Austin-Travis County developing food plan to address access, sustainability

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The City of Austin and Travis County are inching closer toward developing a comprehensive regional food plan, an initiative only a small handful of communities nationwide have tackled.

Austin City Council discussed the item during a work session Tuesday, led by a presentation from Edwin Marty, food policy manager with the city's Office of Sustainability. The plan is two years in the making and outlines the vision and policy goals for the next five years.

Only about a dozen communities across the country have developed a food plan, Marty added.

Key focus areas of the food plan center around preserving farmland in Travis County, supporting local agricultural production, improving access to nutritionally dense food and expanding food sustainability initiatives.

Here in Austin, Marty said approximately 1.24 million pounds of food is wasted each day in Austin, while only 0.06% of food consumed in Travis County is produced locally. Travis County's food insecurity rate clocks in at 14.4% of its population, topping the national average of 12.8%.

The draft food plan's development process involved more than 3,600 participants. The plan outlined nine goals and 62 strategies toward remedying pervasive food and agricultural access concerns, per documents:

Austin-Travis County Food Plan Goals

• Land access and use: Increase community food production, maintain agricultural lands and elevate the volume of farmland "dedicated to regenerative food production long-term" in Austin and Travis County
• Land ownership: Expanding access and stewardship of land dedicated to regenerative food production; goal is to increase number of farms in Austin-Travis County "that are owned by economically disadvantaged farmers and ranchers"
• Bettering farm workers and food workers' livelihoods: Building out a safety net, outlining career pathways and promoting training opportunities that offer advancement across the local food system
• Preparedness measures: Create a "resilient, inclusive, and accessible" emergency food provisions system to help all residents access nutritious and "culturally appropriate" food amid disasters and emergencies
• Build up sustainable local supply chains: Increase volume of institutional menus sourced locally
• Expanded access: Bolster nutritious and culturally relevant food access in food distribution programs, food retail locations across Austin-Travis County, with specific attention on those with barriers to food access (proximity, mobility, income and availability)
• Food recovery efforts: Mitigate the amount of surplus food and non-edible food waste to "support a circular food economy"
• Improve awareness of pro-climate, pro-health foods: Highlight benefits of foods that "nourish our bodies and reduce the overall environmental impact of our food system while addressing barriers to access"
• Empower residents, workers: Create community education and food system infrastructure to help implement the food plan via more funding access, data collection work, community collaborations and participation in local food system

Travis County Commissioners Court will host a work session on the draft food plan Aug. 8, with a voting session on the plan poised for later next month. Under the current timeline, Austin City Council is expected to vote on and adopt the food plan at its Aug. 29 meeting.

The complete draft plan is available online.