The Good Food for All Agenda: A Regional Charter for Collective Action

Author: Alba Velasquez Executive Director, LAFPC

At the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, the Good Food for All Agenda is more than a report. It is our regional charter. It is the document that grounds our work, aligns our network, and sets a shared vision for what a just and resilient food system in Los Angeles can and should be.

As a Food Policy Council, we operate differently than a single-issue nonprofit or a direct service organization. Our strength is in convening. We bring together community-based organizations, farmers, advocates, public agencies, small businesses, institutions, and residents to move toward common goals. The Good Food for All Agenda is the structure that makes that alignment possible.

A Living, Regional Roadmap

The Agenda is designed as a five to ten year framework. It outlines regional priorities, which are the outcomes we collectively agree Los Angeles must achieve in order to ensure everyone has access to healthy, affordable, culturally relevant food, food workers are valued, farmers can thrive, and our environmental footprint is reduced.

But the Agenda is not prescriptive. It does not tell each organization what to do. Instead, it names the priorities, and then invites each member of our network to ask:

What role can we play in achieving these goals?

That flexibility is intentional. A grassroots food pantry, a compost hauler, a public health department, and a youth-led advocacy group will each engage differently. The Agenda creates alignment without erasing autonomy. It allows organizations to determine their focus and actions while contributing to shared regional outcomes. The Agenda recognizes that every organization brings distinct strengths, relationships, expertise, and lived experience. Rather than flattening those differences, it encourages us to lean into them. When each partner contributes from where they are strongest, we avoid duplication, fill gaps more strategically, and move as a coordinated ecosystem instead of isolated actors.

And importantly, it is reviewed and refreshed every five to ten years. This ensures it remains responsive to community needs, emerging policy opportunities, and shifts in our food system.

From Vision to Implementation: What It Looks Like in Practice

Over the years, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful this framework can be.

One priority from a previous Good Food for All Agenda in 2017 was eliminating food waste and reclaiming it as a resource. At the time, food recovery and composting efforts were happening across Los Angeles, but they were fragmented, under-resourced, and not fully integrated into policy conversations.

Because the Agenda elevated food waste reduction as a regional priority, it created the political and institutional momentum needed to act.

With the support of the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Food Policy Council distributed over $1 million in funding to food recovery organizations across the region. Those funds supported critical infrastructure such as refrigeration, transportation, storage capacity, and staffing that enabled organizations to redirect surplus edible food to communities facing food insecurity. It also strengthened composting operations that returned nutrients to soil rather than sending organic waste to landfills.

That’s the power of a regional charter.

• The Agenda named the issue.

• The network aligned around it.

• Public partners, including the Mayor of Los Angeles and County Supervisors, stepped forward in support.

• Resources followed.

• Infrastructure was built.

• Communities benefited.

What could have remained an aspirational goal became an actionable priority.

The Role of Government Partnership

The Good Food for All Agenda does not exist in isolation. One of its greatest strengths is its ability to bring local government into alignment with community-led priorities.

The Mayor of Los Angeles and members of the County Board of Supervisors have supported the initiative, recognizing that food policy intersects with public health, climate resilience, economic development, and food equity. This partnership model ensures that community expertise informs public policy, and that public resources can support implementation.

Every year, we revisit priorities and assess progress. That ongoing collaboration creates accountability. It also allows us to respond to emerging crises; whether it’s a pandemic, supply chain disruption, or climate emergency, while staying rooted in long-term goals.

A Checklist for Action

If you’ve ever wondered how to “use” the Good Food for All Agenda, here is my honest answer:

Use it as a checklist.

Not a checklist in a bureaucratic sense, but as a values-based accountability tool.

If you are a:

• Nonprofit organization

• School district

• Public agency

• Funder

• Community organizer

• Small food business

• Even an individual resident

You can open the Agenda and ask:

• Are we expanding access to healthy, culturally relevant food?

• Are we supporting food workers and small producers?

• Are we reducing waste and mitigating environmental harm?

• Are we centering communities most impacted by food injustice?

• Are we aligning our annual goals with long-term regional outcomes?

The Agenda makes visible the connections between isolated projects and systemic change. It helps organizations situate their work within a broader movement.

Here are some ways I’ve seen groups of people use the Agenda:

• Organizations use it to shape strategic plans.

• Funders use it to guide grantmaking.

• Policymakers reference it when drafting legislation.

• Grassroots leaders cite it when advocating for neighborhood resources.

When a region shares a common framework, the conversation shifts from “Why should we care?” to “How do we contribute?”

Building a Resilient Food System, Together

The food system in Los Angeles is vast and complex. It stretches from urban farms and corner stores to international ports and global supply chains. Addressing its inequities requires more than isolated programs, and it requires coordination, shared vision, and sustained commitment.

The Good Food for All Agenda helps us move from siloed efforts to systemic transformation.

It reminds us that food waste is not just an environmental issue, it’s an opportunity for resource recovery and hunger alleviation.

That food access is not charity, it’s justice.

That resilience is not just about emergency response, it’s about long-term infrastructure and policy alignment.

Most importantly, it affirms that no single organization can achieve these outcomes alone.

Looking Ahead

As we enter the next chapter of the Good Food for All Agenda, the stakes are high. Climate change is intensifying. Housing instability affects food access. Workers across the food chain continue to face inequities. At the same time, communities across Los Angeles are innovating, organizing, and demanding better systems.

The Agenda is our opportunity to harness that energy and align it.

It is a commitment that every five to ten years, we will pause, listen, assess, and recommit. We will set shared priorities. We will invite collaboration. We will hold ourselves accountable.

And we will measure success not just by reports published, but by:

• Infrastructure built

• Policies adopted

• Dollars invested

• Partnerships strengthened

• And communities better nourished

Join the Movement

The Good Food for All Agenda belongs to the region. It is not owned by the Los Angeles Food Policy Council alone, and is stewarded by a network.

Whether you are a long-time partner or newly engaging with food policy work, we invite you to use the Agenda as your guide to plug into the issues and shared priorities.

Together, we can build a food system where food is healthy, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and fair for everyone in Los Angeles.

That is the promise of Good Food for All.

Alba Velasquez leads the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC) as its executive director. She joined LAFPC in 2017 and has worked to expand the impact of its Healthy Markets LA program. Prior to her work at the Council, Velasquez managed initiatives at the National Health Foundation and contributed to urban agriculture research at UCLA. She holds a master’s degree in urban regional planning from UCLA, and her expertise is grounded in her personal experiences as a Salvadoran refugee and community advocate.