On the eastern edge of Travis County, staff load a van labeled “Fresh for Less” with ripe produce from the field behind them and drive into town, prepared to distribute seasonal selections to food-insecure communities at a reduced cost. This service is provided by Farmshare Austin, a nonprofit and certified organic farm that feeds about 9,000 customers annually. Of these, “40% are feeding two or more people, and 87% participate in some sort of food assistance program,” says Executive Director Andrea Abel.
Farmshare is one of many partnerships between the local government and nonprofits operating under the food production and provision umbrella. While several of these have been in place for years, the adoption of the Austin/Travis County Food Plan in 2024 solidified the region’s commitment to a more just and equitable food system.
Drafted with support from the Austin/Travis County Food Policy Board through a 2021 city directive, the food plan is a framework of actionable goals for the city and county. It incorporates strategic, long-term methods to expand local food production, conserve farmland, distribute resources, and develop climate resilience.
Food justice, or the idea that everyone deserves equitable access to proper nutrition, is at the center of these goals. Abel identifies “lack of healthy food options nearby and lack of transportation” as a key shortfall in low-income communities, particularly.
For its efforts thus far, the plan received the Global Forum award in Governance at the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact summit last month, out of around 300 global applicants. The MUFPP is an international agreement that Austin has been a part of since 2016, one of many commitments the city makes to address the current system’s weaknesses.
“We have to build the markets at the same time as we build the land access and the farmer training,” explains Michelle Akindiya, Farmshare’s education director. “Right now, we don’t have the supply to meet the demand.”
In Travis County, 14.4% of people experience food insecurity, as noted in the 2022 State of the Food System report. Only 0.06% food is grown locally, and 16.8 acres of farmland are lost daily across Travis County. Yet, 21% of all greenhouse gases in the region are attributable to food production.
According to Edwin Marty, who serves as the city’s first food policy manager, the COVID-19 pandemic and Winter Storm Uri “elevated the concern from City Council” regarding the community’s needs. “That was definitely a crack in the system,” Akindiya notes. “In the field, we lost a lot.”
To proceed, the plan requires sufficient funding. The city awarded $500,000 through the American Rescue Plan Act to create the plan, 20-25% of which Marty states “went to community members to participate in the process.”
Travis County also gave $281,648 to express their commitment to “long-term sustainability” of the plan, states Hector Nieto, the director of public information for Travis County. Furthermore, the county Health & Human Services Department has funding set aside for food plan strategies, and the county’s budget for fiscal year 2026 is “related to Food Plan implementation.”
Since 2021, however, Austin has not increased funding for the plan’s implementation. As the city faces its “first deficit in decades,” Marty notes that the budget for 2025-2026 does not include funding for food plan strategies.
All money currently contributing to the strategies comes indirectly from programs that existed before the plan. For instance, Farmshare Austin receives its “core funding from Austin Public Health.” To increase funding, the food policy board cannot ask for donations but can leverage local bonds and take contributions from non-governmental organizations.
Before voters rejected the city’s tax-rate increase on the ballot last week, Marty claimed that “non-essential functions of the plan would be severely restricted” if the motion failed. After the election, Nieto added, “It is still too early to tell what the outcome of the budget shortfall will be.”
The plan was also built in a reality contingent upon a federal government that “would be committed to regenerative, sustainable food systems,” Marty says. Joe Biden’s administration expressed that commitment through the Inflation Reduction Act, the former president’s signature climate bill.
Conversely, under the Trump administration, $1.7 billion in environmental justice grants have been cut, and the president called climate change a “con job” in front of the United Nations. During the government shutdown, Trump froze SNAP benefits, which Marty states “50,000 Austinites” rely on. Akindiya recognizes, “People are hurting. And they’re scared.”
A deficit on the local level, combined with a federal realignment of environmental interests, makes much of the plan’s future uncertain. Nevertheless, the board is molding itself to new implementation strategies, while keeping community stakeholders at the forefront. Such a plan needs the resources to “meet people where they are,” says Marty.
Both in its creation and the early stages of implementation, the plan considers interests of local stakeholders, such as Farmshare Austin and the people it services. “The Food Plan takes all of us to implement it,” says Nieto.
Marty agrees. “We did as authentic of a job as you can do on soliciting broad community input.” Yet, the food policy manager acknowledges that nine goals and 61 strategies is “perhaps too ambitious,” with some stakeholders concerned that the plan lacks “concrete measures to implement its goals.”
Because of this, the board has “slowed down to allow for equal partnership.” By early January, Marty aims to bring on an implementation strategy consultant to develop metrics for success. This is the basis of strategy 9.1, under the goal “Empower.” Marty adds, “The primary concern is following through on input from the community.”
This article appears in November 14 • 2025.