The Community Food System world has a number of specialized terms typically unfamiliar to those not in the field. We have compiled a glossary of frequently used terms to clarify their meanings in regards to Food to Share’s work.

  • Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI)

    A numerical food rating system based upon the nutrient density of a given food per calorie. The higher the number the greater the nutrients in the food.

  • Aggregation

    The consolidation of products to generate wholesale volumes. Aggregation generally occurs in the distribution process and may be done by cooperatives, buying clubs, private and non-profit wholesale packers and distributors, and retailers.

  • Aggregator

    An entity that combines product from several sources in order to achieve greater volume.

  • Carbon Footprint

    The sum of greenhouse gas emissions directly linked to an organization, product, event, or person during a period of time.

  • Dollar Menu Diet

    A term used to describe a diet based on foods commonly found in commercial fast food and convenience stores. The diet usually consists of highly processed foods high in sugar and carbohydrate that promote diet related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

  • CalFresh Program

    California’s implementation of the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

  • Closed Waste Cycles

    By-product from production and waste is reused, recycled, or composted, to provide energy or use as another resource.

  • Commissary

    A licensed and inspected kitchen facility used for the centralized preparation of food for distribution. Often used by food entrepreneurs.

  • Commodity Crops

    Crops that are grown in high volume and are intended to be sold to the commodities market rather than direct to consumers or producers. The most common U.S. commodity crops are corn, soy, and wheat. Many commodity crops are used to produce other food products such as oils, sweeteners, and fillers.

  • Community food security assessment

    The collection of data that will determine whether households in the community have access to nutritionally adequate, sufficient, and culturally acceptable foods to satisfy their dietary needs - USDA

  • Diet Related Disease

    Disease caused by an inadequate consumption of the necessary amount of essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients for one’s body. This includes an inadequate amount of iron, zinc, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, potassium, etc.

  • Empty Calories

    These are calories from solid fats and/or sugars that give the body little to no nutrients.

  • Farmers Market

    local product market where individual producers, primarily farmers, ranchers and local producers, bring their food wares and local goods for direct sale to the public.

  • Farm To School

    Farm to school is a movement that aims to connect communities, through schools, with healthy, local food. Farm to school programs also aim to support local farmers.

  • Feeding America

    Feeding America is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is "to feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger."

  • Food Access

    Food access is a concept fundamental to related definitions of food security and food sovereignty, but is rarely defined on its own. It touches on the recurring themes of food access encompassing the appropriate food for a group's cultural, nutritional, and economic needs, that to have food access one must also have adequate income to purchase food or the materials required to grow food, and that points of purchase and sale of appropriate foods must be geographically attainable. This notion of food access does not include emergency food sources, such as foraging, food banks or free meal programs, as satisfying the qualifications to truly have "food access," though these points of food access are certainly important in locations and societies in which "income sufficient to purchase healthy food" is not true or ensured for all residents.

  • Food Bank

    a nonprofit organization that serves as a region or city's central collection and distribution point for the charitable food system.

  • Food Rescue

    The practice of retrieving edible food that would otherwise go to waste.

  • Food Desert

    The USDA defines a food desert as low income or low access communities where, 
    • "low-income communities" are census tracts that have either: 1) a poverty rate of 20 percent or higher, OR 2) a median family income at or below 80 percent of the area's median family income; and
    • "low-access communities," are census tracts where at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles).

  • Food Insecurity

    The state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food

All definitions were found at: http://foodglossary.pbworks.com/w/page/48934391/Index or http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/efan-electronic-publications-from-the-food-assistance-nutrition-research-program/efan02013.aspx or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 14:32:07 +0000