Congressional Research Service Reports
- Food Insecurity Among College Students: Background and Policy Options (Congressional Research Service) "Getting a handle on the level of food insecurity college students face remains difficult, but studies show that the problem is real and growing. A new report from the Congressional Research Service, “Food Insecurity Among College Students: Background and Policy Options,” is ostensibly designed to guide lawmakers. But it includes several suggestions that colleges themselves could adopt to improve circumstances for students in need."
see also:
- School Meals and Other Child Nutrition Programs: Background and Funding The federal government has a long history of investing in programs for feeding children, starting with federal aid for school lunch programs in the 1930s. Today, federal child nutrition programs support food served to children in schools and a variety of other institutional settings.
Search for more CRS Reports here
Additional Food Policy Related Information Sources
- Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy, UCLA The Resnick Center provides cutting-edge legal research and scholarship in food law and policy.
- Feeding America The Feeding America network is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities We are a nonpartisan research and policy institute. We pursue federal and state policies designed both to reduce poverty and inequality and to restore fiscal responsibility in equitable and effective ways. We apply our deep expertise in budget and tax issues and in programs and policies that help low-income people, in order to help inform debates and achieve better policy outcomes.
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy IATP works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.
- Small Planet Institute At the Small Planet Institute we believe that ideas have enormous power. So we seek to identify core, often unspoken, assumptions — economic, political, and psychological — now driving humanity to take our planet in directions that none of us individually would ever choose. To this core predicament, Small Planet focuses on solutions: From the crisis of needless hunger to that of democracy itself, we offer evidence-based, life-serving frames of understanding that enable us to perceive and join in solutions emerging all around us.
- Oakland Institute The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank, bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time.
Regional/Local Food Initiatives
- Massachusetts Food System Collaborative With the completion of the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan in December 2015, and the Plan's acceptance by the Massachusetts Food Policy Council a group of stakeholder organizations formed the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative (MFSC) to promote, monitor, and facilitate implementation of the Plan. The Collaborative's work focuses on the four main goals of the Plan:
- Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan In 2013 the Massachusetts Food Policy Council launched a statewide planning process to address the opportunities and challenges of our State’s local food system. The Plan was completed and accepted by the Council in December 2015. Here you can find the Plan, along with updates on progress and information about organizations championing the recommendations in it.
- Food Solutions New England We celebrate and value the political power of the people. A just food system depends on the active participation of all people in New England. We know that our food system is interconnected with the health of our environment, our democracy, and our economy. Sustainability commits us to ensure well-being for people and the planet now and in the future. We consider trust to be the lifeblood of collaboration and collaboration is key to our long-term success. We are committed to building trust across diverse people, organizations, networks, and communities to support a thriving food system.
- A New England Food Vision A New England Food Vision is a collaborative report that considers the future of our region: a future in which food nourishes a social, economic and environmental landscape that supports a high quality of life for everyone, including generations to come.
- Hartford Food System Established in 1978, Hartford Food System is a private, non-profit organization working to create an equitable and sustainable food system that addresses the underlying causes of hunger and poor nutrition facing low and moderate-income Hartford residents. For more than 30 years, Hartford Food System has developed dozens of projects, initiatives, and coalitions that tackle a wide range of food cost, access, and nutrition issues. In more recent years, Hartford Food System has extended its reach to develop food projects and to provide information and technical assistance throughout Connecticut as well as to communities across the country. Our work includes active participation in a number ofpublic policy initiatives at the local, state, and regional levels that affect community-based food systems.
- Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast through Regional Food Systems (EFSNE) seeks to determine whether greater reliance on regionally produced food could improve food access in low-income communities, while also benefiting farmers, food supply chain firms and others in the food system. A USDA-funded Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) project, EFSNE brings together researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, and community leaders from a twelve-state region in the Northeast, engaging the entire food chain from production to consumption in a collaborative effort.
Food Safety Advocates
- Center for Science in the Public Interest Founded by executive director Michael Jacobson, Ph.D., and two other scientists, CSPI carved out a niche as the organized voice of the American public on nutrition, food safety, health and other issues during a boom of consumer and environmental protection awareness in the early 1970s. CSPI has long sought to educate the public, advocate for government policies that are consistent with scientific evidence on health and environmental issues, and counter industry’s powerful influence on public opinion and public policies.
- Union of Concerned Scientists UCS scientists and analysts develop and implement innovative, practical solutions to some of our planet’s most pressing problems—solutions for combating global warming; developing sustainable ways to feed, power, and transport ourselves; fighting misinformation; advancing racial equity; and reducing the threat of nuclear war.
Conservative Think Tanks
- The Heritage Foundation Offers politically conservative responses to liberal and progressive food policy postures. See especially the writings of Robert Rector.
- American Enterprise Institute A conservative think tank. See especially Douglas Besharov for critiques of WIC and other nutrition policies in the early 2000s.
Blogs & Food Policy Media
- U.S. Food Policy Blog of Parke Wilde, who teaches and writes about U.S. Food Policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
- Food Politics Blog of Marion Nestle.
- Mark Winne Blog From 1979 to 2003, Mark Winne was the Executive Director of the Hartford Food System, a private non-profit agency that works on food and hunger issues in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Mark currently writes, speaks, and consults extensively on community food system topics including hunger and food insecurity, local and regional agriculture, community food assessment, and food policy.
- Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN) The Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN) is the first independent, nonprofit news organization that produces award-winning, high-impact investigative and explanatory reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health through exclusive partnerships with regional and national media outlets.
- Civil Eats Civil Eats is a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system. We publish stories that shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities.
