The plan is aimed at reducing food insecurity, waste and access issues in Jacksonville. Monday night, city staff received community input to help shape the plan. <\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A new effort is underway in Jacksonville to take a closer look at how food is produced, distributed and accessed across the city.<\/p>\n
City leaders are developing a \u201cState of the Food\u201d plan aimed at tackling food insecurity, reducing waste, and preparing for future growth, and they are asking the community to help shape it.<\/p>\n
At a public meeting Monday night, residents were asked what a successful food plan for Jacksonville would look like. Many pointed to the need for better transportation to and from grocery stores, curbside composting options and efforts to minimize food deserts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it sounds like an interesting thing the city needs to be doing, help advance food issues,\u201d said Alan Cordova, a longtime Jacksonville resident.<\/p>\n
The plan will serve as a roadmap to address food-related needs as the city continues to expand.<\/p>\n
City data shows Jacksonville residents generate more than 500 million pounds of food waste each year, something that surprised some attendees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize how much food is wasted,\u201d Cordova said.<\/p>\n
Community members suggested solutions such as composting programs and stronger food recovery efforts.<\/p>\n
Leaders are also examining food access. About 1 in 7 people in Duval County face food insecurity, and nearly 160,000 residents rely on SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n
Residents raised concerns about a lack of fresh food at some stores and the need for more grocery locations in underserved areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed that whenever they build a new community of homes, they automatically put in a store, but they fail to remember that there\u2019s other issues where people live,\u201d Cordova said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City staff say partnerships, funding and education will all play a role in building a more sustainable and resilient food system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a great, great plan to do, and I just pray everybody gets involved and other organizations get involved,\u201d said Jacksonville resident Muzette Thomas.<\/p>\n
Officials say community feedback gathered during meetings like this will help shape the final plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t judge a book by its cover and just say everybody\u2019s okay and they\u2019re not,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThere\u2019s more people out there that\u2019s hungrier than you expect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cordova said he believes the plan could make a meaningful difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll help a lot with people who have desperate needs for food and help enhance the distribution of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The city will continue collecting public input before finalizing the plan this summer. The next community meeting is scheduled for Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Highlands Regional Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The plan is aimed at reducing food insecurity, waste and access issues in Jacksonville. Monday night, city staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-212608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}