Plan Overview:

Goal 1: Food Skills: Children, youth, and young adults will understand the basics of food production, food preparation, and healthy food choices. Adults will have the food skills they need to select and prepare healthy, culturally appropriate, affordable foods for themselves and their families. Foodservice professionals will have the knowledge and skills they need to plan, prepare, and serve healthy, culturally appropriate meals within an institutional budget.

TOPIC AREATACTICSTAGS
Food Skills for Children, Youth, and Young Adults: Children, youth, and young adults will understand the basics of food production, food preparation, and healthy food choices.Establish a food skills baseline for children, youth, and young adults in Minnesota to determine the extent of the food skills gap.
Use food skills baseline assessments to inform district-wide wellness policies and design of food skills programs and curriculum in school districts.
Establish dedicated state staff positions for family and consumer sciences education and health education.
Provide training, continuing education credits, and incentives to early childcare providers who incorporate food skills education into their programs.
Train teachers, coaches, and other educational staff to guide children of all ages to make healthy food choices, using evidence-based methods.
Offer adequate support for curriculum development and use, teacher training, and school resources, toward the goal of basic food skills for every Minnesota middle-school student.
Require and train teachers to incorporate food skills education into existing curricula, particularly in math, science, and social studies.
Require and financially support K-12 guidelines development for food skills education in Minnesota schools.
Support school gardens, curriculum development, and teacher training to teach all Minnesota second graders the principles of plant biology and basic gardening skills.
Increase number and capacity of farm-to-school programs.
Institute and sustain college-level curricular requirements and extra-curricular options, including farm-to-cafeteria efforts, to strengthen students’ food skills.
Ensure support and training needed for tribal communities to host culture camps focusing on traditional foods and related teachings.		Nutrition & Health; Food & Nutrition Literacy; Culture Shift (Good Food Movement); School Curricula; Training & Education, General; University Programs;
Food Skills for Adults: Adults will have the food skills they need to select and prepare healthy, culturally appropriate, affordable foods for themselves and their families.Increase adults’ opportunities to learn food skills at schools, worksites, community education classes, hunger relief programs, and food stores.
Provide patients with appropriate information about food skills education and referrals to relevant community resources, when they visit their healthcare provider.
Offer knowledge and resources needed by food harvesters to harvest wild rice; catch, gather, and preserve fish, plant foods, and berries; and tap, process, and store maple syrup and sugar.
Establish accessible, adequate gardening plots, equipment-lending libraries, garden education options, and seed and seedling giveaways.
Offer employees paid time and free courses to strengthen food skills, and offer flexible work schedules to accommodate time needed to plan and prepare healthy meals, as part of employee wellness programs.
Ensure adequate state and federal funding for healthy food skills-related education for SNAP/EBT and WIC participants.		Nutrition & Health; Food & Nutrition Literacy; Culture Shift (Good Food Movement); Training & Education, General; Agriculture & Food Production; Community Food Growing;
Food Skills for Foodservice Professionals: Foodservice professionals will have the knowledge and skills they need to plan, prepare, and serve healthy, culturally appropriate meals within an institutional budget.Create ideal professional standards for nutrition and food skills core competencies for foodservice professionals.
Teach knowledge and skills needed by foodservice professionals to continue to serve healthy meals.
Improve foodservice professionals’ wages.
Increase funding available for schools to obtain necessary facilities upgrades, kitchen equipment or other food-preparation and teaching resources.		Labor/Food Workers; Workforce Development; Training & Education, General; Food Worker Wages; Culture Shift (Good Food Movement); Nutrition & Health;

Goal 2: Food Affordability: Healthy food for all people regardless of income.

TOPIC AREATACTICSTAGS

Food Affordability – Buying Food: Healthy food for all people regardless of income.		Create incentives for Minnesota businesses to pay all employees living wages.
Offer incentive programs for consumers, such as ‘market bucks’ and ‘veggie prescription’ programs for healthy food purchases at stores and farmers markets.
Establish healthy food programs and policies that give institutional food buyers greater purchasing power, so they have more resources to buy healthier food for meals, concessions, vending machines, and fundraisers.
Food Security; Food Access (consumer); Purchasing Power (consumers); Wage Policy, General; Alternative Food Distribution Tactics;
Farmers Markets; Nutrition & Health;

Food Affordability – Selling Food: Healthy food for all people regardless of income.		Streamline regulations so more farmers who sell food at farmers markets or elsewhere can accept WIC and SNAP/EBT.
Develop a ‘healthy food financing’ initiative that provides funding, incentives, low-cost financing, and tax breaks for healthy food-related enterprises (such as new food stores offering affordable, healthy options in communities that need them, or regionally-focused food distribution companies).
Develop institutional policies and practices to increase the price of unhealthy food and decrease the price of healthy foods.
Create incentives for institutional foodservices, stores, and farmers’ markets to purchase or sell affordable foods grown locally, sustainably, or organically.
Create incentives for Minnesota farmers to grow affordable, healthy food for nearby institutions.		Food Security;
Food Availability (retailers); Public Procurement; Nutrition & Health; Alternative Food Distribution Tactics;
Farmers Markets;

Goal 3: Food Availability: A diverse variety of healthy foods are more available, and unhealthy foods are less available in places where we work, live, learn, and play.

TOPIC AREATACTICSTAGS


3. Food Availability: A diverse variety of healthy foods are more available, and unhealthy foods are less available in places where we work, live, learn, and play.		Provide support (such as tax breaks or incentives) to stores, restaurants, and other places that serve and sell food to limit the number of unhealthy options and improve the availability of affordable, healthy foods, including foods familiar to people of many ethnicities.
Develop policies and incentives that encourage food retailers (such as corner and convenience stores), restaurants, concessions, and vending machines, to offer a greater number of healthy options and reduce the number of less healthy options.
Establish policies and incentives that limit the availability of unhealthy foods and increase the availability of healthy foods served in schools, childcare centers, group homes, and hospitals.
Serve a larger and wider variety of healthy items, and substantially reduce or eliminate unhealthy options at institutions.
Create healthy food guidelines and establish contracts based on these guidelines that determine what types of food vendors and food services provide at institutions, organizations, and events that serve the public.
Manufacture a wider variety of healthy products sold by food industry, including those that use crops raised on nearby family farms.
Enact staple foods ordinances at state, county, or municipal levels to ensure corner stores and other small markets stock a greater variety and amount of healthy foods.
Offer native communities more nutritious, culturally familiar foods as part of USDA commodity program.
Increase the amount of healthy foods, decrease the amount of unhealthy foods, and provide a greater variety of healthy foods that are culturally familiar to customers distributed by food banks and food shelves.
Increase resources available to hunger relief programs for obtaining and storing healthy foods, including food grown by nearby farmers and foods familiar to customers’ cultures.
Permit hunger relief programs to choose to accept or redistribute food supplied by food banks, in order to meet healthy food guidelines established by food shelves.
Educate employers and mothers about state and federal statutes that support break time for nursing and expressing breast milk in the workplace.
Launch and sustain employer-supported, high quality lactation support programs for employees.
Provide nursing mothers with clean, accessible, safe, comfortable, private spaces to breastfeed their children or pump breast milk.
Sell foods raised and harvested by tribal members (including traditional foods) and foods grown at nearby family farms at farmers’ markets located in or near tribal communities.
Offer affordably priced native products, such as wild rice, bison, and other traditional foods, at tribally owned facilities that sell and serve food, including casinos, meals programs, and stores.
Strengthen community food assets, including community gardens, seed banks, community kitchens, and community-supported agriculture farms.
Provide a wider variety of food sources in communities with few options for healthy food, such as farmers’ markets, mobile markets, or community-supported agriculture delivery sites.
Change zoning policies to encourage more small-scale food production in communities.
Distribute unused crops grown by Minnesota farmers for processing into other products or sell surplus produce to buyers through programs that target both institutions and individuals.		Food Security;
Food Availability (retailers); Public Procurement; Nutrition & Health; Nutrition Regulations;
Food in Public Institutions; Food in Schools; Good/Local Food Economies; Indigenous Foodways; Alternative Food Distribution Tactics; Food Access (consumer); Small Business Support; Culture Shift (Good Food Movement); Community Food Growing; Urban Garden Zoning & Regulations;

Food Availability – Climate and Environment: A diverse variety of healthy foods are more available, and unhealthy foods are less available in places where we work, live, learn, and play.

Increase support for research to understand the source, transmission, prevention, and treatment of tickborne diseases, and their effect on people who hunt, fish, forage, garden, and gather wild food.
Increase capacity of farmers to use season extension, season moderation, and food crop preservation technologies (such as high tunnels or community root cellars) to grow, preserve, and store healthy food, including financial and informational resources.
Climate Mitigation; Indigenous Foodways; Agriculture & Food Production; Training & Education, Agriculture;

4. Food Accessibility: Stores selling healthy food are located near all communities. Cities and towns provide provide adequate, safe options to bike or walk to places where they can buy or grow healthy food. Communities offer widely available, and more affordable public, private, and non-profit transportation and delivery options to make it easier to get healthy food

TOPIC AREATACTICSTAGS


3. Food Availability: A diverse variety of healthy foods are more available, and unhealthy foods are less available in places where we work, live, learn, and play.

Include healthy food access as an important component of local governments’ overall infrastructure and transportation planning.
Install and maintain sidewalks, metered crosswalks, and bike paths on routes that provide access to stores, hunger relief programs, farmers markets, community gardens, and other food sources.
Put bus routes near community food sources and coordinate bus schedules with those sources’ open hours.
Ensure food stores and farmers markets are located in places easily reached by bus, bike, or foot.
Create volunteer carpool networks for people who need rides to healthy food sources near where they live.
Deliver healthy food grown at nearby farms to neighborhood drop-off sites.
Establish affordable food-delivery services that bring food from local stores and farmers’ markets to seniors, individuals with mobility issues, and people without transportation.
Ensure ongoing, adequate support for existing food-delivery options, such as Meals on Wheels and free or reduced cost delivery services.
Food Security; Food Access (consumer); Public transport (infrastructure); Food Availability (retailers); Good Food Governance; Alternative Food Distribution Tactics;

Goal 5: Food Infrastructure: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.

TOPIC AREATACTICSTAGS


Agriculture and Food Research, Technologies, and Practices: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.



Increase public funding for agricultural research and development at higher education institutions and Extension (including breeding plants for key food and feed crops for Minnesota markets, developing new cropping systems and related technologies, improving sustainable agricultural practices, and understanding the effect of existing practices on human, animal, and environmental health).
Ensure adequate resources for public/private partnerships that support pollinator health.
Increase investment in systems for season extension, season moderation, food preservation systems and technologies, including financing and grants for growers.
Encourage farmers to use farming practices and technologies that protect the health of people, animals, soil, air, and water.
Create policies, technologies, and incentives that reduce food waste or transform it into compost or energy.
Provide resources, support, and incentives for farmers who want to use food production methods, such as sustainable and organic practices, to increase their customer base.
Agriculture & Food Production; Research & Innovation; Good Food Governance; Public Private Partnerships; Sustainable Agriculture; Climate Mitigation; Farm & Producer Business Support;

Physical and Financial Infrastructure: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.

Establish viable, robust mechanisms for healthy food and farm-related enterprise development, such as angel investor tax credits, start-up funding aggregated from public and private sources, as well as public investment in research and development and technical assistance for business planning.
Promote the development of cooperatively owned businesses related to healthy food and farms.
Establish enterprises that can provide healthy food to nearby communities and institutions.
Create tribally controlled, small incubator farms with shared equipment and water access.
Secure resources for tribal nations to purchase equipment and develop businesses that support harvesting wild rice; catching, gathering, and preserving fish, plant foods, and berries; and tapping, processing, and storing maple syrup.
Good/Local Food Economies; Small Business Support; Food Sovereignty; Indigenous Foodways; Supply Chain Infrastructure; Farm & Producer Business Support; Agriculture & Food Production;

Local Markets: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.

Establish annual voluntary food pricing agreements that Minnesota farmers develop together, and participating wholesalers and vendors agree to honor.
Create technical assistance and training opportunities for farmers to sell new products and access new markets.

Establish annual voluntary food pricing agreements that Minnesota farmers develop together, and participating wholesalers and vendors agree to honor.
Create technical assistance and training opportunities for farmers to sell new products and access new markets.

Farmland Access and Preservation: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.

Establish an easy-to-use farm ownership transition program to transfer farm ownership from one family to another.
Implement farmland-access recommendations developed by organizations that serve farmers. For example, prioritize family farms in local comprehensive plans, building codes, land use and restrictions, taxing structures, and other local policy initiatives.
Land Access; Preserving Farmland; Farmland zoning and regulations;

Farmer Training and Resources: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.

Establish affordable statewide liability, specialty crops, and health insurance programs for small farmers.
Create and offer training (classes and written materials) in multiple languages, with a focus on basic farm ownership, food production, and farm management skills.
Ensure adequate, ongoing investment in a wide array of farmer-focused technical assistance and training.
Provide comprehensive, culturally appropriate training for small entrepreneurs who sell foods at cultural events, such as powwows, community feasts, and farm-based dinners.
Agriculture & Food Production; Farm & Producer Business Support; Young, Beginning, and Small (YBS) Farmers; Workforce Development; Training & Education, Agriculture; Entrepreneurship;

Labor and Pay: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.

Support research, policies, and programs that address food-infrastructure labor and pay issues, such as support for organizations that provide independent verification of labor and pay conditions in agriculture and food-related enterprises.
Share information and conduct training for food and farm-related employers on federal and state labor laws, with accompanying promotion and materials in multiple languages.
Disseminate information and conduct training for food and farm-related workers on federal and state labor laws, with accompanying promotion and materials in multiple languages.
Improve enforcement, training, and dissemination of federal and state labor laws and workplace and food safety regulations—including promotion and materials in multiple languages.
Strengthen whistleblower protections for food and farm-related workers—including legislation and worker organization.
Develop comprehensive policy and related resources to ensure adequate housing for workers employed seasonally in agriculturally-related businesses.
Labor/Food Workers; Food Worker Wages; Worker Safety; Workforce Development; Training & Education, General; Good Food Governance; Public Messaging & Marketing; Legislation;

Food Labeling, Regulations and Marketing: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.

Address consumer food labeling concerns at the federal and state levels.
Reduce marketing of unhealthy food to children.
Streamline food safety and licensing protocols, and provide training for small and emerging businesses (such as growers and processors) on good agricultural practices, food safety, licensing, inspections, and related regulations.
Give inspectors flexible tools for the type, size, and risk of food business.
Meet sovereign tribal nations’ stated needs for food safety education, food protection, and foodborne illness response.
Develop interagency workgroups and trainings to ensure clear, consistent enforcement of food safety and inspection codes.
Nutrition & Health; Food Labeling & Marketing; Food Safety; Workforce Development; Training & Education, General;

Influence and Decision-Making: Create a vital, lasting food infrastructure that improves the health of Minnesota’s consumers, while growing the food and farm economy.
Support food policy councils at local, regional, and state levels.
Invest in development and implementation of effective food systems planning for communities and regions across Minnesota.
Establish councils of traditional foods gatherers to advise tribal communities on food-related needs and issues.
Encourage the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to develop long-term plans for Minnesota’s agricultural infrastructure.
Good Food Governance; Food Sovereignty; Indigenous Foodways; Network/Bodies/Council (FPCs); Food System Plan Implementation;

Plan Information

CategoryDatabase entry
Plan RegionMinnesota
Publication Date2014
Entry reviewed by original authorYes
PDF attachmentView Full Report 
Plan TitleThe Minnesota Food Charter
WebpageCurrently inactive; webpage no longer available
Author(s)Minnesota Department of Health (lead) and Food Charter Drafting Committee
Author Type Government; Network
Region Type State
Funding Sources Federal Government; State Government; State University
FundersUS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and the Statewide Health Improvement Program at the MN Department of Health. 
Leadership support of the Food Charter Network was given from the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute at the University of Minnesota. Development leadership included Minnesota Dept. of Health, University of Minnesota Extension Family Development, the Healthy Food Healthy Lives Institute, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. 
Total Project BudgetApproximately $1M over six years. This included resources for broad-based public engagement, ongoing strategic communications, graphic design and copywriting for Food Charter and multiple companion documents, convening and facilitation of multiple stakeholder advisory groups, project management, stipends and honoraria for community based organizations to convene engagement, data collection and analysis, planning, and development.
Plan GoalsThe goals of this Charter are to provide “a roadmap for how all Minnesotans can have reliable access to healthy, affordable, safe food in the places they work, live, and play” (p. 4). Specifically, the document focuses on health by encouraging the state to change “policies and systems, so the healthy choice is the easy choice for everyone” (p. 3).
Intended AudienceBroader Minnesota community members, government, policymakers, community leaders
Plan Recommendation StructureThe Charter outlines five development areas, each with its own goal(s):1. Food Skills;2. Food Affordability;3. Food Availability;4. Food Accessibility;5. Food Infrastructure.
Within each area, the Charter specifies targeted groups or sectors with articulated “challenges” (e.g. children, adults, food service professionals, Agriculture and Food Research, Technologies, and Practices, etc.). The Charter then outlines strategies to mitigate these challenges and reach the stated goals.
Overall, the Charter’s strategies focus on changing policies and systems so that the healthy choice is the easiest choice for everyone at all scales of the food system. 
Catalyst for PlanUnspecified
Creation ProcessThe Minnesota Food Charter was developed in collaboration with broad community engagement over the course of a nine-month input process. This included:
27 Steering Committee members, who guided the process2,500+ people via events, interviews, or online worksheets400 online worksheets144 Food Charter events90+ Interviews and listening sessions4,219 page views logged on an online townhall forum with 728 visitors9 Steering Committee Members who drafted the CharterDozens of peer reviews
Theoretical Framework(s) Employed  Collective Impact Framework
Theoretical Framework(s): Additional LiteratureWhile unspecified in the writing of the Charter, various frameworks included: The collective Impact Framework; Freireian popular education methods; focus group and interview design and analysis methods; reflective inquiry; adult learning theory to inform design and execution of all aspects of public engagement; Frameworks Institute research on framing and messaging food systems change. 
These frameworks, particularly the Collective Impact model, guided the simultaneous launch of the Minnesota Food Charter Network. 
Development Timeline2 years
Implementation StrategyUnspecified within plan.The Minnesota Food Charter was published in conjunction with the strengthening of local and regional food networks as well as the later launch of the Minnesota Food Charter Network. The Network served as a means to “track statewide implementation of Food Charter strategies through regional food networks and myriad other organizations.” The Network is currently inactive (see Blue Cross Blue Shield evaluation report, attached). See also the attached “Cultivating collective action” report from the University of Minnesota.  
Implementation TimelineUnspecified
Evaluation StrategyUnspecified within the plan; however, each involved organization created its own strategy. The Food Charter Network also created an evaluation workgroup. 
International Development Framework(s)None
Current Plan StatusInactive
Government Adoption StatusNot Adopted
Government Adoption Status (Notes)Endorsed by the Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Department of Agriculture upon launch.
Supplemental Documents 
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