Understanding Food Insecurity in Nevada: An Assessment of Food Policy Councils and Their Impacts

This project analyzes food policy councils (FPCs) as new body of stakeholders developing solutions to food system failures in the modern food system. Focusing on the case study of Nevada, this thesis evaluates FPCs and other food system actor’s role in shaping food policy in Nevada, primarily, in alleviating food insecurity in comparison to more traditional interventions. Nevada is a geographically and demographically diverse state that places great pressure on its resources to achieve food security in both urban and rural areas. Survey data was collected from Nevada’s three FPCs, multiple food banks, and other key stakeholders in the food system to generate qualitative data and empirical evidence on the key characteristics of these organizations, and barriers hindering success. The collected data was organized into three categories of successfulness of FPCs, barriers to food policy and urban and rural trends. Through this organization, I was able to discern some barriers and identify potential opportunities to improve the policy conditions and implementation of FPCs in Nevada, which was put into context with additional research. The purpose of my research was to fill the gap in research done specifically on Nevada’s FPCs and organizations involved in food policy on a state level. I offered two recommendations based on my research to increase food policy actor’s collaboration and for Nevada FPCs to better achieve past cited potentials of other FPCs in the United States