Community Health
Identifying the intersections between healthy food access and community health
Working Group Goal
Use our network of community health organizations and local food councils to raise awareness of the intersections between healthy food access, clinical health, and community wellness.
Through this work, we hope to increase healthy food access for all across North Carolina.
Priorities
The Intersections Around Community Health working group is working to support the North Carolina State Improvement Plan and the Community Health Assessment (CHA) by developing ways that the North Carolina Local Food Council (NCLFC) can help local food councils’ connect to this process in their own communities in support of access to local healthy foods.
Currently, we are developing a question bank as a framework for Community Health Assessments around local and healthy food access. We are primarily focusing on limited access to healthy foods as relevant to community health. By contributing to the Community Health Assessment questions and planning, we are establishing the connection between food access and overall community health.
In the future, we plan to further engage the public to conduct research on food councils, general and cultural food access, impacts on food systems, and overall community health.
Resources
Community Health Assessment and Improvement Toolkit
from the North Carolina Institute for Public Health
Community Food Snapshot
from Community Food Strategies
Healthy North Carolina Report 2030: A Path Toward Health
from the North Carolina Institute of Medicine and the NC Department of Health and Human Services
Baseline Food System Assessments and Action Plans
from Community Food Strategies
