Abstract
Homeward Bound is divided into five sections. Section I, Food Access and the Transit Dependent, identifies a range of issues concerning the lack of food access in low income communities. It elaborates the specific contributions to the problems of food insecurity associated with access needs, such as supermarket location or nutritional deficiencies. Section II, Current Policies, reviews and analyzes the nature of the programs and policies that have been established regarding food access by both public and private sector groups. Section III, Exploratory Programs - Case Studies, describes various exploratory and innovative programs that have emerged in recent years, representing opportunities available for improving food access in low income communities. These programs are primarily, though not exclusively, associated with paratransit services. Section IV, New Models for Greater Food Access, in seeking to build on the potential applicability of the kinds of programs described in Section III, identifies three types of models for developing new policy and programmatic approaches in the food access area. These include a private, joint venture, and non-profit approach. Finally, a concluding section details the report's policy and programmatic recommendations for expanding food access.
