New Brunswick is home to many efforts to improve community food security, which is often defined as access to healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food. Many organizations address community food security in two or more ways. While they may primarily provide food access, they may also work on food affordability, education, advocacy, research, and community economic development. Given the variety of groups engaged and the breadth of food security efforts, it is difficult for anyone to keep on top of all these efforts. To make that easier, Elijah’s Promise, a community food security organization in New Brunswick, asked the Ralph W. Voorhees Public Service Fellows to identify and describe these efforts.
The Fellows’ research provides insights about how organizations and individuals define community food security in New Brunswick, what activities they employ to improve it, and what barriers persist. This report presents the findings. It describes how organizations and individuals improve community security in New Brunswick through education, advocacy, access, community economic development, and research. And it provides an overview of more than 60 community food security programs and concludes with a discussion of ideas to further improve community food security.