A FRESH future for Central Texas starts here.
The time to reimagine our food system is now.
The Central Texas Food System Initiative
Barriers to local food production, processing, and distribution, along with limited affordability and access to retailers, contribute to reduced food access and thus, increased reliance on charitable food services such as food pantries. Sustainable solutions to increase food access require upstream strategies that improve the local food system.
We must look at the food system through a regional lens to truly address the scope, strengths, and challenges that exist within it. As rising housing costs and gentrification impact where people move and live, it is essential to work across county lines to ensure the food system is robust and working for all.
We started this work in 2022 and are currently collaborating with local leaders in Bastrop, Bell, Burnet, Hays, McLennan, Travis, and Williamson counties, with plans to expand our engagement throughout our 21-county service area. This initiative has the following goals: creating a shared measurement system, convening partners, elevating community voice, and informing and generating research.
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With the goal of providing insights into our regional food system, the Central Texas Food System Dashboard is one element of the Central Texas Food System Initiative. It houses key food system indicators, organized by food system sector, to provide a snapshot of the current state of the Central Texas regional food system and allow for collective monitoring and evaluation of food system planning and initiatives. Community leaders, community members, and organizations wanting to engage in food system work will also find a wealth of resources to deepen their knowledge of food systems.
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The Central Texas Food System Initiative supports collaborative efforts to build a FRESH future. We leverage a process that aims to engage the full community, including those most impacted by food access barriers; people who produce, prepare, distribute, serve, and eat food; and involving the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.
The start of the Central Texas Food System Initiative benefitted from the invaluable guidance of a Dashboard Advisory Group from 2022-2024, which helped to identify big-picture priorities, outline goals and strategies across the Central Texas region, and bring key stakeholders to the table across public and private sectors to address and solve specific food system issues.
In 2025, we will continue to expand our engagement throughout our 21-county service area, moving towards a healthier and more sustainable food system throughout our region—a system that works for all—through the development of a Central Texas Regional Food System Council. This Council will be comprised of food system stakeholders across multiple counties and industries. To support the work of the Council, we will be reimagining the Advisory Group.
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Community voice and perspectives inform policy and advocacy priorities, investment of resources, strategic partnerships, and initiatives that address both downstream charitable solutions and upstream food system solutions.
The Central Texas Food System Initiative elevates community voice by incorporating experiences and perspectives of those most impacted by food insecurity into decision-making using data collected through the Food Access Community Needs Assessments (CNAs). Rooted in mixed-methods participatory research, CNAs employ surveys, focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and community convenings to elevate the lived experiences of those most affected by food access barriers. CNAs also convene partners by mobilizing local leaders, organizations, and stakeholders across various sectors, such as education, housing, and law enforcement, to discuss and take action on food access and food system challenges. Finally, we are exploring how to most effectively include community members in working groups that develop targeted food system solutions through our emerging Regional Food System Council.
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The Central Texas Food System Initiative centralizes information about food system research in Central Texas, allowing Central Texas Food Bank to lead or work with university partners to fill in local data gaps and generate new research studies that inform and evaluate food system planning and initiatives.
As the largest hunger relief organization in Central Texas, the Central Texas Food Bank is committed to ensuring that all of our neighbors have access to nutritious food. This can be accomplished in two ways: by providing immediate access to nutritious food and by providing the resources necessary for Central Texans to access food on their own.
The FRESH acronym stands for the Central Texas Food Bank’s commitment to strategies, policies, and initiatives that are responsive to a rapidly changing food access landscape:
FOOD: Increasing access to healthy and nutritious food for all.
RESEARCH: Investing in research to inform innovative solutions and guide impactful investments.
ECONOMIC STABILITY: Enhancing household economic stability through workforce training and support for economic growth and development.
SUSTAINABILITY: Advancing durable, scalable solutions that prioritize long-term impact and the efficient use of resources.
HEALTH: Promoting optimal health outcomes for all our neighbors.
The FRESH approach leverages local data to drive improvement. The Central Texas Food System Initiative aims to reimagine the food system across our region, under the leadership of Central Texas Food Bank in partnership with the City of Austin Office of Climate Action and Resilience (formerly the Office of Sustainability) and other key stakeholders across Central Texas’ 21 counties: Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Coryell, Falls, Fayette, Freestone, Gillespie, Hays, Lampasas, Lee, Limestone, Llano, McLennan, Milam, Mills, San Saba, Travis, and Williamson.
Timeline: Central Texas Food System Initiative
2018
The Central Texas Food System Initiative was born out of a local effort to develop a regional food system planning process. Although a regional planning effort did not come to fruition at that time, the efforts resulted in a recommendation to compile and centralize food system data to identify gaps and to inform the food planning process.
2021
The City of Austin Office of Climate Action and Resilience contracted New Venture Advisors (NVA) to develop a Metrics Report and Action Plan.
2022
After the initial release of NVA’s report, the Office of Climate Action and Resilience held a Data Aggregation Summit in May to convene key stakeholders and discuss the project work plan. Although the project concept was well-received, next steps for the project remained uncertain, including who would take on project leadership.
In October, Central Texas Food Bank assumed leadership as the backbone organization for the Central Texas Food System Initiative with the financial support of the City of Austin Office of Climate Action and Resilience. The initial focus of the Initiative was on data aggregation.
2023
In April, Central Texas Food Bank carried forward the work of the Central Texas Foodshed Collaborative by forming a regional Dashboard Advisory Group and building a website that houses key food system data and metrics.
At that time, this work began to be phased into setting regional food system priorities and goals, developing a shared measurement system and targets for these goals, and convening cross-sector working groups to address these priorities.
2024
In October, the Dashboard was updated to include data from all 21 counties in Central Texas.
The first iteration of the Dashboard Advisory Group met for the final time in October as we shifted to focusing on the development of a Central Texas Regional Food System Council, which will involve many of the same organizations represented on the initial Dashboard Advisory Group. We thank all its members for their passion, knowledge, and hard work to reclaim health, sustainability, and fairness through food. This dashboard would not have been possible without their support (listed in the order in which they appear below): Dr. Tracy Ayrhart, Vice President of Research + Strategic Partnerships, Central Texas Food Bank; Simone Benz, Policy and Advocacy Director, Sustainable Food Center; Mia Burger, Research Manager, Central Texas Food Bank; Matthew Gonzales, Executive Director, Hays County Health Department; Dr. Laura Gougeon, Director of Research, Central Texas Food Bank; Dorothy Light, Community Health Connect Director, United Way for Greater Austin; Emily McCabe, Community Outreach Specialist, Hays County Health Department; Edwin Marty, Food Policy Manager, City of Austin, Office of Climate Action and Resilience; Jackie May, CHW, Bastrop County Cares; Zeke Morgan, Director of Health Initiatives, Prosper Waco; Dr. Natalie Poulos, Assistant Professor, The University of Texas at Austin; Dr. Jeremy Rhodes, Senior Director of Data & Research, Prosper Waco; Nicole Thompson, Senior Grants Manager, Sustainable Food Center; Krissy Voutas, AmeriCorps VISTA, Bastrop County Cares; Bill Wilson, Policy and Planning Manager, Travis County Planning & Budget Office; and Valerie Zapien, Healthy Williamson County Coalition Coordinator.
2025
In January, we began convening a Council Development Group to build the foundation for the Regional Food System Council, which will launch in October.
