Food Systems
Strategies for Food Systems
Strategy 1:
Increase availability of healthy food retail, including mobile vendors, farmers’ markets, corner/ country stores, and grocery stores.
Strategy 2:
Encourage participation in community, home, school, and child care gardens.
Strategy 3:
Start and expand Farm to School, Farm to Child Care, Farm to Worksite programs
Strategy 4:
Support the implementation and promotion of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).
Strategy 5:
Encourage the use of farmers' market with SNAP and WIC access at key community outlets
Resources for Food Systems
Displaying the most recent 10 of 32 total resources.
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Summer Lunch Buddies Social Media Toolkit 2018
Posted on May 16, 2018
The Summer Lunch Buddies Social Media Toolkit was developed to promote the Summer Food Service Program across Arizona. This toolkit contains suggested posts for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This kit also contains talking points and promotional information.
Summer Lunch Buddies Toolkit 2018
Posted on May 1, 2018
The Summer Lunch Buddies Toolkit was developed to promote the Summer Food Service Program across Arizona. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Child Nutrition Program established to ensure that low-income children, ages 18 and younger, continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. Free meals, that meet Federal nutrition guidelines, are provided to all children at approved SFSP sites in areas with significant concentrations of low-income children by schools, private non-profits and local or county governments. The SFSP is administered at the State level by the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). Food sites are located throughout Arizona. Sites provide FREE meals to children, ages 18 and younger, during approved meal service times and dates. Some sites may also offer adult meals at a discounted price.
Fresh Pick Four Seasons
Posted on January 23, 2018
The primary purpose of the toolkit is to provide marketing collateral Fresh Pick, farmers markets - local flavor, family fun. In this toolkit you will find materials for all four Arizona seasons.
Eat in Season Flyers
Posted on November 14, 2017
Use these guides to find which fruits and vegetables are in season in Arizona. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall are all included in this zipped file.
Healthy Starts Here - Healthy Retail Toolkit
Posted on November 8, 2017
The primary purpose of the toolkit is to provide marketing collateral for healthy food products being sold in retail stores of all sizes. The toolkit uses USDA’s recommendations on how to translate the Dietary Guidelines for Americans into key consumer messages. Some tips to highlight Be Inclusive (all forms of food), Encourage personalization, Empower change (positive, action-oriented steps). The subheading of the toolkit, Small Steps to Healthy Habits, drives this idea home.
Accepting SNAP Benefits at Your Farmers' Market or Market Booth - A How-To Toolkit
Posted on March 4, 2016
This toolkit has been developed in order to assist market vendors, managers, volunteers and customers in offering a successful “SNAP at the Market” program! We want to provide clear information about what accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)/Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) entails, how it can benefit the market, vendors and customers, and what everyone involved will be asked to do. Inside you will learn how to accept SNAP/EBT (formerly known as food stamps), where to get point of sale equipment, which foods are SNAP eligible, and more. This will help ensure that everyone at the market has up-to-date information to make the program work well. This guide is intended to be an ongoing resource for you. There is space along the inside margin of each page for you to take notes or make comments as you go along.
ADHS School Garden Program
Posted on February 25, 2016
The goal of the ADHS School Garden Program is to enable fresh produce to be safely served in school cafeterias from their on-site school garden. The program resources will help school gardens meet the requirements to be an approved source, as required in the Arizona Food Code.
Arizona Master Gardener Program and Manual
Posted on February 25, 2016
The Arizona Master Gardeners are university-trained volunteers who serve as community educators. They work with the University of Arizona providing research based information on environmentally responsible gardening and landscaping to the public. Training, resources, and local technical assistance are all available. The printed version of the new Arizona Master Gardener Manual forms the core of the curriculum for the successful and highly regarded Master Gardener volunteer program.
Banking on Health: Improving Healthy Beverage & Nutrition Standards in Food Banks
Posted on February 25, 2016
This fact sheet provides an overview of the role of food banks and how they operate. It also describes why it’s important to develop guidelines for the nutritional quality of foods and beverages served at food banks, and it outlines common elements of strong healthy beverage and nutrition standards.
Calculating Selling Area for Healthy Retail: A Fact Sheet about Improving Access to Healthy Food
Posted on February 25, 2016
This tool is designed to explain how to measure the total selling area of a store, both floor area and shelf space, as well as calculate the total percentage of selling area devoted to a particular type of product like produce or staple foods.
Key Contacts for Food Systems
Training Links for Food Systems
Healthy Starts Here - Healthy Retail Toolkit Webinar
This webinar will provide SNAP-Ed Local Implementing Agencies and Collaborative Partners with an overview of Healthy Starts Here components.
Video
Fresh Pick - Farmers Market Toolkit Webinar
This webinar will provide SNAP-Ed Local Implementing Agencies and Collaborative Partners with an overview of Fresh Pick components.
Video
Evidence-Based Requirements
Learn about the USDA's evidence-base requirement, AzNN's evidence-base requirement, and how to submit interventions for inclusion within the AzNN program.
Video
Seeding the City: Promoting Urban Agriculture
Urban agriculture – including home gardens, community gardens, and urban farms – can help improve residents’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables, physical activity, and educational and entrepreneurial opportunities. While the idea of promoting urban agriculture is gaining mainstream acceptance, tricky questions often crop up: should sales be allowed? Should growing practices be regulated? What kinds of requirements for soil testing are necessary? Do ADA standards apply to urban agriculture? And what about all those live critters, like bees and chickens? This training includes practical advice and model land use strategies to support and protect urban agriculture.
Video
Growing Healthier Schools: Bringing Agriculture into Classrooms, Cafeterias & Schoolyards
Giving students the opportunity to learn about and interact with agriculture is a great way to contribute to a healthier food environment at school. This training explores policy, systems, and environmental strategies that can help to reduce childhood obesity by improving the food landscape on campus, including: federal school food guidelines; program and legal considerations when starting a school garden; and best practices in farm-to-school activities from an Arizona school district.
Video
Liability 101: Understanding & Overcoming Common Obstacles
Fear of liability is one of the most common obstacles that communities encounter as they adopt and implement new strategies to improve public health. In this session, we describe why this fear arises, debunk myths about liability, provide an overview of the legal realities around liability, and provide concrete recommendations and approaches to overcome this barrier.
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Farmer's Markets & Produce Carts: Fresh Food Pops Up
Farmers’ markets and mobile produce vending offer “pop-up” approaches to improving access to healthy food. This training covers some of the unique benefits of these strategies, and provides guidance for crafting right-sized policies that encourage and protect them. Participants will learn: 1) The health, economic, and community benefits of farmers’ markets and produce carts; 2) The roles of local government in promoting successful farmers’ markets and produce carts, including market research and business assistance; 3) Model zoning and permitting strategies to promote and expand farmers’ markets and produce carts; 4) Requiring or incentivizing the acceptance of SNAP and; 5) Case studies of successful farmers’ markets and mobile vending policy implementation.
Video
Eight Elements of a Strong Policy
Learn how to craft sustainable public health policy that supports healthier environments by defining the problem, finding policy solutions that work and locating resources for help. Having a clear understanding of the legal and policy context for any public health effort is critical for everyone working to create lasting, meaningful change. Public health has experienced a seismic shift in how policy is viewed in prevention efforts. What can communities do to ensure that public health policy creates healthy environments?
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