At the end of June, HRM Municipal Food Team staff attended a virtual meeting for North and Central American members of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP), of which HRM has been a signatory since 2023. The purpose of the meeting was to learn more about the newly launched Regional Roadmap for North and Central American Cities, which will provide a strategic path for the almost 40 signatory cities within the region. This work is being led by representatives from the MUFPP organization, as well as the City of Austin and Mexico City, who are on the Global MUFPP Leadership Team.
MUFPP Priorities & Learning from Other Cities
The Roadmap lays out the internal and external priority interests within the 6 MUFPP categories (of which the JustFOOD Action Plan is also designed around) and specific actions that will support their achievement. We are pleased to see how much alignment there is with the priority areas being focused on here in HRM. Many of the priorities identified are already being advanced within the municipality, including municipal support for urban agriculture, emergency food planning, developing resilient cold storage infrastructure, and supporting local food hubs.
At the regional meeting, one area of inspiration was learning about Baltimore City’s School Meal Program and Farm to School program. Their school program provides free meals to all students, with changing, nutritious menu’s, informed by student taste testing. Meal programs also run into the summer, as we know that food insecurity does not stop when the school season ends. Further, the city’s public school department actually operates their own farm, which is used for growing fresh produce for the meal program, food literacy programs, and student employment opportunities. While this city operates in a different jurisdictional context, it demonstrates an exciting way to provide students with year-round meal programming and increase their participation in the food system.
The Emphasis on Connecting
Looking at the MUFPP Network more broadly, there is also a lot of alignment with the direction of the JustFOOD Halifax Network. While the official launch of this network is still in process, its aim is to connect food actors, uplift their voices and work, share resources, and help coordinate community implementation of the JustFOOD Action Plan. Much of the feedback we’ve heard from community partners so far is about the desire to feel more connected. Not only does this help facilitate partnerships and coordinate collective action, but it also makes food work more visible to each other, to community, funders, elected officials, and more.
One of the ways MUFPP is acting on this is by establishing a contact directory for all regional signatory cities to facilitate connections, mapping out the priorities being advanced in cities, and developing best practices libraries. By creating infrastructure to connect and learn from each other on a regional and international level, this improves capacities on a local level to act in a coordinated and impactful way. The JustFOOD Halifax Network will further support this on a local level by connecting actors, convening around shared priorities, sharing resources in our Feeding the Movement newsletter, and developing shared tools for food systems transformation.
Much of these conversations are born out of the recognition that, in the face of increasing unpredictability in our climate, politics, and elsewhere, building relationships and connections is one of the best ways we can be more resilient and adaptable. While the context we are working in is a challenging one, it is encouraging to see the appetite for stronger relationships on a local, regional, and international level. We look forward to continuing to connect the work being done by our international partners with the work all of us are doing together on the local level.
