Overview of Food Policy Coalitions
Research on food policy councils, which has definitely experienced an increase in attention in recent years, still remains relatively sparse. This area of study is prime for more academic focus, particularly in the sectors of impact evaluation, social and environmental justice, and sustainability. Recent research has indeed started addressing some of these areas; however, there is still much work to be done. It is important to reiterate the words of Butterfoss and Kegler (2002) regarding the development of the Community Coalition Action Theory and the significance of the work of coalitions in the community. They state the CCAT is “based on assumptions that communities can develop the capacity to deal with their own problems; people should participate in making, adjusting, or controlling the major changes taking place in their communities; and, changes in community living that are self-imposed or self-developed have meaning and permanence that imposed changes do not have (2002, p. 158-159).” Through this research, these assertions are confronted, and FPCs are shown to be appropriate vehicles of change specific to working toward strengthening food security in the community.
Research Application
The research findings described throughout the preceding chapters helps us better
understand the strategies that FPCs are using to address community food security at the local and
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regional levels in the United States. These findings are relevant to both the public and private sectors. Governments, non-profits and the private sector have been increasingly turning to the FPC organizational model as a way to diversify planning strategies through economic
development and through the support of sustainability objectives, as well as work to better engage with the wider community; among numerous other reasons and motivations. This research has pointed to how current FPCs are perceiving their effectiveness with regard to impacting change in the community specific to food security. The amount of weight FPCs give to the significance of network building and resource pooling with effecting change was an important finding from this research that can in turn be applied as both an intervention strategy for addressing CFS and an evaluative variable for measuring effectiveness. This is particularly poignant for organizations with limited resources; often how most FPCs operate.
This research also presents the strategies that FPCs throughout the US are employing to address community food security. This research has gathered a variety of strategies from the perspective of food policy coalitions throughout the United States. While it is clear that each jurisdiction is different, subject to different regulations, there is indeed value in knowing what is being implemented in other areas. The identification of trends across jurisdictional boundaries points to the interventions that are utilized in some areas and not as appropriate in other areas.
This is beneficial for FPCs that are in their forming stages or those looking to revitalize their existing agendas. It gives these FPCs the opportunity to view the current strategies being utilized in the field as an aggregate and identify which apply to their area, as well as develop
interventions unique from this list. This saves time and resources for the FPC that may already be stretched pretty thin. They can work off a list of already established strategies without having to develop from scratch. The same concept can be applied with regard to the development of
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evaluation strategies and community engagement techniques. This research presents the techniques that FPCs are using to evaluate their success in the community. It is important for young FPCs to establish a methodology for measuring success early on. It is recommended from this research that developing indicators specific to FPC goals and objectives works best with regard to FPC perceptions of success in the community.
Next Steps for this Research
While the findings from this research study help to contribute to a better understanding of how FPCs perceive the effectiveness of their strategies for addressing issues related to
community food security, there are some limitations that can be improved upon for future studies in this area. It would be valuable for the next iteration of this research to include metrics for weighing the priority level for the strategies FPCs are engaging with. Meaning, while this study was designed in a way that did well to capture the wide variety of policy, project and educational campaigns FPCs are engaging with, the methodology falls short on its ability to weigh these activities against each other. The amount of strategies presented in policy advocacy were not even with those presented for pilot project as well as educational campaigns. Because of this, it restricted the data analysis to specifically identifying which one of the broad intervention strategies the FPC perceived to be most effective. While this is valuable and has yet to be captured in the academic literature, it would have indeed been interesting if the individual
strategies could be weighed against each other to see their related impact in the community. This would have also been useful for potentially breaking down this data quantitatively.
Another limitation exposed through the research methodology that was deployed was the notion of connecting underrepresented organizations to the specific strategies the FPCs were
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using to address CFS. While there was some useful data collected as to the organizations not represented at the table for each of the FPC respondents, based off how those data points were captured, after-the-fact, it was realized that there was no sound way to connect those missing organizational voices to the generation of policy agendas or the strategies used by the specific FPC in particular. More specifically meaning, it would have potentially been valuable to better understand the motivations behind defining CFS specific to the FPC and as they are relevant to the organizational make-up of the coalition. That level of understanding could only realistically have been achieved through a more robust case study methodology where the more in-depth responses could have been generalized across a larger sample size.
There is indeed ample room for growth in understanding in this research topic area.
While there has been much progress in the field of organizational evaluation, the Food Policy Council model still lacks warrants academic attention. The research presented in the proceeding chapters builds on this literature but there is still much work to do.
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108 APPENDICES
109 Appendix A: Informed Consent Form
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111 Appendix B: Notification Email for Member Survey
Hello,
The following information is intended to notify you of an opportunity to take part in a survey of Food Policy Coalitions (FPC) regarding strategies for addressing community food security. You are being asked to participate in this survey in order to reflect on your experiences and
knowledge as a leading member of your FPC. This survey is part of a larger research study (eIRB#00026115) that seeks to better understand the intervention strategies that support community food security objectives throughout the US. The survey is administered via the Qualtrics online portal and is completely voluntary. Completion of this survey should take no more than 15 minutes. The deadline to take this survey is July 1st, 2016.
The Principal Investigator in charge of this research study is Joseph England, with oversight by Dr. Fenda Akiwumi at the USF School of Geosciences, Department of Environmental Science and Policy. If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about this study, you may contact Joseph England at (321) 217-8736 or [email protected].
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Best,
Joseph England
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Appendix C: Notification Email for FPC Member Interview Request
Hello name of FPC member,
I would like to notify you of an opportunity to take part in a research study regarding strategies for addressing community food security. You are being asked for an interview to discuss your experience as a leading member of a Florida Food Policy Council. This interview is part of a broader research study (eIRB#00026115) that seeks to better understand the intervention strategies that support community food security objectives in the US.
More specifically, if you take part in this study, you will be asked to:
- Participate in a single 45-60 minute semi-structured interview at a locality that is most convenient for you. You will be asked to share your experiences and perceptions as a Food Policy Council member.
- The interview will be audio recorded. The information used for this study will not be identifiable. The PI, Joseph England, will have exclusive access to the recordings.
If you are interested in this project please respond so we can set up a date and time for the interview that is most convenient for you. Also, please provide contact of those on your FPC that you feel would assist with this research.
If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please contact me at (321) 217-8736 or [email protected].
Best,
Joseph England
113 Appendix D: Survey Guide
Background Information
What food policy coalition do you belong?
How long have you held a leadership role in your FPC?
What is your role/duties in your FPC?
What area/jurisdiction does your FPC focus (county, municipality(ies), region, state)? Be as specific as possible.
Is the service area considered more rural or urban or a combination of both?
How long has your FPC been in existence?
How many different organizations make up your FPC?
Has your FPC conducted a Community Food Assessment that looks at all sectors of the food
Has your FPC conducted a Community Food Assessment that looks at all sectors of the food