Erie’s Food Policy Advisory Council

“The Erie Food Policy Advisory Council aids and fosters the growth of Erie’s local food movement through policy, community advocacy, and education.”

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What is the Erie FPAC?

FPAC stands for “Food Policy Advisory Council.” Councils like this one are growing in number around the country, and help bring together people who care about food access or work in related feilds. Erie’s FPAC brings together entrepreneurs, educators, local policy makers and many others to identify areas of growth in our local food system. The FPAC also helps build collective support around food initiatives. All are welcome to join the FPAC.

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In January of 2023, we hosted the Erie Food Summit to gather as a community and to get a clear picture of what our food system needs to be more resilient and stronger. The working groups (see below) were formed based on the discussions from the Summit.

Summit Summary – coming soon

Working Group plans – coming soon

Want to be involved with local food policy efforts?

Working Group Opportunitities:

Education | 2nd Wednesday of each month, hybrid

Focused on conducting an audit of all the food-related educational opportunities in our area and identifying community needs

Contact: Jill Varner at juv373@psu.edu

Healthy Equity | 2nd or 3rd Tuesday of each month, time TBD

Focused on bringing a produce prescription program or similar initiative to our area

Contact: Domenica Babo at dbabo@hmhs.com

Email us

Visit our draft food asset map

What are we working on? Check out our ongoing project list:

Erie’s Urban Agriculture Toolkit (see below)
A regional food asset map including restaurants, corner stores, markets, grocery stores and emergency food resources
Food insecurity screenings: the Policy Subgroup has worked to implement these simple screenings throughout the county
Erie’s Food Policy Audit project: an ongoing effort in collaboration with Mercyhurst University which surveys what food policies do and do not exist in our county and identifies action items
Walking assessments: these walking surveys of the community help council members better understand the assets and voids in our food system

FPAC Meeting Minutes

Missed some meetings? Want to know what the FPAC is doing? Click here to check out our minutes from past meetings. These are updated a few days after each meeting.

Find Recipes on our Blog!

Learn how to make stuffed peppers, cheesy roasted cauliflower, avocado toast, and more.

All the recipes we share are simple and delicious. Use these recipes to cook with seasonal local ingredients when you can!

To see our recipes, visit our blog (you can find the “blog” button at the bottom of the page) and type “recipe” into the search box.

Erie’s Urban Agriculture Toolkit

This toolkit provides Erie-specific resources and tools to assist urban farmers.

Urban agriculture is a key to a city’s food system success. As an advocate of robust and sustainable of our local, the FPAC created this toolkit to provide practical support to those pursuing urban farming or those in the midst of production.

The toolkit includes information about relevant laws, ordinances and suggestions on site selection. Business development and details about the Erie Urban Farming Zoning Code can be found in this toolkit as well.

To view the toolkit, click the image to the left and you will be redirected to the PDF.