Planning for Community Food Access

Planning for Community Food Access: Community Gardens, Farmers Markets, and Food Systems

This session is designed for Pennsylvania professional planners, municipal staff, landscape architects, municipal agencies, and volunteer board and committee members and addresses food systems across Pennsylvania, which have been under scrutiny for decades with heightened attention following the 2020–2021 pandemic. The session highlights how communities can strengthen local food systems and examines the roles of municipal staff and officials in supporting and sustaining these efforts.

• Claudia Schmidt, Associate Professor of Marketing and Local/Regional Food Systems at Penn State, Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, will provide an overview of the food system, linking community-scale initiatives, such as gardens, farmers' markets, and agritourism activities, to the broader networks that shape community food access. She will highlight the important role of zoning decisions, land-use policies, and investment choices in determining whether a resilient food system is feasible.
• • Overview of our food system and its components
  • Overview of food desert locations and the causes of their existence
• Brian Moyer, Extension Program Specialist with Penn State Extension, will illustrate how farmers’ markets continue to play a vital role in Pennsylvania’s local food economy, offering fresh, locally grown products while fostering community connections. To better understand shopper behavior and preferences, Penn State Extension conducted a comprehensive survey across multiple markets in 2025. The results of this survey, as well as those from previous years, demonstrate the importance of these markets to our communities.
• • Overview of farmers' markets and their community and economic impacts
  • Planning considerations for supporting community farmers' markets
• Robin Perry-Smith will present a case study of an urban farm and its impact on the surrounding community, titled "The Hill Farm Story: Urban Agriculture as a Strategic Response to Food Desert Challenges."
  This case study examines The Hill Farm, an outreach initiative of Wildheart, as a model of how urban agriculture can support community revitalization and improve food access. Through collaboration with a local nonprofit, Penn State Extension worked to address disparities in access to nutritious foods and strengthen food security within the surrounding neighborhood. By the end of this session, participants will be able to recognize how The Hill Farm utilizes urban agriculture to address local food-access challenges and understand the role of partnerships in promoting food security and community well-being. They will also be able to identify key strategies for integrating urban agriculture into land-use planning and neighborhood revitalization.
  Robin emphasizes that “A sustainable food system protects natural resources, promotes equity, supports local communities, and provides nutritious food for today and the future.”

Group viewing brought to you by Lancaster County Planning.

Lancaster County Planning strives to provide educational opportunities for our planning partners – professional planners, municipalities, consultants, designers, engineers, local planning commissions, and interested citizens. In 2026, we will continue to provide an opportunity for our partners to join us at our office to view a mix of live and recorded webinars we have purchased or registered for from various sources on a variety of planning topics. Many of these programs will provide AICP CM and ASLA continuing education credits. Due to site license restrictions, we are not able to share our webinar access information with interested parties. For independent access, please contact the webinar provider directly.

For questions related to this event, please contact 717-299-8333 or email [email protected].

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