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Updated 06.22.2010

Salad with greens, sundried tomatoes, and tofu. Image: Fir0002
Additional Resources

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The Child Nutrition Programs Briefing Room provides a central point for obtaining information about the five major domestic food assistance programs that USDA administers, exclusively or primarily serving the nutritional needs of children—the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, Summer Food Service Program, and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. The briefing room highlights research, publications, and data related to child nutrition programs.

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The American Planning Association produced a Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning in 2007 that focuses on the role planners can play in balancing the need for an efficient food system with the goals of economic vitality, public health, ecological sustainability, social equity, and cultural diversity. A nice background piece for city and county planners.

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The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) released a comprehensive report on Local Food Systems in May 2010 that draws together findings from the existing academic literature and ERS analysis. The report's five sections cover: local food definitions, characteristics of local food suppliers, demand for local food from consumers and institutions, government programs and policies affecting local food systems, and existing research on the benefits of local food systems.

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The Prevention Institute, based in Oakland, California has a number of publications focused on supporting healthy food and activity environments that summarize high-impact organizational practices and public policies.

• Recipes for Change: Healthy Food in Every Community
• Setting the Record Straight: Nutrition and Health Professionals Define Healthful Food
• Promising Strategies for Creating Healthy Eating and Active Living Environments
• Mapping the Movement for Healthy Food and Activity Environments in the United States: Organizational Snapshots

The National Collaboration on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) brings together three of the nation’s leading research funders – the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) – to address the problem of childhood obesity in America.  NCCOR accelerates progress to reduce childhood obesity in the United States by:  maximizing outcomes from research, building the capacity for research and surveillance, creating and supporting the mechanisms and infrastructure needed for research translation and dissemination, supporting evaluations.  The NCCOR website includes resources in all these areas and links to resources available from the CDC, NIH, and RWJF. 

Symposium on obesity:  Seeking solutions through partnerships.  Proceedings from a symposium hosted by the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto June 14-15, 2004. 

Healthy eating by design:  A community-driven, multi-strategic approach to address the childhood overweight epidemic in low-income communities.  A poster that provides an overview of Active Living by Design and the 5P Strategies. 

Your USDA Food Environment Atlas The United States Department of Agriculture has created a a mapping tool you can use to assemble statistics on food environment indicators in your community. For example, it can help you learn more about healthy food access, fast food spending, consumption of fruits and vegetables. The Atlas also provides a spatial overview of a community's ability to successfully access healthy food. It currently includes 90 indicators of the food environment in three broad categories-food choices, health and well-being, and community characteristics.