Concerned with the growing number of Floridians struggling to put nutritious yet affordable food on their tables, state lawmakers are weighing a proposal that would bring full-service stores to their neighborhoods. Florida's Healthy Food Financing Initiative would give low-cost loans to nonprofit organizations or for-profit businesses to put grocery stores in what the federal government calls food deserts. These are Census tracts where a percentage of residents have little money, live more than walking distance from a supermarket selling fresh food, but have no cars to drive to shop.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is known for its well-regarded agricultural land preservation program. Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, the county of a half-million people uses plans and policies to support agriculture and other components of their economy.

Cabarrus County is an innovative, agricultural community that has experienced both tremendous political successes and setbacks to strengthening its local food system. Between 2008 and 2014, the county government took important steps towards institutionalizing and funding local food systems policy and programmatic work by establishing a food policy council and creating a local food system program coordinator position.

In June 2014, due to significant and unexpected budget cuts, the county government cut financial support for this work and eliminated the local food system program coordinator position. The following feature highlights these successes and setbacks and provides a summary of how the community is moving forward in light of its current struggles with maintaining ongoing political support for local food system work.

Baltimore City, Maryland faces many of the same food system opportunities and challenges of other post-industrial cities, but the municipal government is aggressively pursuing a “food in all policies” approach by engaging agencies throughout the city. This feature highlights the initial efforts that established this approach, including an effort to institutionalize intergovernmental collaboration, and a few of the subsequent policies aimed at improving food access and supporting urban agriculture throughout the city.

A cheery, well lit, Save-A-Lot grocery store — featuring fresh produce, lowcost cereals and meat packaging on site — opened this month on Waukegan's southwest side, an area officials called a "food desert" for underserved residents.The store employs 35 local residents and plans to hire two assistant store managers soon, said Save-A-Lot district manager Thomas Hill, after a dozen officials toured the 10,000squarefoot facility Saturday morning.

A robust case management system is critical to tracking progress and success while executing a cradle-to-career continuum of services and supports. Authored by the Urban Institute, this report provides guidance on how to review and utilize case management data to accelerate the achievement of Promise Neighborhoods results.