Resident Food Equity Advisors Program
The Resident Food Equity Advisors program was a resident leadership and engagement initiative focused on creating an equitable community food system. The Resident Food Equity Advisors (RFEA) were residents who helped shape the City’s food related plans and programs through a collaborative and inclusive engagement process. The Advisors met monthly to share their experience and knowledge, learn about existing food programs in Salt Lake City, and develop solutions that build on the diverse strengths of their communities.
The Final Report
Key Ideas
- Put people first and prioritize voices from underrepresented and underserved communities.
- Create ongoing leadership opportunities for residents to help shape SLC’s food policy agenda.
- Acknowledge and address the structural causes of food inequity and injustice, including the role of past and current policy related to housing, zoning, transportation, and economic development.
- Support holistic solutions that provide equitable and reliable access to fresh, healthy, affordable, and relevant food – including the ability to grow food.
- Recognize that “normal food” means something different for everyone and that food access solutions must be flexible enough to reflect that.
- Advance solutions that reduce stigma and cultivate dignity and self-determination.
- Prioritize food planning and investments in historically marginalized communities, building equitable food solutions that reflect the diverse cultures, strengths, opportunities, and needs of SLC neighborhoods.
Recommendations
- Refine and initiate an equitable community survey supporting an equitable food assessment + action plan
- Facilitate a joint Mayor-Council Food Equity Resolution
- Launch a SLC based food equity microgrant pilot program
- Connect with Community Individuals and Organizations Identified as Community Assets
- Establish a citywide law restricting the density and proximity of fast food – drive through restaurants
- Develop a Salt Lake City healthy small markets program
- Implement insights meant to advance a Fresh Food Academy
- Improve accessible, relevant and dignified food choices through Client Choice Pantries and vouchers
- Grow food and orchards with Salt Lake City Parks, Neighborhoods and Individuals
Thoughts From Advisors
“The Resident Food Equity Advisory (RFEA) program has been a great platform empowering local residents to have their voices heard. I felt heard when I saw Taro Leaves at my local Lucky grocery store! I look forward to the day I see a Food Oasis in safe streets on the West Side of Salt Lake City offering healthy restaurant food options” – Lisia Santini, 2021 SLC Resident Food Equity Advisor
“I participated in this program because food has meant so much to me, from my mother’s culturally authentic food to my own personal wellbeing. Access to nutritional, culturally reflective, and affordable food is a determinant factor in a person’s quality of life. We had the opportunity to initiate the discussion and produce a report that captured many of our thoughts, emotions, and social intersections therein; however, this is only the beginning because a tree is only as good as its fruit, and I hope the seeds of such fruit produce an entire forest! Take the report and build off from it, critique it, or add to it, just don’t forget about it.” – Cristobal M. Villegas Jr., 2020-21 SLC Resident Food Equity Advisor
More About the Program
The RFEA program was part of an overall effort by the Sustainability Department to shift the way policy and programs are developed to emphasize co-development of solutions with residents. The goal is to advance solutions that reflect the local knowledge, lived experience, and diverse priorities of residents whose daily lives have been impacted by structural inequities in the food system. Salt Lake City’s RFEA program was inspired by similar programs in Baltimore, DC, and New Haven.
The 2020-24 RFEA program was funded in part by a grant from Healthy Babies Bright Futures and the Mayors Innovation Project
Salt Lake City and the Sustainability Department would like to thank the following Resident Food Equity Advisors for the time and effort they invested in this program and for helping to create a more equitable food system for all SLC residents: Carol Davis, Jennifer Garza, Laura Harper, Zana Jokic, Jodi Key, Nora Lang, Ivoni Nash, Lisia Satini, Eugene Simpson, Jessica Thompson, Cristobal Villegas, Tamara White, and John Wilkes.