Initiative Design: Fresh, Local & Equitable (FreshLo) Initiative

Fresh, Local & Equitable (FreshLo) was a collaborative initiative of The Kresge Foundation’s Arts & Culture and Health Programs, leveraging food as a creative platform for neighborhood revitalization in low-income communities across the United States.

Recognizing that food is not only about nutrition but about identity, belonging, and economic opportunity, FreshLo supported locally driven projects that integrated health, cultural expression, and economic development. The initiative encouraged cross-sector collaboration and community leadership to advance equitable, place-based revitalization.

The Kresge Foundation engaged Community Science to design FreshLo’s companion evaluation framework. CSC joined this effort to provide arts and cultural strategy expertise and inform the initiative’s developmental assessment.

Rather than applying a static evaluation model, the engagement emphasized developmental learning — examining how food-centered initiatives braided arts, culture, and community organizing to generate:

• Social capital and relational trust
• Cross-sector collaboration
• Culturally grounded economic vitality
• Integrated neighborhood revitalization

CSC contributed an arts and cultural systems lens to the evaluation process, helping surface how creative practice shaped community engagement, narrative, and long-term ecosystem resilience.

This work reflects CSC’s broader commitment to advancing equitable development by aligning cultural intelligence, community leadership, and structural investment — ensuring that evaluation supports adaptive learning and regenerative impact.