Below is a timeline of the history of the Minnesota Food Charter.
Minnesota is following the lead of four other states in developing a Food Charter, including Iowa, Michigan, Oregon, and West Virginia. The Minnesota Department of Health took the initiative to pursue development of the Minnesota Food Charter, and the work of developing the Food Charter was the combined effort of hundreds of organizations throughout the state, a number of state agencies, the University of Minnesota, Minnesota corporations and non-profits, and thousands of Minnesotans.
How was the Food Charter funded?
The Minnesota Department of Health’s Statewide Health Improvement Program secured a grant from the Centers for Disease and Prevention. The Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota also provided financial support. The University of Minnesota’s Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute served as the organizational home for the Food Charter Steering Committee, contributing substantial staff time and financial support.
February – October 2013
Organizers begin a nine-month public input process that involves:
- 2,000 people
- almost 400 individual online worksheets
- approximately 50 listening sessions and interviews
- nearly 150 Food Charter Events hosted across state
November 2013 – January 2014
Organizers hold an ongoing, online town hall forum, open to all, to share the feedback from the Food Charter public input process and to ask participants to rate and share their solutions to healthy food access.
January 2014
Regional gatherings are held, where feedback from the Food Charter input process is shared, and participants can explore together which proposed solutions will be most effective.
January – July 2014
A drafting committee – composed of people from diverse sectors and communities – reviews all of the feedback and ideas from the year-long public input process, creating a Food Charter draft document.
A broad-based review process, involving dozens of people, from the Food Charter Steering Committee to the Drafting Committee to a diverse array of invited peer reviewers, prepare 9 drafts of the Food Charter. The final document is completed in September 2014.
The Minnesota Food Charter Launch Strategy Committee identifies the most appropriate ways to launch the Food Charter across the state.
October 2014
The Minnesota Food Charter is shared with the public.
November 2015
Minnesota Food Charter Network launched.