Urban Food Systems in Flint, Michigan: Identifying Leverage Points

Beginning in 2018, community partners and researchers have been collecting data about the history of the Flint food system, how that history led us to where we are today, and what residents hope to see in a future food system that ends food apartheid in Flint. We started with a governance analysis, and then moved to a resilience assessment and household food security analysis, mental modeling and system dynamics modeling. Each phase of the work built on what we previously learned. From the first half of the research, we identified a set of values important to Flint residents. From the second half we identified a series of leverage points, or places we can intervene to create positive change. Then we integrated what we learned to create scenarios that incorporate the values and leverage points identified by community members and partners.

Results, tools, and summaries are found on these pages. Our full datasets are also available in Open Data Flint: https://www.opendataflint.org.

Here's how the Flint community is taking action based on FLPP research results so far:

• The Community Foundation of Greater Flint (CFGF) used data on the impact of COVID-19 on transportation and food access to provide evidence required by funders and successfully secured additional funding for transportation options to grocery stores.
• CFGF funded Urgent Relief Grants for Flint organizations and pantries that deliver food directly to residents' homes during the pandemic.
• CFGF is developing new bilingual signage for Double Up Food Bucks.
• CFGF is developing digital signage to help promote Double Up Food Bucks.
• The Fair Food Network is developing a new app to help promote and more widely disperse information about assistance programs, including Double Up Food Bucks. This app is in progress and we hope to see it released soon!
• CFGF is sharing FLPP results with their Board of Trustees to inform planning for priorities for food systems grant money in the future.
• Increased transparency and communications on FLPP progress and data as an on-going process. Data are made available on our website and shared in the form of Briefing Notes and an interactive timeline.
• Project team members Joe Schipani and Renee Wallace are creating recommendations of tools that could be part of a community implementation toolkit for applying the research from this project. These recommendations will be presented in a proposal to the CFGF for funding consideration.
• Community faith leaders have reported that their learning from this project has helped them get a better idea of the “big picture” of the inequities of the food system in Flint, which is helpful in planning for the future.
• CFGF granted urgent relief funds to Holy Redeemer Church to provide ethnic food including tortillas, maseca, cilantro, avocados, jalapeños, beans, rice, etc., to the Latinx community.

As we learn, will continue to share data and outcomes here. 

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