Food System Plans: Consideration for getting started (MI State University, 2026) provides a helpful path for moving forward.
- See examples of food system plans from other cities like Minneapolis, MN, and Kingston, NY.
- The Public Health Law Center has a number of resources for food system planning including case studies, example policies, and original research.
Councils:
- The Food Policy Networks project at John Hopkins University has a number of resources for city food policy councils. Their website has a map and directory of food policy councils in the U.S., original research, guides, and a listserv to stay connected.
Staffing:
- See examples of communities with staff positions or offices dedicated to local food systems from Boston, MA, Minneapolis, MN, Ramsey County, MN.

Host community asset mapping or visioning sessions, or
Collect primary data about your local food system through surveys and/or focus groups, or
Conduct a community food assessment
Report agricultural assets under BPA 27.1

Create a standalone food system plan for the community, or
Incorporate food system goals and recommendations into community plans (such as Comprehensive, Economic Development, and Sustainability)

Create a Food Policy Council, or
Add local food system development to the responsibilities of an existing city staff member, or
Create a new position or office dedicated to local food system coordination

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Best Practice Action 27.5

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