Redefining Food Security in a Community Context: An Exploration of Community Food Security Indicators and Social Worker Roles in Community Food Strategies

ABSTRACT

Large numbers of households experiencing the effects of food insecurity threaten a community’s viability. Although hunger has been viewed as a social problem, research focused on household-level food security tends to primarily focus on the household economics. This thematic overview of academic and grey literature (a) describes community food security (CFS) research and indicators related to accessibility, affordability, community self-reliance, social justice, and sustainability; (b) provides examples of how community social workers can participate, lead or evaluate CFS strategies that can create sustainable food secure communities; and (c) invites social work researchers to develop holistic measures of CFS.

KEYWORDS:

• Community food security
• food access
• community self-reliance
• food security
• sustainable community development