Community Food Security in the United States: A Survey of the Scientific Literature

The purpose of this report is to document and synthesize research on community food security (CFS) in the United States. It builds on the 2009 Center for a Livable Future (CLF) food security–focused report Community Food Security in United States Cities: A Survey of the Relevant Scientific Literature (Haering and Syed, 2009). Since the publication of the 2009 report, CFS has evolved as both a concept and a framework for intervention. This report describes the path to conceptual independence and reviews the literature on CFS history, definitions, theories and frameworks, measurement, magnitude and predictors, the consequences of low community food security, the connection to food policy councils, and evaluations of CFS interventions conducted in the United States. The majority of research cited in this report is from peer-reviewed publications. It also references research conducted by practitioners but not published in scientific journals, and we acknowledge the quality of such resources. Additional reference materials are outlined in Appendix B. To accommodate readers’ unique informational interests and needs, each chapter is written as a stand-alone reference on a given CFS topic.