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Challenges There are a few key areas where many Food Policy Councils have encountered challenges, limitations and points of tension. Many of these challenges offer new councils lessons for strategic development. Others have no clear resolution, but are important to keep in mind as councils plan their activities. Broadly, we see these challenges as: Achieving and working with diverse membership and constituencies Working in complex political climates Designing an effective organizational structure + Obtaining adequate funding Balancing focus between policy and program work and between structural and specific foci Adequately evaluating a council's impact Evaluating the impact of a council's activities is of particular importance. In this study we were unable to quantitatively demonstrate the impact of Food Policy Councils on food access, food policy, public health, or economic development due to a lack of data or evaluation procedures within individual councils, despite numerous success stories. As the momentum behind Food Policy Councils grows, there is a clear need to evaluate the effectiveness of councils in meeting their stated goals, and their broader effect on the food system as a whole. Since the first Food Policy Council was established in Knoxville, TN in 1982, some FPCs have been established, only to cease operating several years later. While circumstances were different for every council, there are a few "red flags" to watch out for: Dependence on one strong personality, organization, or political figure Lack of funding "Single-issue" focus Over-commitment to specific programs Potentials of the FPC Model The full potential of Food Policy Councils is difficult to assess. There is no way to know how many Food Policy Councils have dissolved or disbanded, nor is there adequate information to assess the impacts councils have had on specific food systems. What we do have is a collection of case studies and experience that still points to a powerful overall trend. Citizens and neighborhoods have begun to directly influence the policies of their local food systems, creating a context in which equitable and sustainable alternatives for ensuring access to good, healthy food are allowed to flourish. Food Policy Councils, at least anecdotally, are changing the rules to encourage these alternatives to scale up into government, scale out geographically and "scale in" to local neighborhoods. This model is in many ways still in its infancy, but the model itself, based on our literature review and interview data, shows five key potentials: + Potential to address public health through improving food access, addressing hunger and food insecurity, and Food Policy Counpc~i=l~s;. Lessons Learned ptt ohr~t~u2t number 3 5