Partner Strategies
The list below represents specific strategies of action plans. These strategies are being implemented by organizations, agencies, and groups in the Jackson County community to root out barriers that are holding inequitable outcomes in place.
Ready to view other action plans and strategies from Network Partners? Check out the Collective Action Plan to explore more!
ACTION PLAN
Grow Jackson's Community Food Cycle: A Theory of Change for Community Food Security and Local Economic Resilience
STRATEGY
Build Community Food System Power & Resilience
Grow Jackson will strengthen Jackson County's capacity to understand, coordinate, influence, and sustain its local food system. Lasting food security requires more than individual programs or organizations; it requires durable relationships among residents, farmers, businesses, schools, healthcare institutions, nonprofits, philanthropy, and government, supported by shared information and opportunities for community participation in decision-making.
Grow Jackson will build this capacity through food-system research and mapping, resident engagement, cross-sector partnerships, farmer and producer networks, institutional collaboration, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and coordinated planning. Community voice and lived experience will help identify needs, establish priorities, and guide investment.
By building relationships and shared infrastructure across sectors, Jackson County can respond more effectively to changing community needs, economic disruptions, supply-chain challenges, and emerging opportunities. Data and evaluation can identify gaps and measure progress, while stronger networks can coordinate resources rather than relying on disconnected interventions.
The long-term goal is a food system that is not dependent on any single program, grant, retailer, or institution, but is supported by a network of residents and organizations with the knowledge, relationships, infrastructure, and economic capacity necessary to continually improve it.
ISSUE / NEED
Food insecurity is a complex systems-level challenge shaped by transportation, income, agriculture, retail markets, education, health, land use, workforce development, and public policy. Yet efforts to address these conditions are often fragmented across individual organizations, programs, institutions, and funding streams. Without intentional coordination, communities can invest significant resources into addressing individual symptoms of food insecurity without changing the underlying systems that produce them.
Jackson County has significant assets—including farmers, schools, healthcare institutions, nonprofits, businesses, local governments, funders, community organizations, and residents with lived experience—but these resources are not always connected through a shared food-system strategy. Information about food access, consumer needs, producer challenges, and community priorities may be collected independently, while decisions about investment and programming can occur without consistent mechanisms for coordination or community participation.
Long-term resilience also requires local human capacity. Farmers, food entrepreneurs, food-system workers, young people, and community leaders need pathways to develop the skills, relationships, businesses, and leadership necessary to sustain a stronger local food economy. Without this capacity, food-access initiatives can remain dependent on individual organizations, outside funding, or temporary programs.
Communities most affected by food insecurity must also have meaningful opportunities to influence the systems intended to serve them. Residents should not simply be recipients of food-access interventions; their experiences, priorities, purchasing decisions, and leadership should help determine where resources are invested and how the local food system develops.
Jackson County therefore needs stronger connective infrastructure: shared data, coordinated planning, cross-sector partnerships, community decision-making, workforce and entrepreneurship pathways, and mechanisms for continually evaluating and improving the food system.
Grow Jackson seeks to help build this capacity so that Jackson County is not simply delivering more food programs, but developing the relationships, knowledge, leadership, workforce, and community power necessary to understand, shape, and sustain its own food system over time.
MEASUREMENTS
Grow Jackson will measure progress toward greater community food-system power and resilience by evaluating community participation, cross-sector coordination, local leadership and workforce capacity, and the use of shared data to guide food-system decisions and investments.
Community Voice & Decision-Making
Grow Jackson will track the number and diversity of residents participating in food-system planning, listening sessions, surveys, focus groups, advisory groups, and other engagement opportunities. Evaluation will also examine whether residents—particularly those experiencing food insecurity or barriers to fresh-food access—report meaningful opportunities to influence priorities, programs, and investments.
Key measures may include resident participation, paid community engagement opportunities, representation from priority communities, number of engagement activities, and the percentage of participants who report that their perspectives were heard and meaningfully incorporated.
Cross-Sector Coordination & Partnerships
Grow Jackson will measure the strength and reach of the network of organizations actively participating in Jackson County's food system. This includes farmers, schools, healthcare organizations, nonprofits, businesses, food retailers, municipalities, philanthropy, and other institutions.
Measures will include the number of active partners, sectors represented, collaborative projects implemented, institutional purchasing or distribution partnerships established, resources leveraged through partnerships, and partner perceptions of coordination and effectiveness.
Local Workforce, Leadership & Entrepreneurship Capacity
Grow Jackson will track the development of people capable of working in, leading, and building the local food system. Measures will include participation and completion in youth workforce development, Food Fellows, food-system employment and training programs, entrepreneurship programs, and farmer or producer technical assistance.
Longer-term measures will examine employment, continued education, business creation, producer growth, leadership development, and participant retention within food, agriculture, health, or related community-development fields.
Shared Data, Planning & Systems Change
Grow Jackson will measure whether Jackson County is developing and using the information necessary to make coordinated food-system decisions. This will include completion and regular updating of food-access mapping, retail audits, affordability data, resident surveys, producer data, and other food-system research.
Measures will also track how frequently this information results in action—including new programs, changes in organizational or institutional practices, new investments, funding decisions, collaborative initiatives, infrastructure development, or policy changes.
Together, these measures evaluate whether Jackson County is developing the capacity to continually understand and improve its own food system:
Community Voice → Shared Knowledge → Coordinated Action → Local Leadership → Investment & Systems Change → Greater Community Resilience
Long-term success means that Jackson County has not simply developed more food programs, but has built a durable network of residents, producers, organizations, institutions, and leaders capable of collectively identifying challenges, directing resources, responding to change, and shaping the future of the local food system.
KEY ACTIVITIES
TIMELINE
Build Community Voice and Shared Decision-Making
Grow Jackson will create ongoing opportunities for residents—particularly people experiencing food insecurity and communities historically excluded from food-system decision-making—to identify needs, establish priorities, evaluate solutions, and influence investment. Through listening sessions, surveys, focus groups, paid community engagement, advisory structures, and other participatory approaches, residents will help shape the programs, infrastructure, and policies intended to serve their communities.
2021 - Present
Strengthen Cross-Sector Food System Coordination
Grow Jackson will convene and connect farmers, residents, schools, healthcare organizations, nonprofits, businesses, food retailers, municipalities, philanthropy, and other institutions around shared food-system priorities. Through the Jackson Food Council, strategic partnerships, institutional collaborations, and joint initiatives, Grow Jackson will help move the community from isolated programs toward coordinated action and shared responsibility for food security.
2025 - Present
Develop Local Food-System Workforce, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship
Grow Jackson will create pathways for residents to participate economically and professionally in the food system through youth workforce development, Food Fellows, food-system employment and training, farmer and producer support, entrepreneurship opportunities, and food-business incubation. These pathways will develop the people and businesses necessary to operate, grow, and lead Jackson County’s food system over the long term.
2023 - Present
Build Shared Data, Evaluation, and Systems-Change Capacity
Grow Jackson will conduct and coordinate food-system research, mapping, evaluation, and community needs assessment to create a shared understanding of Jackson County’s food environment. Food retail audits, GIS mapping, affordability tracking, resident engagement, producer data, program evaluation, and other research will be used not simply to describe problems, but to guide investment, identify gaps, improve programs, influence institutional practices and policy, and measure long-term systems change.
2026 - Onward
Shared Measurement System Connections
AIM
Our Basic Needs Are Met
GOAL
Reduce rates of food insecurity
LEADING
INDICATOR
Residents Reporting Feeling Worried or Stressed About Ability to Purchase Food
ROOT
CAUSE
Community members do not have the skills/assets and agency to get their needs met
STRATEGY
Build Fresh Food Affordability Through Local Economic Power
ISSUE / NEED
Fresh and nutritious food is often perceived as—and can in reality be—more expensive than highly processed or less nutritious alternatives. For households operating with limited or unstable incomes, even relatively small differences in price can influence purchasing decisions. When families must balance food with housing, transportation, utilities, childcare, healthcare, and other necessities, affordability becomes a significant barrier to consistently incorporating fresh food into the household diet. Over time, these economically constrained food choices can contribute to disparities in diet quality and related health outcomes.
At the same time, simply requiring farmers to sell food for less is not a sustainable affordability strategy. Small and local farmers face significant costs for land, labor, equipment, transportation, processing, and distribution. Farmers need reliable markets and sufficient revenue to remain economically viable, invest in production, and increase the amount of food they grow.
This creates a systems-level challenge: fresh food must become more affordable for consumers without making food production economically unsustainable for farmers.
Grow Jackson seeks to address both sides of this equation by capturing more of Jackson County's existing food purchasing power within the local food economy. Reliable year-round markets, aggregation, shared infrastructure, regional distribution, and direct-to-consumer sales can strengthen producer economic security while reducing unnecessary costs within the supply chain. Increased production and more efficient distribution can, over time, help increase the supply and affordability of locally produced fresh food.
The model also creates an opportunity to redirect locally generated economic value toward community food security. Revenue generated through Grow Jackson's food enterprises can support affordability initiatives, free and subsidized fresh food, community gardens, nutrition programming, and other community-designed investments.
The need is therefore not simply for cheaper food. Jackson County needs a food economy capable of making fresh food increasingly affordable for consumers while ensuring that the farmers producing that food are economically secure enough to grow more of it.
MEASUREMENTS
Grow Jackson will measure progress toward fresh-food affordability and local economic security through a combination of consumer affordability, dietary behavior, purchasing, and producer-level indicators.
Fresh Food Affordability / Basket of Goods: Grow Jackson will establish a standardized basket of commonly purchased fresh and staple foods and regularly compare its cost at the River & Rail Farm Stop with major food retailers serving Jackson County, including Meijer, Walmart, Aldi, Kroger, Polly's, and Dollar General. Tracking the same or comparable products over time will allow Grow Jackson to evaluate whether locally sourced fresh food is becoming more price-competitive within the broader retail environment.
Fresh Food Use in the Household Diet: Community and participant surveys will measure the frequency with which households purchase, prepare, and consume fresh fruits and vegetables. These measures will help determine whether increased affordability is translating into greater incorporation of fresh foods into regular household diets.
Affordability Perception: Surveys will measure whether residents perceive fresh food, locally produced food, and food available through Grow Jackson's markets as affordable. Measuring both actual prices and perceived affordability is important because purchasing behavior can be influenced by expectations about price as well as the price itself.
Local Purchasing Power Captured: Grow Jackson will track total sales of locally produced food through the River & Rail Farm Stop, Grand River Farmers Market, Mobile Market, Mini Markets, institutional distribution, and other Grow Jackson-supported channels. This will demonstrate how much consumer purchasing power is being redirected into the local food economy.
Producer Economic Benefit: Grow Jackson will track dollars returned to local farmers and producers, participating producers, producer sales, repeat participation, and growth in sales through Grow Jackson-supported markets. Over time, additional producer surveys can assess whether participating farmers report greater market stability, increased production, new investment, or improved economic security.
Community Reinvestment: Grow Jackson will track the resources generated through local food enterprises and subsequently reinvested into food-access initiatives, including subsidized or free fresh food, community gardens, education, and other community-designed programs.
Together, these measures test both sides of Grow Jackson's affordability strategy:
Consumer Purchasing Power → Local Farmer Revenue → Producer Stability & Increased Production → Greater Fresh Food Supply → Improved Affordability → Increased Fresh Food Purchasing
Success will mean demonstrating that fresh food becomes increasingly affordable and routinely consumed while more—not less—of the community's food dollar reaches local farmers and is recirculated within the local economy.
KEY ACTIVITIES
TIMELINE
Capture Local Food Purchasing Power Through Local Markets
Grow Jackson will use the River & Rail Farm Stop, Grand River Farmers Market, Mobile Market, Mini Markets, and other retail channels to capture a greater share of Jackson County’s existing food purchasing power within the local economy. Grow Jackson’s consignment-based model allows farmers and producers to retain a larger share of the retail value of their products while providing consistent, year-round opportunities to reach consumers. Growing sales through these channels will create more predictable revenue and stronger markets for local producers.
May 2026 - Present
Expand Regional Markets and Distribution for Local Producers
Grow Jackson will develop aggregation, processing, distribution, and institutional purchasing infrastructure that connects local farmers and food producers with schools, healthcare organizations, restaurants, retailers, food-service providers, and other regional buyers. Expanding beyond individual direct-to-consumer transactions gives producers access to larger and more diversified markets, creates opportunities to increase production, and strengthens the economic viability of local farming and food businesses.
2027 - Ongoing
Reduce Costs and Increase Efficiency Across the Local Food Supply Chain
Grow Jackson will invest in shared infrastructure that helps farmers and producers overcome costs and capacity barriers that are difficult to address individually. Aggregation, cold storage, transportation, commercial and entrepreneurship kitchens, mobile processing, milling, distribution, shared equipment, and coordinated logistics can reduce duplication and create efficiencies across the local food system. By lowering the cost of moving food from farm to consumer and creating opportunities for increased production, Grow Jackson seeks to make locally produced fresh food increasingly price-competitive without requiring farmers to absorb unsustainable price reductions.
2029 - Ongoing
Reinvest Local Economic Value into Fresh Food Affordability
Grow Jackson will use the economic value generated through its food enterprises to support community food security and affordability. Earned revenue, philanthropic resources, public benefits such as SNAP/EBT and Double Up Food Bucks, and partnerships can be strategically combined to support produce-at-cost models, subsidized and free fresh food, community gardens, nutrition programming, and other community-designed affordability initiatives. As Grow Jackson’s local food enterprises grow, the goal is to increase the amount of economic activity that can be redirected toward reducing barriers to fresh food.
2026 - Present
Shared Measurement System Connections
AIM
Our Basic Needs Are Met
GOAL
Reduce rates of food insecurity
LEADING
INDICATOR
Residents Reporting Feeling Worried or Stressed About Ability to Purchase Food
ROOT
CAUSE
Community members do not have the skills/assets and agency to get their needs met
STRATEGY
Build Fresh Food Knowledge, Confidence & Demand
ISSUE / NEED
Increasing the physical availability of fresh food is necessary, but availability alone does not ensure that fresh food will be purchased, prepared, or consumed. Food choices are shaped by familiarity, previous exposure, cooking skills, confidence, culture, convenience, cost, family preferences, and the food environments people experience throughout their lives.
Communities that have experienced generations of inconsistent fresh-food access have also had fewer opportunities to build relationships with fresh food. When fresh fruits and vegetables are not consistently available in neighborhood stores, schools, institutions, or other everyday environments, residents may have fewer opportunities to taste unfamiliar foods, learn how to prepare them, understand how they fit within a household budget, or develop preferences for them. Children who have limited exposure to fresh food may similarly enter adulthood without the familiarity or skills necessary to confidently select and prepare a wide variety of foods.
This creates an important systems-level challenge: increasing fresh-food supply without simultaneously building familiarity and demand can limit the effectiveness and sustainability of expanded access. Farmers and retailers need consistent consumer demand, while households need repeated, positive experiences with fresh food to make that demand possible.
Jackson County therefore needs more than nutrition information. Residents need opportunities to grow food, taste it, prepare it, encounter it in schools and institutions, purchase it in familiar community spaces, and develop relationships with the farmers and producers who grow it. Creating these repeated experiences can build knowledge and preparation skills while increasing confidence, familiarity, preference, and ultimately demand for fresh and locally produced food.
Grow Jackson seeks to create a community food environment in which fresh food becomes not an occasional intervention, but a familiar and expected part of everyday life.
MEASUREMENTS
Grow Jackson will measure progress toward increased fresh-food knowledge, confidence, and demand through a combination of program participation, community surveys, educational assessments, and purchasing and utilization data.
Fresh Food Exposure and Reach: Grow Jackson will track the number of children and adults participating in school gardens, community gardens, nutrition education, SNAP-Ed, Try-It demonstrations, Market Connect activities, community dinners, cooking experiences, farmers markets, and other fresh-food programming. Measures will also examine the frequency of engagement, recognizing that repeated exposure is more likely to build familiarity than a single interaction.
Knowledge and Confidence: Pre/post surveys and program assessments will measure changes in participants’ knowledge of fresh foods, understanding of nutrition, confidence selecting and preparing fruits and vegetables, willingness to try unfamiliar foods, and perceived ability to incorporate fresh foods into meals.
Fresh Food Preferences and Behaviors: Participant and community surveys will assess changes in reported fruit and vegetable consumption, frequency of preparing fresh food at home, willingness to try new foods, and household purchasing behaviors. Where appropriate, Grow Jackson will incorporate measures from SNAP-Ed and other established nutrition-education evaluation frameworks.
Consumer Demand: River & Rail Farm Stop, Grand River Farmers Market, Mobile Market, and other retail channels will provide opportunities to monitor actual consumer behavior. Measures may include fresh-food sales, produce sales as a share of overall food sales, repeat purchasing, customer retention, redemption of SNAP/EBT and Double Up Food Bucks, and changes in demand for specific locally grown products.
Local Food Presence Across Community Institutions: Grow Jackson will track the number of schools, markets, institutions, food-service providers, and community organizations purchasing, serving, or distributing locally grown and locally processed foods. This will help measure whether residents are encountering local and fresh foods across an increasing number of everyday environments.
Community-Level Indicators: Grow Jackson will incorporate relevant findings from the Jackson Collaborative Network Community Needs Assessment and other regional health and nutrition assessments to monitor broader changes in reported food behaviors, barriers, and community perceptions over time.
Together, these measures will allow Grow Jackson to assess progression along the intended pathway:
Exposure → Knowledge → Skills → Confidence → Familiarity → Preference → Consumption & Purchasing → Sustained Demand
Long-term success will mean more than reaching a large number of residents with nutrition education. It will mean demonstrating that residents are increasingly comfortable selecting and preparing fresh food, regularly consuming it, seeking it out within the marketplace, and creating sustained demand that supports a stronger local food system.
KEY ACTIVITIES
TIMELINE
Increase Fresh Food Exposure Through Community and School Gardens
Grow Jackson will use community and school gardens as hands-on environments where children, families, and community members can experience how food is grown and develop familiarity with fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs. School gardens introduce fresh food early in life, while community gardens create similar opportunities for adults and families within trusted neighborhood spaces. Repeated exposure—from planting and harvesting to tasting and preparing food—can help transform unfamiliar foods into familiar and desirable choices.
Spring 2021 - Present
Expand Nutrition Education, Tasting, and Community Food Experiences
Grow Jackson will provide SNAP-Ed, nutrition education, Try-It demonstrations, Market Connect programming, cooking activities, and community dinners that give residents practical opportunities to taste, prepare, and learn about fresh food. Programming will emphasize approachable preparation methods, affordability, nutrition, and culturally relevant uses of available foods. These experiences move beyond providing information by allowing participants to develop the skills and confidence necessary to use fresh food in their everyday lives.
Spring 2024 - Present
Build Relationships Between Consumers, Farmers, and the Local Food System
The Grand River Farmers Market and River & Rail Farm Stop will provide permanent opportunities for residents to interact directly with farmers, food producers, and locally produced foods. These relationships help residents understand where their food comes from, create familiarity and trust between consumers and producers, and make participation in the local food system visible and accessible. Markets will also serve as platforms for demonstrations, storytelling, sampling, educational programming, and community events that strengthen the social and cultural connections surrounding fresh food.
2026 - Onward
Increase Familiarity Through Regional Local-Food Distribution
Grow Jackson will work with schools, markets, institutions, food-service providers, and other community partners to increase the presence of locally grown and locally processed foods across Jackson County and the surrounding region. By creating distribution channels that allow residents to encounter local foods in schools, stores, institutional meals, community programs, and other everyday settings, Grow Jackson can reinforce familiarity beyond its own programs and facilities. Partnerships with farmers, schools, healthcare organizations, food-service providers, nonprofits, and community institutions will allow locally sourced foods to reach consumers through multiple channels.
Together, these activities create a continuum from exposure to demand:
Exposure → Tasting → Knowledge → Preparation Skills → Confidence → Familiarity → Preference → Demand
2029 - Onward
Shared Measurement System Connections
AIM
Our Basic Needs Are Met
GOAL
Reduce rates of food insecurity
LEADING
INDICATOR
Resident Perception of Availability of Affordable Food
ROOT
CAUSE
Community-based services are not sufficient to help residents meet their basic needs
STRATEGY
Increase consistent reliable fresh food access infrastructure
ISSUE / NEED
Food insecurity in Jackson County is shaped not only by household income, but by whether residents have consistent and reliable places to obtain fresh food. This challenge is particularly concentrated in the City of Jackson and its highest-poverty neighborhoods. While the City of Jackson experiences a poverty rate exceeding 20%, some neighborhoods face substantially greater economic hardship. The census tract surrounding Grow Jackson’s River & Rail Farm Stop experiences a poverty rate of approximately 40%, demonstrating the concentration of economic barriers within communities already facing limited food retail options. Countywide, approximately 15% of Jackson County residents experience food insecurity.
These economic conditions are compounded by gaps in the county’s existing food-access infrastructure. Grow Jackson’s countywide Food System Audit identified 153 food access points across Jackson County and found that fewer than half offered fresh food. A store or food retailer may therefore appear to provide geographic food access while offering residents few or no opportunities to consistently purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious foods.
The challenge is consequently greater than distance to the nearest food retailer. Jackson County needs a more reliable network of places where fresh food is available consistently, conveniently, and within the communities experiencing the greatest barriers to access.
Grow Jackson’s strategy is to strengthen this infrastructure through complementary year-round and community-based access points—including the River & Rail Farm Stop, Grand River Farmers Market, Mobile Market, community and school gardens, and partnerships with trusted neighborhood institutions. Together, these resources can create a more connected fresh-food access network capable of reaching residents through multiple points within their daily lives.
MEASUREMENTS
Progress toward consistent and reliable fresh food access will be measured using a combination of population-level indicators, community-reported experiences, and Grow Jackson food-system infrastructure data.
Population-Level Food Security: Grow Jackson will monitor Jackson County food insecurity estimates using Feeding America and available USDA data to identify long-term changes in food insecurity and establish comparison points with regional, state, and national trends.
Community-Reported Access: Grow Jackson will use the Jackson Collaborative Network Community Needs Assessment and other community surveys to monitor residents’ reported experiences with food access, including barriers related to availability, transportation, location, and consistency of access.
Fresh Food Infrastructure: Grow Jackson will periodically update its countywide Food System Audit, including the number and geographic distribution of food access points and the percentage offering fresh food. The existing audit of 153 food access points provides a baseline from which changes in the county's fresh-food retail environment can be measured.
Grow Jackson Access Network: Program-level measures will track the number and geographic distribution of year-round and seasonal fresh-food access points supported by Grow Jackson, their frequency and consistency of operation, households or customers reached, fresh food distributed or sold, and utilization of individual access locations.
Together, these measures allow Grow Jackson to evaluate both the condition experienced by residents and the infrastructure intended to change that condition. Long-term success means not simply serving more people through individual programs, but increasing the number, reliability, geographic reach, and utilization of fresh-food access points across Jackson County.
KEY ACTIVITIES
TIMELINE
Expand Community Garden Access
Grow Jackson will maintain and expand community gardens as seasonal, neighborhood-based sources of fresh food. Gardens located at schools, community centers, healthcare facilities, housing developments, and other trusted community spaces bring fresh food directly into places residents already use. In addition to their educational and community-building functions, these gardens provide free, hyperlocal seasonal produce and establish visible fresh-food infrastructure within neighborhoods.
2021 - Present
Operate the River & Rail Farm Stop as Permanent, Year-Round Fresh Food Infrastructure
The River & Rail Farm Stop provides a reliable, seven-day-a-week source of fresh and locally produced food within a low-income City of Jackson neighborhood. Unlike seasonal markets, temporary distributions, or periodic programming, the Farm Stop establishes permanent retail infrastructure where residents can consistently purchase fresh food throughout the year. The Farm Stop also serves as the central aggregation, logistics, and distribution hub supporting Grow Jackson’s broader network of community food-access initiatives.
Sept 2026 - Present
Develop the Grow Jackson Mobile Market and Delivery Network
Grow Jackson will develop a mobile grocery and delivery system capable of bringing fresh food directly into communities where permanent fresh-food retail is limited or absent. Using recurring routes and trusted community partner locations, the Mobile Market will serve both urban neighborhoods and rural communities across Jackson County. As the system develops, Grow Jackson will work with healthcare providers, social-service organizations, housing partners, and other community institutions to explore coordinated direct-to-door delivery for residents facing transportation, mobility, health, or other barriers to accessing traditional retail.
Spring 2027 - Onward
Develop a Farm Stop Mini Market Hub-and-Spoke Network
Grow Jackson will use the River & Rail Farm Stop as the central hub for a network of small, walkable neighborhood markets located throughout the community. These Mini Markets will bring a curated selection of fresh produce, dairy, proteins, staple foods, and locally produced products into neighborhoods that cannot support—or are unlikely to attract—a full-service grocery store. Centralized purchasing, aggregation, inventory management, and logistics through the Farm Stop will allow smaller neighborhood locations to operate as part of a shared system rather than as isolated stores. Over time, this hub-and-spoke model can create a distributed network of convenient fresh-food access points across Jackson County.
Summer 2027/Spring 2028 - Onward
Shared Measurement System Connections
AIM
Our Basic Needs Are Met
GOAL
Reduce rates of food insecurity
LEADING
INDICATOR
Resident Perception of Availability of Affordable Food
ROOT
CAUSE
Community-based services are not sufficient to help residents meet their basic needs
Partner Wins & Accomplishments
Celebrate meaningful progress made by Network Partners to address community needs, remove barriers, and advance equitable outcomes across Jackson County. Whether connected to the Collective Action Plan or shared independently, each accomplishment demonstrates how collaborative action is creating lasting change within Jackson County.
Don't see any wins here yet? Explore wins and accomplishments from other action plans and Network Partners here or share a win of your own to be featured.