From the Eyes of the Community: Cultivating Effective Change Through Landscape Assessments

Food banks all over are starting to notice and invest in data as a way to advocate for themselves and gain more invaluable insights. However, data is a new realm for many food banks and many run into issues whether it be capacity or skill related. Tools like Landscape Assessments are spreading rapidly, with its great use in improving internally and understanding served communities better. Since it is such a new innovation, there is not much research or many resources on how to conduct a landscape assessment, let alone utilize data as a whole. This report acts as a two-pronged toolkit based on extrinsic and intrinsic research. Part One is a guide filled with tips, timelines, and case studies of previous landscape assessments. Then, it ends with Part Two, a model based on a Landscape Assessment with Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, highlighting the power and information rooted in data.