Food Security can be addressed on three different levels:

Stage 1: Short Term Relief
These actions provide
immediate and temporary relief to hunger and food issues. These activities are
often completed with little involvement from those experiencing food insecurity.
(Examples: food banks, soup kitchens)

Stage 2: Capacity Building
These actions are often more
costly in terms of time and manpower and require commitment from those
experiencing food insecurity, but are steps to empowering those experiencing
food insecurity. (Examples: community kitchens, community gardens, food
buying clubs)

Stage 3: Redesign
Redesign actions are broader in scope
and require a long-term commitment from representatives of the entire food
system, including, in particular, those marginalized by the system. As such,
redesign actions are often the most costly, time-consuming and difficult to
mobilize communities to pursue. Redesign actions focus on addressing problems
thought to be underlying food insecurity. This is often thought of as working
“upstream” to create system change. (Examples: Food policy, social advocacy
to address poverty.)

It is movement along these three stages that measures success, not being at a particular stage.

 

Food Security Continuum – Laura Kalina, 2001