Community FOOD System Assessment July 2018

City of Somerville Community FOOD System Assessment July 2018 To improve equitable food access and opportunties for all who live, work, play, and raise families in Somerville SFSC Somerville FOOD SECURITY Coalition The Somerville Community Food System Assessment serves to compile existing food system information, fill in gaps in local food system data, inform current and future food system work, and lay the foundation for a forthcoming food system action plan. Photo by Eric Kilby –https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode Table of Contents Readers’ Guide ............................................... 3 Welcome Letter .............................................. 4 Acknowledgments .......................................... 7 Somerville Food System Snapshot ................... 9 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................... 10 Regional and Local Food System Context ........ 12 Objectives ...................................................... 13 Community Profile .......................................... 15 About Somerville, MA ............................ 15 Food Access & Security in Somerville ..... 16 2 RESEARCH APPROACH & METHODOLOGY ............ 18 Food Asset Mapping Methodology .................. 18 Food Retail Assessment Methodology ............. 21 Focus Group Methodology .............................. 23 Food Economy Methodology ........................... 25 FOOD ASSET LANDSCAPE ..................................... 26 3 Brick-and-Mortar Retail .................................. 26 Grocery Stores ...................................... 26 Neighborhood Markets .......................... 32 Drugstores and Supercenters ................ 37 Grocery Access & Public Transportation ........ 37 1 Farmers’ Markets and Industry Snapshot: Full-Service Restaurants ... 67 Community Supported Agriculture ................. 40 Industry Snapshot: Food and Beverage Stores .. 68 Davis Square Farmers’ Market ................ 40 Industry Snapshot: Specialty Food Stores ......... 69 Union Square Farmers’ Market ............... 40 Somerville Mobile Farmers’ Market ........ 42 5 FOOD RECOVERY & WASTE DIVERSION ................ 70 Somerville Winter Farmers Market ......... 43 FOOD POLICY ...................................................... 76 Community Supported Agriculture ........ 43 6 Food for School-Aged Youth ........................... 44 Local ............................................................. 76 School-Based Food Literacy Urban Agriculture ................................. 76 and Nutrition Education ......................... 47 Mobile Food Vendor Ordinance ............. 78 The Somerville Backpack Program ........ 49 Food Licensing ...................................... 79 Out-Of-School Time Food ....................... 49 State ............................................................. 80 Emergency & Supplemental Food.................... 50 Commercial Food Food Pantries ........................................ 50 Material Disposal Ban .......................... 80 Community Meals .................................. 52 Massachusetts Food Trust ...................... 80 Single Stop at Federal ........................................................... 81 Bunker Hill Community College ............. 52 Farm Bill ................................................ 81 Programs for Seniors ............................. 53 Community Gardens and Farms ...................... 54 7 WHAT WE LEARNED ............................................. 82 Groundwork Somerville ......................... 54 Objectives ...................................................... 82 Community Gardens .............................. 55 Next Steps ...................................................... 87 4 FOOD ECONOMY ASSESSMENT ............................ 58 GLOSSARY ............................................................ 90 Food Workforce and Development .................. 58 APPENDICES ........................................................ 92 Food Sector Summaries .................................. 64 Production ............................................. 64 Processing ............................................ 64 Distribution ........................................... 66 Food Services ........................................ 66 2 Somerville Community Food System Assessment 2018 READER’S GUIDE Service Providers • How does the food system intersect with your This report is intended as a working document for work with clients, patients, or students? use by all who want to learn more about Somerville’s local food system and how to get involved. Most of us • How can you use the data in this report to inform take part in the food system in multiple ways: we eat or improve your organization and service provi- food, talk about food, worry about food, work with sion? food, grow food, or throw away excess food. Below are • What are some innovative ways to improve food some questions, sorted by role(s) in the food system, to security and strengthen the local food system help prompt additional thinking about what to do with you’ve used or seen that should be shared? the information in this report. Workers in the Food Sector Eaters/Consumers • Does the information in this report reflect your • What is your level of food security—do you have working experience? access to sufficient, healthy food? • Can you think of other information you would • What factors in your life affect your access to like to know more about, or should be included in food? What about your neighbors’ access? future research and reporting? • If you or someone you knew was running out of • What is your story? Would you like to share it? food before they had money to buy more, would you know where to go or who to call for assis- Planners and Policy Makers tance? If you don’t know, please see Appendix 1. • How can you incorporate findings from this report • What else do you want to learn about Somerville’s into your strategies to ensure the process of im- food system? proving neighborhoods includes preservation and/ • What are some ideas you have for making it easier or enhancement of equitable healthy food access? for you and people you know to get food, particu- • What policies have you worked on which may larly healthy food? impact the food system indirectly? • How do you, as a community member, fit into the • Where do you see opportunities for policies to food system? improve the food system or address other determinants of food access, security, and health for your constituents? 3 ere in Somerville we are systems thinkers, so it seems Economic opportunity is a particularly key aspect of our right to apply this model to the idea of food, so central food system, both for those who eat food and those who work Hto all our lives. A food system includes everything related to prepare it. Within a single year, two new grocery stores have to the food we eat. There are many players in a food system, in- opened their doors in Somerville. Within the last five years, the cluding each of us at least getting and eating food. Somervillens City’s food economy (share of our economy that is food jobs and participate on multiple levels—whether by growing their own food sales) has grown by 14%, a faster rate than our state and food, eating at a community meal, shopping at a grocery store, country. We want to make sure everyone is benefitting from this owning a neighborhood market, or serving food at one of our growth, and thus we need to ask: are those new food jobs going many local eateries. to Somerville residents; and are they paying wages that allow We did this assessment to give us a more granular idea of workers to access the healthy foods they need? what the food landscape is today and to understand how people This assessment answered some questions, and also opened interact with it, particularly as it relates to our food assets, food up many more we have yet to consider. Our work as a communi- security, and food economy. In particular, with this report we also ty continues beyond this report. In this report, you will find some seek to identify gaps in the system that need to be addressed as preliminary recommendations from the workgroup that need we strive to ensure all Somerville residents have access to healthy further community input before they are realized. This report and sufficient food. On behalf of the City of Somerville, the and its following actions aim to serve all Somerville constituents. Somerville Food Security Coalition coordinated by Cambridge We won’t achieve this if recommendations are not designed Health Alliance and the Somerville Homeless Coalition, and the with input from all types of food system players. So please share numerous individuals and community organizations who served this report far and wide and find us at [email protected] to on our workgroup, we present the Somerville Community Food share any thoughts you have on how to strengthen Somerville’s System Assessment. food system. This report highlights that there is much more to the food system than just food. Income, type of transit, housing, medical needs, and many other aspects of our lives (known as the Social Determinants of Health) influence our access to healthy and sufficient food. While it is hard to get an accurate numerical representation of food insecurity in our city, we do know that if someone is struggling with any of the above, they are more likely to be food insecure. As cost of living increases and wages remain Joseph A. Curtatone stagnant, we

Load more