Unlike other nonprofits who solely work on policy, we focus our expertise on the California Food Policy Council so they can galvanize their communities at the grassroots level in California to drive change from the people up through their elected officials and decision makers. Roots of Change serves as the California Food Policy Council’s nonprofit backbone organization, providing strategic direction, analysis, and core support for this statewide body dedicated to improving California’s food and farming.
In 2010-11, Roots of Change pursued an emerging recommendation from the Health in All Policies Task Force to establish a statewide food policy council. We catalyzed efforts to establish the California Food Policy Council after convening a group of 50 stakeholders in a meeting, including Secretary Ross of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and Secretary Dooley of the California Health and Human Services Agency.
Roots of Change serves as the backbone organization for this collective impact effort, which is beginning to engage local health departments and other external stakeholders in its food and farming policy efforts. The California Food Policy Council is comprised of 28 ratified members (as of August 2015):
- Ashland Cherryland Food Policy Council [c]
- Berkeley Food Policy Council [a]
- Central Coast Healthy Food Access Committee [c]
- Community Food Council for Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Lands [a]
- Food Policy Advisory Council serving San Bernardino County [a]
- Growing Local (Shasta) [c]
- Humboldt Food Policy Council [a]
- Kern Food Policy Council [a]
- Long Beach Fresh [a]
- Los Angeles Food Policy Council [c]
- Nevada Food Policy Council [c]
- Marin Food Policy Council [a]
- Mendocino Food Policy Council [a]
- North County Food Policy Council (San Diego) [a]
- Oakland Food Policy Council [a]
- Orange County Food Access Coalition [a]
- Plumas-Sierra Community Food Council [a]
- Richmond Food Policy Council [c]
- Riverside Food Systems Alliance [c]
- Sacramento Food Policy Council [a]
- San Francisco Food Security Task Force [a]
- San Francisco Urban Ag Alliance [a]
- San Diego Food Systems Alliance [c]
- San Luis Obispo County Food System Coalition [c]
- San Mateo Food System Alliance [a]
- Santa Barbara Food Alliance [c]
- Solano County Food Policy Council [a]
- Yolo Ag and Food Alliance [c]
- Tehama County Community Food Alliance [c]
Click to learn more about the CAFPC and its current projects.
Legend: [c] = CAFPC Collaborating Member, [a] = CAFPC Advocating Member
CAFPC – Model Policies and Activities
The CAFPC “Activity Matrix” was developed as a tool for Food Policy Councils and Food System Alliances to share best practices and model policies and learn from each other. The Matrix also serves as a tool for identifying areas of activity that are ripe for collaboration across councils and regions, and with additional partners, especially local health departments and government agencies that have mutual goals and complimentary expertise and resources. The Matrix was developed through a series of interviews with members from each council, who were then given an opportunity to review the written document for accuracy.
Click here to learn more about FPC model policies and activities, and to download the CAFPC Activity Matrix.