Enjoy food fresh from the local farm. Buy directly from family farmers, and encourage your local grocery stores and restaurants to do the same. To find local food sources, visit localharvest.org and sustainabletable.org. Also, see pp. of this handbook for a list of local farmers’ markets hours and locations.
Grow your own. Start a home garden, join a community garden, or volunteer at a school garden project. For gardening tips and to get connected to local projects, visit: celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/garden/index.html.
Vote your values with your dollar (and fork!) All of our consumption, investments, and charity make a huge impact. Find out where your bank, business, or pension invests, and talk with them about choices that promote the health of workers and the earth. Learn more at socialinvest.org.
Eat a sustainable, whole-foods diet. Support farmers raising produce and animals sustainably. In the process, eschew the factory farming that pollutes our earth, water, and air. Learn more about organic foods at organicconsumers.org. Find meat raised sustainably at eatwellguide.org.
Support fair trade products and workers’ rights. Fair trade ensures farmers get a fair price. We can now buy fair trade coffee, tea, fruit, and more. Help bring fair trade into our local restaurants, hospitals, and schools. Find out more at transfairusa.org.
Transform the buying power of your community. We are all a part of institutions—churches, hospitals, workplaces, schools, city councils—that we can encourage to make purchases based on shared values. To find out more about bringing fresh, local and organic food into your school or other institution, visit foodsecurity.org.
Fight hunger at its source. Hunger in America is a devastating social problem that is unlikely to go away soon. Donate to programs that feed the hungry or help them become more self-reliant. Volunteer or grow produce for your local food bank or soup kitchen. Visit lacehh.org.
Community Food Security Coalition Mission Statement
The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) is dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times. We seek to develop self-reliance among all communities in obtaining their food and to create a system of growing, manufacturing, processing, making available, and selling food that is regionally based and grounded in the principles of justice, democracy, and sustainability.