A Ringgold County Food Systems Assessment will take place Tuesday, February 25, from 3:30 to 5:00 PM at the Ringgold County Hospital. Food-related issues and assets will be ranked according to importance during this meeting. This enables communities to create informed plans to ensure that all residents have equal access to healthy food and clean water. All Ringgold County residents are invited to participate in the process.
Steve Adams, Iowa State University Extension, Community and Economic Development Field Specialist, will facilitate this public forum as the group analyzes data from over forty different food system data sets. The data will be used to identify high priority issues which in turn will become the basis for an action plan. Data collected will include rates of childhood obesity, adult obesity, fruit and vegetable consumption, local produce availability, farmers market information, food insecurity rates, and food pantry availability.
A core food systems group met in 2013 to lay the ground work for this county-wide Food Systems Assessment. They determined what data and statistics would be helpful to gather and then followed up with data collection from multiple sources.
The assessment is part of a Ringgold County Public Health (RCPH) CTG initiative designed to examine a broad range of issues and assets from farm to fork. Please contact Vicki Sickels at RCPH (641-464-0691) if interested in participating.