Food Equity Roundtable

The two-year pilot of the Food Equity Roundtable has led to a comprehensive strategic plan that addresses food equity with a coordinated systemic approach. Together, as a team, the goal for the Roundtable is to implement the strategic plan, with the support of the philanthropic community and the County.

The Roundtable’s ambitious campaign to fundamentally rethink how we work towards an equitable food system and tackle chronic food insecurity in Los Angeles County is nearing the end of its two-year pilot cycle. The Roundtable published its comprehensive strategic action plan in December 2022, based on input from than 200 community-based organizations and 100-plus food system experts nationwide. The strategic plan includes clearly defined initiatives, milestones, and outcome-driven goals. It features a combination of initiatives that can be implemented in the short term while identifying policy changes to drive systematic improvement to address food insecurity among all in need.

Among its accomplishments: 

• Identified more than 50 key measures that need to be taken to improve food access and build a more resilient food system throughout L.A. County
• Determined 14 priority population segments that are disproportionately more vulnerable to food insecurity, from immigrant to transgender communities
• Identified opportunities to reduce food waste, enable food recovery, and support local and sustainable businesses in the food supply chain
• Analyzed mobility and transportation barriers to food security and reviewed best practices deployed in other regions to enhance transit access
• Explored technology and data solutions to modernize outdated food systems, such as a University of Southern California-led portal to map all food-related resources and “last-mile” support services in underserved L.A. County neighborhoods

IMPLEMENTATION

Momentum and civic support continue to grow for long-term solutions for chronic food insecurity in greater L.A., which harms nearly 1 in 4 County households. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted in February to use the strategic plan as its roadmap to improve food access for the County’s most vulnerable communities.

• The Board unanimously approved a motion to define the scope and structure for a new Office of Food Equity, a centralized unit to drive integrated solutions across all County departments, and directed County departments to identify their own commitments to supporting the plan. (You can see the Board’s motion here. )
• Led by the Annenberg Foundation, the California Community Foundation and the Weingart Foundation, L.A.’s philanthropic community continues to galvanize financial and political support for the sweeping policy recommendations in the plan.
• The Roundtable will continue meeting to identify opportunities for implementing go-to-market actions while the County finalizes its commitments to Roundtable priorities.
• Efforts are underway to launch the Healthy Food Kickstarter grant project, led by the County’s Department of Consumer and Business Affairs.  The program will distribute nearly $4M in grant funding for services and initiatives that improve access to healthy food, with a focus on historically under-resourced communities.