State of the Plate: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food System Assessment
Faculty and students at UNC Charlotte have partnered with Charlotte organizations, local government, and community leaders (including the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council, American Heart Association, Mecklenburg County Public Health, Loaves & Fishes, and others) to complete systematic assessments of the state of our regional food system. The State of the Plate assessment happens approximately every 5 years, and is a chance to take stock of the local food system.
In the past, food system organizations in Charlotte have used State of the Plate assessments to advocate for mobile market funding and policies that support them, to bring FoodCorps to Charlotte to help schools educate children around healthy food, to ask for funding for SNAP Double Bucks, and to advocate for a variety of other policy and project priorities.
Please see below for links to current and past reports. For questions or to get involved, please reach out to Dr. Nicole Peterson or Dr. Colleen Hammelman.
State of the Plate 2019-2023
A team representing over 100 organizations and individuals from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region formed in 2019 to determine how to best assess the state of the local food system, led by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council. Over the next few years, and through a global pandemic, researchers at UNC Charlotte, Johnson C. Smith, and other regional institutions (led by Dr. Nicole Peterson) collaboratively designed and implemented a multi-phased research project to better understand the state of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg food system.
This project assessed current needs and opportunities that exist within the food system, how COVID-19 and other events have changed our food system, and how they might shape it in the future towards equity and sustainability. Our project is a collaborative, action-oriented effort to develop a plan for transforming our food system into one that is more equitable and inclusive. The impact of this process is identifying what we need to change and how we can implement these changes, as well as how resilience and adaptation can create the conditions for justice and sustainability in our local food system.
We feel strongly that this is an investment in the future of our food system, and will have repercussions for decades to come in how we understand, support, and experience our local food system and community. We have continually worked with our partners to develop the research questions, and need to continue to collaborate to develop these more fully as well as the specific survey and interview questions, and other instruments.
Phase 1: Assets and Barriers
In Phase 1, utilizing surveys and in-depth interviews, the research team sought answers to the following research questions: What assets and gaps are there in our local food system, what are the barriers to success and the possible solutions? How has this shifted in light of COVID-19? What kinds of strategies and tools have emerged to address COVID-19 and could these be valuable in the future? What are the experiences, interconnections, and barriers to success? How has this shifted in light of COVID-19?
Read the Phase 1 report in an interactive format here and as a pdf report here. Read the Executive Summary here.
This research phase was conducted by Dr. Colleen Hammelman, Dylan Turner, Mariam Jaliawala, and Elie Nanney. It was supported by an Ignite grant from UNC Charlotte and a Gambrell Faculty Fellowship from UNC Charlotte, both awarded to Dr. Peterson and Dr. Hammelman.
Phase 2: Household Food Insecurity
In Phase 2, utilizing household food insecurity surveys, the research team sought answers to the following research questions: How has household food security in Mecklenburg County been affected by COVID-19? How is this related to housing, healthcare and health, transportation, or other systems also potentially affected by COVID-19?
Read the full report here.
This research phase was conducted by Dr. Nicole Peterson, Rae Gordon, and Hector Samani. It was supported by an Ignite grant from UNC Charlotte and a Gambrell Faculty Fellowship from UNC Charlotte, both awarded to Dr. Peterson and Dr. Hammelman.
Phase 3: Collective visions for the future of our regional food system
In Phase 3, utilizing community discussions, the research team sought answers to the following research questions: What do Mecklenburg County residents want or need from the food system? What is our collective vision for the food system? How does this tie to ideas about justice, equity, resilience, adaptation, and sustainability?
Read the full report here.
This research phase was conducted by Dr. Nicole Peterson, Dr. Colleen Hammelman, Rae Gordon, Mariam Jaliawala, Hector Samani, Anna Yoder, and Gabby Young. It was supported by the American Heart Association.
State of the Plate 2015
The 2015 State of the Plate research assessed food access, including availability, affordability, and quality, for Charlotte neighborhoods. Utilizing food access mapping, it identified three high food insecurity risk areas (Brookshire Blvd Corridor, West Blvd Corridor, and Albemarle Rd Corridor).
Read the report here.
This research was led by Victor Romano, EdD, Johnson C. Smith University, and Katherine Metzo, PhD, Elemental Research & Consulting.
State of the Plate 2010
This inaugural State of the Plate research examined food store availability across the county based on census block groups in relation to demographic characteristics. It found that 60 census block groups could be characterized as food deserts, the majority of which are located in NW Charlotte.
Read the report here.
This report was prepared for the Mecklenburg County Health Department in cooperation with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council and Mecklenburg County GIS by Dr. Elizabeth Racine, Dr. Qingfang Wang, and Christina Wilson, CHES, at UNC Charlotte.