Tell us how to improve FOOD ACCESS
🌎 How to give feedback:
🌻 Click the button "Submit your idea". You can leave comments, photos, and specific locations about your comments.
Food is one of our most basic needs and a pressing challenge for our community. This Climate Action Section focuses on ensuring all community members have access to affordable, healthy food, prioritizing local food systems that strengthen our ecosystems and economy.
Strategies to Improve FOOD ACCESS & NUTRITION
Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan
F-1: Increase production of local food
F-2: Improve healthy and sustainable food access
To ask specific questions about the Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan, please contact the Office of Environmental Quality by phone at (816) 513-3452 or by Email to OEQ.
Phases
Summarize the Feedback Received
During this phase, a comprehensive summary of the feedback will be shared with residents and City staff across multiple departments. This process ensures that community input remains central to decision-making, allowing the City to make well-informed choices that reflect the needs and priorities of its residents.
📌 Residents emphasized the importance of utilizing vacant lots for community gardens, urban farms, and food forests to increase access to fresh, healthy food while fostering community engagement. Many suggested incentivizing or mandating urban agriculture initiatives, such as providing grants, reducing zoning barriers, and offering land for food production.
📌 There was strong support for addressing systemic inequities in food access, particularly in historically underserved areas impacted by redlining. Respondents called for policies to promote racial equity, expand healthy food retailers (e.g., mobile markets, corner stores with fresh produce), and strengthen local food systems.
📌 Several responses highlighted the need to support local farmers and food producers through funding, streamlined permitting processes, and infrastructure investments. Suggestions included mini-grants for growers, tax incentives for restaurants sourcing locally, and city-level procurement of local food.
📌 Food waste reduction was another recurring theme, with calls to require participation in programs like "Too Good to Go" to divert surplus food from landfills. Respondents also advocated for removing barriers to home gardening, such as restrictions on front yard gardens and keeping chickens or goats for fresh food production.
📌 Lastly, there was a plea to support existing local initiatives like Urbavore Farm and Compost Collective, which are facing challenges due to city regulations and community opposition.