Convening Ideas & Actions: Creating Food Opportunities for the Future

Cleveland is a national leader in food systems innovation from our robust urban agriculture system to some of the best restaurants in the country. Yet, gaps remain in our approach. Today, nearly two out of three Clevelanders live in neighborhoods with limited access to full-service supermarkets and experience extensive inequities in economic opportunities and health status.

The Modeling the Future of Food in Your Neighborhood Study (foodNEST 2.0) works to develop strategies that can help guide decision making around efforts to make food systems in the city of Cleveland more equitable. This will require outside-of-the-box thinking to identify solutions that advance economic opportunity, food security, and nutrition equity. foodNEST 2.0 is using systems thinking through an equity lens to identify synergies in our local food system that can be adapted to fulfill the vision that a healthy and equitable food system can be a tool for moving communities from a state of surviving to thriving.

This approach requires community feedback and buy-in to develop a collective sense of where we are going and how we will get there. The goal of the “Convening Ideas & Actions: Creating Food Opportunities for the Future” is to develop a vision for our food future with a realistic sense of roadblocks and opportunities. We will use this information to identify novel solutions that can be tested and applied in the future in areas of Cleveland most burdened by our current food system dynamics.

All are welcome to the table as we deliberate and plan for food opportunities for our future. The event is free and open to the public. Scholarships will be available to support 15 Community Fellows interested in serving as a facilitator at the meeting. These are open to residents living in the following neighborhoods in Cleveland: Buckeye-Shaker, Central, Hough, and St. Clair Superior.

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