Using Policy to Promote Food Access in Rural Communities

The availability of quality, affordable, and accessible food is a critical issue in Kansas. As the rural food environment evolves, it is important to understand the role of policy in that evolution. With the support of the Kansas Health Foundation, Minnesota-based Public Health Law Center attorneys have been looking at state and local laws and policies in Kansas and how these laws and policies can be used to support efforts to expand access to healthy food throughout Kansas. We are working with local communities and state-level groups to figure out what would work for Kansas. For example, in our backyard – Minneapolis, MN – city officials used a licensing regulation to require healthy food options in grocery stores. This presentation talks about policies that could work best for Kansas’s communities. This includes how to support healthy food access using permits/licensing, zoning, land banks, institutional purchasing policies, and other ideas. We look at the ways communities work together to get healthy food, by assessing opportunities to expand rural grocery stores, community kitchens, community gardens, and farmers’ markets. This presentation helps participants understand how policies can be used to increase access to quality, affordable and accessible food in rural Kansas