Seeding Insights and Nourishing Change: a Case for Participatory Evaluation in Place-Based Community Food Systems

In the United States, achieving equitable food security requires innovative system-level solutions that address complex intersecting factors. Food insecurity is intricately connected to poverty and access to food, and has short- and long-term impacts on individual health, quality of life, and healthcare costs. Fostering food security demands innovation: new collaborations, approaches, and fresh measurement models that can address food insecurity at a systems level. Through a sophisticated place-based approach, Full Lives is a complex but promising food security community impact grantmaking strategy that leverages the resources of different partners, organizations, and components of the food supply within a concentrated geographical area. Furthermore, transformation of a community’s food system requires a combination of technical knowledge and authentic community engagement in order to effectively yield and measure community change. This case study provides an in-depth look at: How grant makers can work in partnership with a diverse set of non-profit organizations in developing solutions;Co-creation of a community engaged food security program evaluation characterized by shared measurement of community-level indicators;Strengths, challenges and limitations of a community-engaged approach to food security program evaluation.