The FPN Project: 12 Years of Democracy in Action
Participatory democracy is a clunky phrase that describes what should be an easy concept: the idea that citizens can be involved in making decisions on matters that affect their lives. At the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, a paragon of participatory democracy has been operating with impressive success for 12 years. Since 2013, the Food Policy Networks (FPN) project has kept a surprisingly low profile while working diligently to create positive social change across the United States—and because success often breeds success, the project is now evolving with an enhanced mission into a new kind of network.
Since its inception, the Food Policy Networks project has been dedicated to supporting more than 300 active food policy councils in their work. From integrating results from their biennial census to hosting listening sessions during crises, FPN listened and learned from the councils about their needs. Simultaneously, the councils learned from each other, connecting and collaborating, and most importantly, building trust. The project operated in contrast to a top-down organization and is perpetually iterating and evolving. Its members’ input shapes the vision and decisions of the network to meet their needs.
Food Policy Councils Move Mountains at the Local Level
Food policy councils (FPCs) are the boots on the ground, the convener of local and state organizations working to solve urgent or insidious issues by creating programs and shaping food policy.
Operating at the local, state, tribal, and national levels, councils start work by building relationships and identifying needs within their communities. Then they plan, organize, convene, advocate, and support policies and programs that speak to those needs. For example, a council in one town may identify a need for more fresh produce in their local food banks and find a way to work with the community to create a gleaning program. A council in another region might work on legislation that provides tax breaks to farmers who donate food. A state-level council might advocate for appropriations that support local producers and provide healthier meals for school-aged children.
Real-life examples of food policy council achievements abound. The Greater Kansas City Food Policy Council effectively advocated for the reduction of the state’s grocery tax. FPCs in Montana and Ohio collaborated with their respective county governments to protect vulnerable farmland. The Pittsburgh Food Policy Council championed the creation of a food justice fund to support neighborhood food access projects. Arizona Food Systems Network advocated for funding for a farm apprenticeship program. The Los Angeles Food Policy Council established policies that support local farms, farmworkers, and healthy eating, which was successfully adopted by the Los Angeles Unified School District. (This policy was the first Good Food Purchasing Policy.)
Karen Bassarab, a program officer at the Center for a Livable Future, managed the Food Policy Networks project and says that one of greatest services provided by FPCs is that they connect food and farmers, serving as a gateway for improved policy.
“They’re beacons for their communities,” she says.
One FPN member from Wichita, Kansas, remarked that, “FPN research and best practices helped the City of Wichita create its own City and County Food and Farm Council and identify a work plan to make progress on priorities.”
The Food Policy Network Project Builds Up Food Policy Councils
Since its start in 2013, the Food Policy Networks project (FPN) has connected with more than 500 U.S. food policy councils that shape policy and effect positive change in their communities. The project has attempted to reach every FPC through a survey in order to collect data about their status, structure, relationship to government, membership, challenges and successes. The project shared the data with FPCs, researchers, and organizations through reports, webinars, and presentations. But at its heart, the project’s mission has been to provide training and assistance to FPCs to help them build capacity for their work.
Grounded in the idea that collective action is the key to change, the project’s theory of change relied upon not only building the capacity of FPCs, but also building up the knowledge and courage of food policy councils to use their civic power. The project’s goal—always—was to help FPCs to make positive change in food systems in their local, regional, and state communities. The census is only one way the project supported FPCs. The project also hosted convenings, organized communities of practice, provided training, hosted workshops and webinars, managed a listserv, produced multiple resources and maintained an online repository of toolkits, guides, reports, and other materials that councils may find useful.
Another core principle is that to make positive change on complex food system issues, collectives need the participation of a variety of people, each participating because they offer different perspectives, experiences, and knowledge.
“This has been a community-driven process guided by the councils and evolving agendas,” says Bassarab. “It’s rare in the academic space. Our funding allowed this network to grow as we all grew in our knowledge of each other.”
Anne Palmer, CLF’s director of practice, who, along with Mark Winne, initiated the FPN, acknowledges the unique support that allows the project to operate so democratically.
“We’ve been fortunate in our funding. CLF’s core funder enabled us to be responsive and creative in managing a unique and valuable network. Our project funders gave us a lot of freedom to decide what to focus on and use our imagination, and that’s unusual in an academic space,” says Palmer, and Bassarab agrees. “We were allowed to listen to what people were asking for. We combed through survey results and picked up on what the councils needed.”
Some of the most recent big initiatives taken on by the project, and informed by councils’ needs, are the community of learning and practice (COLP) for racial equity and economic justice, and a second COLP focused on regional food policy councils, and the Power of Food Forum.
The community of learning and practice operated from 2021 to 2023 and engaged 15 councils, with two members participating from each council. The work was to challenge the FPCs’ internal and external practices in order to better integrate racial equity and economic justice into their work. Many participants described this as transformative work that required—and built—trust. The COLP operated via virtual sessions and an in-person convening in Jackson, Mississippi.
"One of the first communities of practice was the network of state FPCs. The connections and group learning in that body were invaluable,” says another FPN member. “It has been years, but those of us involved still talk.”
The three-day, virtual Power of Food Forum took place on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the fall of 2021. Welcoming the 500-plus participants was U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who remarked of the FPCs that, “You and your networks stepped up to keep local food economies afloat. And you made sure the COVID aid packages work to build resilience, protect farmworkers, and upgrade our food infrastructures.”
Some of the featured projects that the councils presented included growing food sovereignty, preserving native foodways, expanding resources to urban agriculture, recruiting diverse producers, and creating jobs. Some of the featured conversations focused on allyship, restoring justice, the rural-urban divide, cultural foodways, and more. Most of the nearly 100 forum speakers shared stories and lessons learned from their own networks.
“This work is, at its heart, relational,” says Marissa Baron, FPN’s Network Director. “Food policy councils need each other—to learn from, to lean on, to feel less alone in the day-to-day work within their own communities. FPN’s role has always been to hold that space.”
FPN Growth: Expanding Capacity
As the Food Policy Networks project grew, its success and popularity began to require different forms of support. With training and assistance from the project, food policy councils matured, and today they have new opportunities and needs, different from when the project began. One such need is unifying local advocates’ voices on national policy issues. Another need is securing food policies that emphasize racial, economic, and environmental justice, led by and for the community. These goals sometimes require councils to take part in partisan activities or make political endorsements. But these activities need a flexible environment that’s comfortable with partisanship—a tough match for a university that strives for institutional neutrality.
During the Power of Food Forum, the FPN team came face to face with its significantly increased need for bookkeeping, administration, and protocol—beyond what was fair to ask of the University.
Bassarab reflects that, “As we grew in number of councils and people, we wanted to be able to compensate people for their time and engage them more—but a university isn’t always agile enough to do this.”
“The University has been moving toward externalizing its services and centralizing all functions to improve efficiency,” says Palmer. “But working closely with communities requires a different approach.”
Bassarab agrees. “Ideally, the FPN project informs research and spurs innovation, and we do this by forging partnerships with communities. And that kind of work requires a very personal, hands-on approach.”
Next Up for FPN: Independence
Now, after 12 years of learning and growing within the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, the FPN is an independent entity under a fiscal sponsor, transitioning into something more like an action network for FPCs. Over the past two years, the CLF team and trusted advisers have laid the foundation for the project’s next phase. They did this by interviewing network leaders, holding listening sessions with FPCs, and conducting a survey of listserv members. Building on their responses, the team prioritized four areas to meet the future needs of FPCs: policy support, organization and leadership capacity, convening, and resource generation.
“Councils have more interest in policy and advocacy and more interest in learning how to talk with legislators and connect with them,” says Bassarab. “The newly independent FPN will be able to support councils in a way that we couldn’t before, with grants and fundraising. There will be more focus on visibility, storytelling, impact, and awareness. We didn’t do a lot of promotion before, and this move will elevate its presence.”
Baron believes that “Stepping into independence lets us [hold space for councils] even more closely and responsively. I am grateful for every person who has built this network into what it is, and excited for how we grow to meet what's ahead for councils."
“This is a move toward democracy,” says Palmer. “How do you get more participation? Ensure people’s voices are heard. Today, so many more councils are involved in advocacy and in contact with legislators and public officials, at all levels. Investing in civic engagement at the local, state, and regional levels provides a productive space for democracy.”