CFJ Projects

Projects at the Center for Food & Justice include the following. Click on the images to learn more about each project.

Farm to School

Farm to School programs connect schools with local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing health and nutrition education opportunities that will last a lifetime, and supporting local small farmers. To learn more about CIF's farm to school work click here.

Project CAFE (Community Action on Food Environments)

Project CAFE is working to create environmental and policy changes that will make healthy and affordable foods accessible. With roots in three Los Angeles neighborhoods, CAFE participants are identifying disparities in food access and implementing community-driven strategies. By improving access to health-promoting foods, CAFE aims to improve nutrition environments and create healthy schools and communities. Learn more.

Los Angeles Unified School District Programs

CFJ's work in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has included promoting school gardens, establishing farm-to-classroom connections, and working with coalitions to improve school food and reduce junk food sales on campus. Learn more.

Farm to Hospital

Linking local farms and hospitals can improve the freshness, quality, and nutritional value of hospital food and facilitate health education and nutrition promotion strategies while opening a new institutional market to small farmers. CFJ has been working to promote the farm to hospital model and implement pilot farm to hospitals programs at hospitals and clinics in Southern California. Learn more.

Healthy After-School Snack Program

The Healthy After-School Snack Program's goal (2000-2002) was to increase awareness of the need for access to healthy snacks for children in after-school programs. In March of 2000 the CFJ launched successful pilots in four sites and worked with programs to identify funding and support for healthy snacks. Through the program, CFJ also worked with several community groups in Los Angeles to develop food and nutrition policy guidelines for 225 new after-school programs that are being created through LA County's welfare-to-work program. These guidelines call for after-school snacks and meals that include farm-direct and garden-harvested fruits and vegetables along with healthy protein, grain, and dairy foods. They also recommend curricular activities that are linked to gardening and cooking.

Project GROW

The Project GROW: Gardens for Respect, Opportunity and Wellness, was a two-year pilot project that explored the potential for gardens and healthy foods as a means to improve the lives of both the clients and staff of grassroots domestic violence agencies. Through Project GROW, edible and decorative gardens and other food and nutrition programs were established by nine domestic violence shelters across California. CFJ helped inspire this pilot program through a feasibility study and then, once the food programs were established, provided training, technical assistance, and evaluation for the nine agency pilot programs. Learn more.

Los Angeles Fresh Food Access Program

The LA Fresh Food Access Program included a community food assessment project in the Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park as well as the development of a Fresh Food Access Guide. To learn more about the Highland Park food assessment, read the project summary. The 3rd edition of the LA Fresh Food Access guide will be out in late 2005. The 2nd edition can be downloaded from our publications page.
CFJ also released a study in 2002 that examines the problem of poor supermarket access in South LA that have persisted since the civil unrest. The report, The Persistence of L.A.'s Grocery Gap: The need for a new food policy and approach to market development, includes policy reccomendations for a "community benefits" approach to new development.