Get Fresh! Food access, food justice and collective action in Fort Greene & Clinton Hill is a hyper-local Community Food Assessment (CFA) released in 2011 and updated in 2012.  We researched and created the report in collaboration with local residents and food advocates to obtain a `snapshot’ of the community’s local food system, including access, retail inventory, shopping habits, resident needs and more. The CFA was driven by the desire to build a baseline understanding of issues that impact fresh, affordable food access in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, not only to improve upon Myrtle Eats Fresh initiatives, but also so that other organizations and groups in the community could utilize this research to build and strengthen their own food access programs.

The Community Food Assessment led to the formation of the Fort Greene / Clinton Hill Community Food Council, and has inspired projects like “How to Shop Healthy on a Budget ” shopping tours, food drives that keep donations in our community, teaching  community gardeners how to weigh their harvest and input their data into a city-wide Harvest Count Map, and more!

Methodology

• 23 interviews (health professionals, citywide food advocates, emergency food pantry organizers and others)
• 266 resident surveys (both in-person and online)
• 7 focus groups (a diverse selection of residents,  parent-teacher associations, emergency food pantry clients and more)
• 52 local food retail assessment surveys completed

If you would like to learn more about conducting a Community Food Assessment, visit these sites:

• City Harvest Healthy Neighborhoods
• USDA Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit

Project Funders