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Civic knowledge, transparency, and accountability across the food system.
See full commitmentsResearch BriefVol. 01 · 2025St. Louis, MO
The 2035 Platform.
A blueprint for a just food future.
An introduction to the Food For All STL 2035 Platform — a community-built policy roadmap for transforming how food is grown, governed, shared, and valued across our region.
- Scope
- City of St. Louis · 2024–2035
- Method
- Mixed-methods, community-led
- Contributors
- ~2,000 St. Louisans
- Framework
- Human rights · Policy · Partnership · Practice
Abstract
A research-grounded, community-led roadmap.
St. Louis sits at the heart of America's agricultural corridor — surrounded by farmland, research institutions, and one of the country's most diverse food cultures. Yet 1 in 6 city residents and 1 in 3 children still lack consistent access to nourishing food.
The 2035 Platform reframes this gap not as a charity problem but as a failure of governance and infrastructure — and an invitation to rebuild. It is a living policy roadmap built with nearly 2,000 St. Louisans across two years of workshops, polls, and convenings.
It advances six interconnected priorities through three levers — Policy, Partnership, and Practice — designed for grassroots leaders and institutional actors to move forward together.
Headline findings
The data that anchors the work.
1 in 6
city residents experience food insecurity
1 in 3
children lack consistent access to nourishing food
~2,000
St. Louisans contributed across 2024–2025
6
interconnected priorities, three levers each
We don't need a tire shop on every corner. We don't need a gas station here and another two blocks down. You don't see a Whole Foods. You don't see anything with health attached to it at all. People in the hood like healthy food too. How do you know we don't want it?
Tyrean Lewis
Heru Urban Farming
Framework · 06 priorities
Six pillars. One ecosystem.
Tap a priority to preview the focus. Each pillar is fully detailed in the full Platform.
Framework · 03 levers
Policy → Partnership → Practice.
Align systems. Mobilize networks. Transform everyday life.
01
Policy
→ changes in systems
Codify food as a human right; redistribute land, capital, and accountability beyond election cycles.
02
Partnership
→ changes in networks
Convene cross-sector coalitions across government, grassroots, academia, philanthropy, and industry.
03
Practice
→ changes in behavior
Embed equity and culture into the everyday acts of growing, sharing, teaching, and demanding better food.
Good food helps us thrive. It helps us live well. But when you have a food desert, you also have a jobs desert, a resource desert. All of the things we need as human beings to live our best lives are stripped away.
Erica Williams
A Red Circle
Methodology
How the platform was built.
- 01
Listening
Workshops, briefings, polls, surveys, lunch & learns, think tanks, and individual conversations across 2024–2025.
- 02
Synthesis
Cross-referenced with the seminal 2014 For the Sake of All report and a decade of community research.
- 03
Benchmarking
Reviewed national and global best practices from leading food and health organizations.
- 04
Codification
Translated insights into the Food For All book and this living 2035 Platform.
Guiding principles
Food is a human right.
A human-rights framework that shapes how we design, implement, and evaluate every aspect of the platform.
01
People are recognized as key actors in their own development
02
Participation is both a means and a goal
03
Outcomes and processes are monitored with goals and targets
04
Policy priorities focus on marginalized and excluded groups
05
Development and implementation are locally owned
06
Policies aim to reduce disparity
07
Top-down and bottom-up approaches are used in synergy
08
Strategic partnerships are developed and sustained
Continue reading
The full 2035 Platform.
Every section, every priority, every commitment across Policy, Partnership, and Practice — plus phased implementation and tracking.