Since 2007, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has funded community partnerships across the US to improve access to healthy, affordable, local food and opportunities for physical activity in low-income communities. Partnerships include community groups, residents, and local organizations representing public health, agriculture, transportation, education, and business. The work of the partnerships is focused on transforming conditions for children and families through homegrown solutions like starting networks of farmers markets, creating locally-owned food enterprises, supporting aggregation and distribution facilities in working with locally sourced products, implementing policies promoting locally-sourced school lunches, and creating safe open spaces for physical activity.

Under the direction of Laurie Lachance, PhD, CMCD is leading the cross-site evaluation of this Food & Fitness initiative. Core elements of the evaluation include analyses of the process of creating change, the impact of these changes on residents’  health, and an exploration into the generalizable lessons about community-based change efforts that can be shared with other policy-makers and communities across the country.

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