Resource Documents
2012 Double Value Produce Perks Press Release
Registration information for May and June events around Green City Growers Cooperative Greenhouse business in Central.
Double Value Produce Perks-Participating Farmers' Markets in Cuyahoga County in 2012
In the second year of The EBT Incentive Program, developed by Ohio State Extension and the Health and Nutrition Work Group of the FPC with support from several foundations, 17 farmers' markets in Cuyahoga County were able to increase consumption of fresh, local and healthy food for many Ohio Direction Card customers.
Participating markets in the 2011 Incentive Program gave an additional five dollars for every customer electing to spend five dollars of their EBT benefits at the market each time they visited. Every market also administered customer surveys to collect more information on common modes of transportation to the markets and to identify the most effective promotion strategies for the program. Much of this data culiminates in this report, resulting in recommendations for the 2012 program and implications for improving access to healthy food sold at farmers' markets for food assistance recipients, like Ohio Direction Card customers.
Look out for more information posted by FPC for the 2012 EBT Incentive Program!
Cuyahoga County Assessment: Access to Supermarkets is a summary of findings released by the County Planning Commission in December 2011 that shares the methodology and results from a recent food retail assessment in Cuyahoga County. Using several data sources including local fieldwork and store assessments, the report shares information on low access areas within Cuyahoga County where access to fresh, healthy food needed to maintain a healthy diet may be limited.
Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, OSU Extension, and the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition worked in partnership to develop an updated assessment of the food retail environment in Cuyahoga County. Building off of the food retail assessment led by County Planning Commission in 2008, this presentation released in December 2011 contains several maps that demonstrate potential relationships between poverty and income, transportation access and car ownership, and food retail locations. The report also identifies low access areas for food retail within Cuyahoga County. This presentation is accompanied by a summary of the findings, Cuyahoga County Assessment: Access to Supermarkets.
Planning to Eat? is summary report released by the Food Systems and Healthy Communities Lab at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York that documents innovative planning strategies used by local governments to strengthen local food systems in the United States. The report is intended for use by practicing planners but may also be of use to others interested in food systems issues. Several of Cleveland's food policy initiatives including the Urban Agriculture Overlay District, regulations regarding farm animals and bees, and water access and rates for urban agriculture are higlighted throughout the report.
The report was produced through generous support of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities-Buffalo project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Clusters of local foods businesses are forming across Ohio, as residents innovate ways to provide healthier food options, and bring farmers into more direct contact with consumers. These business clusters focus their attention on building strong relationships of trust, overcoming a long history of export agriculture. Written by Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource Center for the University of Toledo Urban Affairs Center with funds from the Ohio Department of Agriculture this report highlights some of the innovative work happening across Ohio to build economic and community development opportunities within local food.
Many local food systems advocates focus on increasing the number of farmers selling their products directly to consumers, but this type of direct marketing is only one strategy for increasing the consumption of local foods. Over 90 percent of all food for home consumption is acquired from retail venues (such as grocery stores) (USDA, ERS, 2010), suggesting an important strategy to increase the consumption of Ohio grown foods by Ohioans, is to focus on increasing the flow of these foods through the state’s distribution and retail market systems.
This research led by Jill Clark, Jeff Sharp, and Shoshannah Inwood and The Ohio State University Center for Farmland Policy Innovation is the first attempt at inventorying the existing produce retail-distribution structure to identify opportunities, barriers and the development needs associated with increasing the flow of Ohio grown fruits and vegetables to existing retailers and ultimately Ohio consumers. The report draws on their review of previous food system studies, as well as interviews OSU conducted with Ohio retailers, and a survey of produce distributors in the state. The goal of this work is to generate useful information that can identify next steps in scaling-up the connections between Ohio specialty crop producers and Ohio retail markets.
The South Euclid-Lyndhurst School District and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health released this report, From Farm to School: Changing Eating Habits One Plate at a Time in December 2011. The report summarizes the Farm to School initiative at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst School District that began in September 2010 and led to a new partnership with Red Basket Farm in Kinsman, Ohio. The school district began purchasing a variety of fruits and vegetables locally from Red Basket Farm and has introduced other related wellness activies in the district. This report shares the outcomes, successes, and challenges of this new farm to school program.
