Access to food in urban communities : Accès aux aliments dans les communautés urbaines

Discussion Paper #3: Access to Food in Urban Communities Executive Summary The purpose of this discussion paper is to highlight the barriers to food sovereignty for urban residents and provide policy solutions to those barriers. [...] We focus on three action areas: 1) economic barriers to healthy food and reliance on charitable providers for low-income populations; 2) limitations to urban food production; 3) the inability for many population groups to connect with local food sources and information. [...] Though not confined entirely to cities, poverty and the inability to purchase and prepare healthy food is a serious issue that policy makers continually face, and any discussion of food sovereignty must recognize and target these contributing factors. [...] The discussion of policies to improve food access for populations in urban communities is organized around four key issues in this paper: i) economic barriers to food access for urban populations; ii) the limited opportunities for urban agriculture; iii) the inability for many population groups to connect with local food sources and information; iv) the lack of educational programs to enable peopl [...] Because the experience of asking for food is undignified and shames those who are hungry, we suggest an alternative to the predominant response to hunger and food insecurity by proposing an urban foodscape that is equitable and accessible to all, is dignified and empowering, and promotes high nutritional standards.