Berea Kids Eat – Healthy Food Access in Appalachia

  The Central Appalachian Network (CAN) and its partners have been working to improve access to healthy food for individuals and families in the Central Appalachian region through local initiatives in their communities. Over the past year, six of these healthy food access initiatives have been published as case studies through a partnership between CAN […]

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Healthy food access in Appalachia – summary video!

Over the months leading up to this past winter, I was given the opportunity to work with CAN and their many partner organizations across the Appalachian region to highlight the work they are doing to improve healthy food access in their communities. I captured these initiatives through a number of short videos, each highlighting a different project described in recently completed case studies conducted and published by CAN and the Appalachian Funders Network.

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Healthy Food Access in Central Appalachia – Case Studies of Community-Based Innovations

The joint Food & Ag Systems Working Group between CAN and the Appalachia Funders Network worked together to conduct and publish six case studies of projects at the intersection of food access and health. Several members of the Funders Network funded the work to document and highlight lessons from innovative projects around the region, and CAN […]

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Federal Food & Farm Policy: Farm Bill 101 with NSAC (April 2017)

CAN members, practitioner partners, and Appalachia Funders Network members of the Food &Ag Systems Working Group (FASWG) were joined by policy experts from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). NSAC staff shared an overview of the Farm Bill process,identified critical USDA programs that are funded through the bill, and laid out opportunities to get involved in […]

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Regional Food Security Data Scan

Authored by the Appalachian Foodshed Project for CAN and the Food & Ag Systems Working Group of the Appalachia Funders Network, this report provides state-level data snapshots related to food, agriculture, poverty, and health of the Central Appalachian region and suggests approaches to creating and utilizing data as a means of understanding and addressing food, […]

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The Vital Role of Food Systems in Central Appalachia’s Public Health

Central Appalachia’s public health disparities are staggering compared with the rest of the country. However, this data-driven analysis and video presentation by Dr. Randy Wykoff, Dean of the ETSU College of Public Health shows that there is great potential to impact the major health factors of social determinants and behavior. Education outcomes, public health, and […]

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Chesterhill Produce Auction: A Case Study

In this publication, rural Action and the Voinovich School at Ohio University chronicle the story of the Chesterhill Produce Auction in this case study. Tom Redfern from Rural Action explains the produce auction is part of a larger sustainable agriculture picture. “It keeps the farmer on the land; it keeps local people working; it keeps […]

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Healthy Food Systems: A Toolkit for Building Value Chains

This publication from 2009 profiles the work of CAN member Appalachian Sustainable Development and their Appalachian Harvest food hub as a case study of local food value chain development. In this toolkit, ASD shares experiences and lessons from Appalachian Harvest and other value chain initiatives. It’s designed to help new and emerging value chain efforts and […]

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