LA County Food Equity Roundtable Releases Action Plan to Transform Region’s Disconnected Food System

LOS ANGELES — Recognizing that food insecurity among Los Angeles County residents has long been at a crisis level — and has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — the Los Angeles County Food Equity Roundtable Dec. 5 issued an aggressive action plan for transforming the region’s disconnected food system.   

USC researchers found that nearly one in four LA County households has experienced an instance of food insecurity in the past year. That means that millions of residents have lacked reliable access to sufficient food. And increasing economic uncertainty continues to heighten the risk of food insecurity, especially for the region’s under-resourced communities. Additionally, the food supply is susceptible to inflation and access gaps due to a changing climate and decades of market consolidation, which has exacerbated the impact on underserved populations already struggling to afford food.

The Food Equity Roundtable is a partnership funded by the Annenberg Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, and the California Community Foundation, and co-chaired with LA County.

The Roundtable has identified measures to improve food access and build a more resilient food supply throughout L.A. County. More than 200 leaders from the worlds of government, academia, community-based advocacy, business, and agriculture contributed to the blueprint.

The plan proposes comprehensive and concrete steps to end food and nutrition insecurity in LA County, by:

• improving the affordability of healthy foods
• increasing the equitable access to healthy foods
• building market demand and consumption of healthy food, and
• supporting sustainability and resilience in food systems and supply chains

Food insecurity — considered a lack of consistent access to sufficient food — is about more than hunger. Chronic worry about putting food on the table is linked to overall poor nutrition, mental health challenges, and increased risk for diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Food insecurity also has a broad, debilitating social impact, from reduced productivity to diminished academic performance.   

Due to systemic biases and injustices, Latino and Black households in LA County report higher rates of than white households. The plan outlines 14 priority population segments in Los Angeles County that are most vulnerable to food insecurity, from immigrant families to transgender individuals:

• The majority of LA County residents who experienced food insecurity in 2021 and 2022 were 18-40 years old, Latino, and/or low-income.
• About 4 in 10 food-insecure households include children.
• Poverty remains the number one cause of food insecurity, with some 35% of households below the federal poverty line reporting chronic struggles with putting food on the table.

The current food system also places tremendous stress on the environment, with industrial farming practices and food waste contributing to climate change, which in turn diminishes agricultural productivity, further affecting access and affordability.

The Roundtable plan identifies six objectives to create a healthier, more equitable, and more resilient food system: 

1. Modernize the food system
2. Build a smart and connected food system
3. Adopt a dignity of service approach to remove stigma and shame associated with benefits enrollment
4. Elevate food to the status and importance of medicine
5. Bolster nutrition education
6. Champion a whole-person approach

The goal: instituting a variety of whole-system approaches that will immediately improve food access, while also mitigating environmental threats to the food supply and create opportunities for community connection and wealth-building. 

Details: Read the report here: https://lacountyfoodequityroundtable.org/