LYNN — The city has a new body tasked with tackling food insecurity.
The Food Policy Council will provide policy and programmatic recommendations to the mayor, city councilors, and regional partners, as well as open up new opportunities for the city to receive state and federal funding.
“It serves to increase funding streams,” Public Health Coordinator Norris Guscott said. “When you make the transition to a food policy council, there are streams that open up at the state level and the federal level because they see that this municipality is taking food security and food as a social determinant of health seriously.”
Guscott leads the Food Security Task Force, which the Food Policy Council will replace.
“Food severely impacts the health of our residents and is also an economic driver in the city,” Guscott said to the City Council last week. “This is not an ordinance you have to gamble on. You can rest assured that this Food Policy Council will get work done.”
During its meeting last week, the City Council voted unanimously to create the council through a city ordinance. Ward 3 Councilor Coco Alinsug described it as an important step for the city and one that will give its efforts to address nutritional issues more legitimacy.
“It’s about time for Lynn to be proactive with groups like this,” Alinsug said.
Guscott said the city has worked hard in recent years when it comes to food-security programming. However, he noted that 20% of households in the city suffer food insecurity.
According to Guscott, the Food Policy Council will continue the efforts of the Food Security Task Force, while giving them more legitimacy than the original task force was able to.
Mayor Jared Nicholson noted how important the Food Security Council’s continuation of the task force’s crucial work will be.
“Food justice is a top priority for our administration,” Nicholson said. “Developing a food policy council for the city ensures we increase the accessibility of food resources and improve our path to becoming a food-secure community.”
Guscott said that even with the city’s strides in addressing food insecurity, the work is not yet finished.
“Food insecurity and these issues have always existed,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work to do.”
