Guiding Principles
CFFP is guided by a set of shared principles through which we filter strategic projects and investment opportunities: Health, Social Equity, Family Wage Job Creation and Preservation, Rural Community Resilience, and Ability to Influence Policy. These impact goals often overlap and blend; for instance, an enterprise that offers higher wages and better working conditions for a rural farmworker while growing wholesome fruits and vegetables could improve measures of health, social equity, and resilience of a rural community. However, for the purpose of description we define each impact area as more or less distinct.
Below are descriptions for each principle as well questions we consider when we evaluate the initial engagement and emerging outcomes. |
HealthImprove the environment, individual and collective health of communities and their residents by increasing the production and consumption of healthy, sustainably-grown food. On the production side, promote sustainable growing practices that have positive impacts on the environment, workers, students and their communities. On the consumption side, promote nutrient dense foods that are beneficial to health as part of a balanced diet, and potentially displace less-healthy alternatives.
Social EquityReduce disparities and support communities where everyone has equal opportunity to lead productive lives. In the context of the food system, this is further defined as increasing access to healthy foods for underserved families and communities while trying to support food and farm businesses that provide family wages.
Family Wage Job Creation and PreservationSupport incremental job creation that can stabilize families and their communities, and that provide buffers to fluctuations in the national and global marketplaces. Social enterprises that increase jobs along a values-based supply chain are the preferred mechanism of job growth.
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Rural Community ResilienceInvest in the ability of rural communities and their residents to maintain responsible stewardship of the land, while providing opportunities to determine their own future (as opposed to constrained by a single crop, corporation, industry or market). This is further defined by the ability of a rural community to develop sustainably-grown food products that feed their residents as well as urban centers while reducing exposure to fluxes of the global commodity markets.
Ability to Influence PolicySome enterprises and investments can serve as examples and political narratives to align local, state, or federal policies in support of a healthy and equitable regional food economy.
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