But the Delridge corridor is just one part of Seattle where people are getting creative with ways to provide fresh food to area residents. The Local Food Action Initiative passed by Seattle City Council in April 2008 is intended to support a citywide effort to cultivate fresh food and eradicate food deserts. The initiative outlined a number of specific goals and directives for various city departments to create a more secure, sustainable food system—which is essential to creating a healthy community, both literally and figuratively.

“There’s a whole lot of different issues surrounding the world of food systems,” Councilmember Richard Conlin, who championed the Local Food Action Initiative (LFAI), stated back in 2008. “What we wanted to do is bring them all together and recognize that we need to solve them all together. And you’re not going to be able to do what you need to do by tackling them piecemeal.”

Progress toward these goals has been steady this past year, from starting a downtown farmers market to passing a resolution on Aug. 11 that will support a transfer of development rights program to protect King County farmland. The following is an overview of the other plans currently underway to address issues of food security and fresh food provisions.

Increasing Access to Healthy, Fresh Food to all Residents, but Particularly in Low-Income Neighborhoods

It is no surprise that eating habits and health are intrinsically related, but it is important to note that the way our food is distributed significantly influences these eating habits. A recent study in Canada found a direct correlation between lack of access to grocery stores (and other fresh food outlets) and high obesity rates. The study found that some communities only had convenient access to heavily processed, nutritionally-void foods, which negatively influenced residents’ health.

In order to address this public health issue, the city’s Department of Neighborhoods (DON) is working in conjunction with other groups to develop a comprehensive Food Policy Action Plan which will identify areas that are underserved by grocery stores. More specifically, the plan will include a set of distribution maps identifying the locations and types of food outlets throughout the city, along with demographic data such as age, race and median income. The DON will then analyze the findings to develop an action plan to increase access to fresh food in vulnerable areas. Lois Maag, a spokesperson for DON, expects that the action plan will be finalized sometime this fall.

While DON hasn’t published its own official study yet, there are other resources, such as university studies and the American Planning Association (APA), that explain why “food deserts”—areas that lack easy access to fresh foods—exist in urban areas. The APA cited that many grocery store chains don’t see any benefit in establishing a large grocery store in a neighborhood with lower median incomes when it is more profitable to build in neighborhoods where the incomes are higher.

So in lieu of bona fide grocery stores, some neighborhoods only have convenience stores to turn to as their primary source of food. Unfortunately, many convenience stores carry limited, if any, fresh foods because it’s easier to store preserved foods than food that requires refrigeration. Furthermore, any fresh food that is provided at convenience stores tends to be more expensive than at grocery stores. A study by John Hopkins University in Baltimore found that staples such as milk were up to 20 percent more expensive at convenience stores than at a standard grocery store.

Here in Seattle, a University of Washington study focused on the average length of a resident’s commute to a grocery store carrying fresh foods. The study found that many neighborhoods were considered “at risk for food insecurity,” and that some Seattle residents have to travel more than 30 minutes in order to get to an outlet offering fresh foods.

One of the residential areas identified as having limited access to fresh foods is the Delridge neighborhood. Just last month, Seattle was given a $300,000 grant to implement the Delridge Healthy Corner Store Initiative. This initiative will connect convenience store owners with local food growers and give them assistance in providing fresh foods to consumers who don’t live near grocery stores.

Downtown Seattle is another area that has been identified as food insecure, but the city recently implemented a program that has started to address this issue. A farmers market, dubbed the Pike Place Market Express, is now being held at Seattle City Hall every Tuesday. Councilmember Richard Conlin’s aide, Phyllis Shulman, said that this market will provide thousands of downtown workers easier access to quality food.

Creating and Supporting More Opportunities for Seattlites to Grow Their Own Food

Another way the city can increase access to fresh foods is by allowing Seattle residents the opportunity to grow it themselves. The DON was charged with finding more locations for community gardens, in order to “maximize accessibility for all…and provide gardens to underserved neighborhoods.” Specifically, the DON is inventorying publicly-owned lands (lands owned by public utilities or city departments, such as Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Department of Transportation) that can be used for agricultural purposes. Also available for consideration are suitable pieces of private property that the DON can acquire for community gardens.

The DON has scoped out a number of locations for urban agriculture development and has started compiling a list of likely sites. The parks levy, which passed last year, included a $2 million provision for community gardens, which will be overseen by the P-Patch program.

In addition to providing garden space in the community, the city has also taken steps to allow for more farmable lands in Seattle residents’ own front yards. A recently repealed Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) regulation required residents to obtain a permit before converting a planting strip in front of their house into a garden plot. This space often provides good gardening grounds since there is more exposure to sunlight, so motivated would-be gardeners contacted city council to request removal of the permit requirement. Phyllis Shulman said that the phone calls persuaded Conlin’s office to turn its attention to this issue. A successful collaborative effort resulted when Conlin’s office worked closely with SDOT to come up with a system that’s more beneficial for homeowners. Thanks to a community-driven effort, now there is no need to obtain a permit for replacing grass with carrots and tomatoes, and a (free) permit will be granted to those who want to add raised vegetable beds or other hardscaping features to their planting strips.

Incorporating Food Policies into Land Use Planning

DON isn’t the only one looking at potential changes to increase access to fresh foods. City council has also asked the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to review land use code provisions to identify any codes that may inhibit the development of small to mid-size grocery stores or that may conflict with the growth of urban agriculture efforts. More generally, DPD is working to clear up any gray areas in the zoning law to ensure that would-be gardeners are easily able to take full advantage of certain lands for farming purposes, Shulman explained. DPD’s intention is to have the initial proposals completed by the end of the year, stated Alan Justad, a spokesperson for the department. Proposals should also include plans for incentive programs that encourage multi-family developments to include food gardens.

Meanwhile, some progress has been made in regards to land use code revisions. One outcome of the Local Food Action Initiative, Shulman said, is that it has prompted all city departments to look through “a different lens”—one that allows them to see how the city will look with urban agriculture as an integral element of the built environment. One example of this is evident in Green Factor, a landscape requirement for new developments in Seattle. Green Factor guidelines were developed to encourage integrating more greenery into the city. In the aftermath of the LFAI, DPD updated Green Factor standards to include bonuses for including spaces devoted to food cultivation and green roofs.

While there remains a lot of work to be done, the Local Food Action Initiative can be credited with encouraging city agencies to re-evaluate their policies and incorporate urban agriculture into future plans and programs.