Fresh, Local & Equitable or “Fresh-Lo” is a collaborative effort between The Kresge Foundation’s Arts & Culture and Health Programs, which leverages food as a creative platform for neighborhood revitalization. Through this work, the Foundation seeks to support and accelerate local efforts that successfully use food as a platform for health, economic development, and cultural expression, creating co-benefits for all – particularly low-income residents and families. “Fresh Lo” will celebrate neighborhood-scale projects that promote robust community engagement and leadership, prioritize equity, involve cross-sector and discipline partners, and demonstrate a high degree of readiness to implement an integrated, cross-sectoral vision of food-oriented development.

From the Foundation: Food is about health, but it is also about community. Food can offer genuine and powerful opportunities to develop relationships and shared experiences. When creatively nurtured, these shared experiences translate into social capital. In both large and small efforts, place-based, food-focused initiatives are beginning to braid arts and culture strategies together with comprehensive initiatives designed to revitalize low-income communities, in partnership with the residents, cultural tradition-bearers, and culinary innovators.

The Kresge Foundation engaged Community Science to design Fresh Lo’s companion evaluation framework. I have joined Community Science on this groundbreaking effort to provide arts and cultural strategy consulting and inform the emerging developmental assessment.

Cover image ILEWA, Lagos and internal image Riverpark Farm, New York – both courtesy of ORE Design.

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