City of Austin tries to address food availability, equality with plan

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The City of Austin completed the first draft of its food plan for Austin and Travis County.

According to the city, a food plan "sets clear goals and strategies to move toward a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient food system and provides a coordinating structure for all food-related initiatives."

In June 2021, the Austin City Council passed a resolution directing the development of a five-year food plan.

The Travis County Commissioners Court voted to formally join the process in December 2022.

Since then, they've collected thousands of pieces of feedback from the community.

After gathering community input, the City of Austin's Office of Sustainability identified nine major goals for its plan that's meant to address food availability and equality.

The goals include:

• Preservation of land for food production
• Increase access to farmland for underrepresented communities
• Improve quality of life for food and farm workers
• Make the local food system more resilient
• Improve the local food supply chain
• Expand access to quality food
• Decrease food waste
• Address environmental concerns related to food production and transport
• Increase awareness of the impact of the food system in local quality of life

The draft plan is available for feedback until April 19. The first online discussion is scheduled for Wednesday.

KXAN's Sarah Al-Shaikh will have more on this story. You can watch tonight at 6pm.