A.3 REVISED Policy Proposal

Your Name Course and Section Professor’s Name November 15, 2024 Executive Summary This business proposal presents the Community Urban Agriculture Initiative as the sustainable and community-based model for addressing food deserts in Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore City. Food deserts are neighborhoods that are unloading with fresh and healthy food stores and Sandtown-Winchester is a perfect example of an economy devoid of convenience stores. , availability and quality of fresh produce have been compromised thus enhancing poor dietary patterns and the accompanying diseases including obesity, hypertension, and diabetes which have particularly affected minorities and low-income earners (Gordon & Purciel-Hill 2020). Specific initiatives that will be supported by the CUAI include converting empty plots into healthy community green spaces, creating a $15 weekly farmers’ market, and providing practical classes on growing food, preparing meals, and healthy eating. This is not just about mere feeding programs but instead, it aims at local capacity development, change, productivity, better and healthier lifestyle. The specific feature of the CUAI model is the lack of a separation of the community and its economic potential. The CUAI assures that the recipient communities’ present and future food requirements can be met through a decentralized approach to food production and distribution. Ample partnerships, diverse forms of advertising, and modified sensitivity to the underprivileged make this proposal a paradigm shift to addressing food deserts in Baltimore City. Market Analysis Food deserts are common in Baltimore City with nearly a quarter of the population having no access to healthy food within one mile (Baltimore Food Policy Initiative, 2022). Sandtown-Winchester is one of the worst affected Baltimore neighborhoods which has been struggling with poverty rate, systemic injustice and oppression, and prevalent health issues. The neighborhood, which has a population of nearly 11,300 residents, doesn’t have a full-service grocery store within a reasonable walking distance and the handful of convenience stores provide a very limited choice of healthy foods. Understanding the Competition To this end the CUAI must establish what competitors are currently offering regarding food insecurity and economic development in Baltimore and wherever necessary fill these gaps. Several entities and organizations exist that are focused on issues that CUAI targets but they have shortcomings that afford CUAI the chance to learn and improve on its reach to the Sandtown-Winchester residents (Slade & Thompson, 2019). Existing Programs and Initiatives 1 Baltimore's Food Policy Initiative (BFPI)The BFPI was started under the Baltimore City Department of Planning, and its core aim is to enhance food desert areas in the poor neighborhoods of the city. It operates through such projects as the Virtual Supermarket Program under which the residents of ‘food desert’ areas can order their groceries online, and it is delivered to nearby convenient sites. In that regard, this program may prove to be convenient but fails to solve for food desert problem that results from the absence of affordable fresh foods. Further, this program heavily relies on supermarkets and other outside suppliers and does not give communities instruments to grow food efficiently on their own. Key Gap: CUAI addresses this by providing locally grown, affordable produce, and reducing dependency on external suppliers while promoting self-reliance and sustainability. 2 Farm Alliance of BaltimoreThe Farm Alliance is an organization of urban farms and community gardens that work together towards the creation of food security and food justice within the community as well as addressing environmental concerns. Current member farms are located throughout Baltimore their resources and know-how are pooled together. While the Alliance is effective in promoting urban farming it is not very comprehensive in Sandtown-Winchester. Most of those programs are located in areas that are closer to Central Baltimore which means there are few or no programs in areas such as Sandtown-Winchester where food deserts can still be identified (Feagan & Ripmeester, 2017). Key Gap: CUAI aims to establish a focused presence in Sandtown-Winchester, ensuring that resources, education, and community-building efforts directly benefit this historically underserved neighborhood. 3 Whitelock Community FarmWhitelock Community Farm is an urban farm in Reservoir Hill, Baltimore City that sells fresh produce to the community and farmers market throughout the farming season. It also provides community education workshops and event services. Although Whitelock is currently receiving massive success in its particular community, there are some demerits inherent to the organization: Due to the localized and finely tuned strategies of Whitelock, the model has not been adapted to any other neighboring community that might have similar requirements (Glover & Parry, 2020). Key Gap: CUAI builds on Whitelock’s strengths by designing a scalable model that integrates policy support, workforce development, and health education, ensuring its approach can be adapted to other neighborhoods over time. 4 Produce in a SNAPThis initiative joins with companies of the Maryland Farmers Market Association to offer Foods for Baltimore Communities cheap foodstuffs, especially green groceries. On one hand, it sources fresh produce cheaper than most grocery retail outlets; on the other hand, it incorporates a mobile market strategy and mostly sources products from outside the store. This does not support farmers within the region and conductivity of food production whilst other times they might not be able to supply the population’s demand, especially in areas like Sandtown-Winchester. Key Gap: CUAI becomes a permanent setting for food production and distribution with constant availability and local management, and with that, it feeds the community all year round. Some of the programs arising from this social grouping included putting into place such programs that would provide some comfort to this problem… none of the programs established provided long-term communal-based anti-hunger innovations that would do away with the root cause of hunger in the society. Consequently, the CUAI fills this need by combining urban agriculture, knowledge generation, and transition to economic status (Kuo & Cox, 2021). Market Size At the present time, in Sandtown-Winchester there are about 11300 people and 30 percent of them have no adequate living standards (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023). Out of these residents, half of them do not own any personal car and therefore cannot easily be able to access fresh and healthy foods. The...