Minnesota Food Charter

The Minnesota Food Charter was developed to be a comprehensive, community-driven roadmap designed to guide policy and systems change to ensure that all Minnesotans have access to healthy, affordable, and safe food.

The Minnesota Food Charter was developed through a statewide collaborative process involving thousands of Minnesotans from diverse sectors — including public health, agriculture, education, business, and grassroots organizations.

The primary goal of the Minnesota Food Charter was to create a healthier food environment across Minnesota by addressing the barriers that prevent people from accessing nutritious food. It was designed to serve as a strategic guide for decision-makers, community leaders, businesses, and residents to shape a food system that promotes health equity, economic vitality, and environmental sustainability.

Key focus areas:

The Minnesota Food Charter outlined strategies across five core areas:

1. Food Skills
   Improve access to food education so people can grow, purchase, prepare, and preserve healthy food.
2. Food Access
   Increase access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food in all communities.
3. Food Infrastructure
   Strengthen the systems that grow, process, distribute, and sell food across the state.
4. Food Affordability
   Ensure that healthy food is economically accessible for all, especially low-income individuals and families.
5. Food Availability
   Support local and regional food production so that fresh, healthy food is available throughout Minnesota.

While the Minnesota Food Charter Network is no longer active, this work continues in a wide variety of ways around the state of Minnesota. If you’d like to know more about food access work going in in your community, reach out to the Statewide Health Improvement Initiative (SHIP) leaders in your community.