Jefferson County Food Policy Council
A community-led, collaborative organization working to build community power to influence change in Jefferson County, Colorado.
Collaboration is essential to tackling today’s public health challenges — because no single organization or sector can do it alone. This is why relationship building and partnerships are at the heart of our work to support healthier communities. In this ongoing series, we spotlight the individuals, organizations, and collaboratives that make up Trailhead’s network of partners, sharing their impact in their own words.
Who do you or your organization serve?
Everyone deserves access to good food — but that’s not yet a reality in Jefferson County. Barriers like cost, location, and lack of infrastructure make it harder for many people, especially communities of color, to get the food they need. That’s why we need all parts of the food system — from farms to schools to food pantries — working together for change.
Photo Credit: The Jefferson County Food Policy Council
At the Jefferson County Food Policy Council (JCFPC), we believe the best solutions come from the people most impacted. Each year, our members come together to shape the Jefferson County Food Policy Platform — a list of the most important food issues in our community. After identifying what matters most, we vote on a few top priorities and form advocacy teams to take action. Some of our priorities have included strengthening the local food chain, building community leadership in the food system, and serving healthier school meals in Jeffco Public Schools.
We have achieved a lot under each of these priorities. The school food team has advocated for full funding of Healthy School Meals for All at the state level and at the local level has worked alongside the school district and other partners to pilot cultural recipes from the community made from scratch with local ingredients. Two cultural recipes from the pilot will now be served district-wide to about 75,000 students. The food chain team has kicked off their community-led food chain assessment. They are working to identify the assets and needs we have locally so we can advocate for collaborative solutions. The community leadership team has interviewed volunteers and clients of 10 food pantries across Jeffco and will analyze the data to create best practices and model food pantry policies that empower the community.
What’s important about this work for your community?
Adequate food access is not available to everyone in Jefferson County due to geographic, social, economic, and environmental factors. Given the scale of the challenges, with high social vulnerability for people of color, limited local distribution channels, and high number of food deserts, collaboration across all sectors of the food system is necessary for sustainable and equitable solutions.
At the start of every calendar year, through a consensus building process, JCFPC members update our shared Jefferson County Food Policy Platform with issues that matter to them in the food system. From the platform, members vote on their top priorities for change in the local food system. We form advocacy teams to advance our top priorities. For example, the 2024 priorities included strengthening the local food chain, building community leadership in the food system, and serving healthier school meals in Jeffco Public Schools. Members also take action throughout the year to support existing efforts related to issues in our policy platform that may not be priorities. For example, JCFPC has hosted public comment writing workshops to support state and federal policy changes.
The Council staff support advocacy teams to develop collaborative strategies and tactics to advance their priority issues during the year. JCFPC staff act as facilitators and supporters of the work. Staff provide members with what they need to be successful with their projects, including tools, funding, administrative support, and more.
Members choose which team(s) they will serve on and collaboratively develop team charters. The charters outline the issue they aim to address, their expectations of each other in their work, and identify the practicable solution they will collectively pursue. Through this model, the people most interested and impacted by each issue are able to work alongside others to develop collaborative solutions.
Our priorities in 2024 are healthier school food, strengthening the local food chain, and building community leadership in the emergency food system. In 2024, we have achieved a lot under each of these priorities. The school food team has advocated for full funding of Healthy School Meals for All at the state level and at the local level has worked alongside the school district and other partners to pilot cultural recipes from the community made from scratch with local ingredients. This pilot is now happening every day of the week for lunch in three schools. The food chain team has kicked off their community-led food chain assessment. They are working to identify the assets and needs we have locally so we can advocate for collaborative solutions. The community leadership team has interviewed volunteers and clients of 10 food pantries across Jeffco and will analyze the data to create best practices and model food pantry policies that empower the community.
Photo Credit: The Jefferson County Food Policy Council
How can people support your work or get involved?
Through fiscal sponsorship, how have you been able to increase your impact? Or how has your work changed or evolved without having to deal with administrative burdens?
Fiscal sponsorship has allowed us to move from being a program at Jeffco Public Health with less than one FTE working. Now, we have 2 full-time staff and 3 part-time contractors. Since the transition to fiscal sponsorship, we have also expanded our work from having two teams to six teams. Our teams are now able to advocate locally through our transition to fiscal sponsorship, allowing us to go beyond the foundations of collaboration and coordination we had built. Fiscal sponsorship has been an impetus of growth for us and will allow us to continue this growth.