Foregrounding community-building in community food security: A case study of the New Brunswick Community Farmers Market and Esperanza Garden

Community food system thinking requires attention to the interrelationships that shape the needs, resources, and opportunities within a physical and social context. A comprehensive community food security strategy starts by clarifying the needs and existing resources within a community and developing a suite of strategies—food policy councils, farmers markets, educational programs, urban gardens, and so forth—that will address issues of access, affordability, cultural appropriateness, and ongoing sustainability (Kaufman and Bailkey 2000; Winne 2008; Raja, Born, and Russell 2008). Given that every community has its own political, socioeconomic, and environmental context, the starting point often involves engaging stakeholders—public agencies, nonprofit service providers, and advocacy (Pothukuchi and Kaufman 2000). In practice, however, developing a multifaceted project can be difficult 142 production because of the challenges of communication, negotiation among multiple stakeholders, and the appropriate direction of resources. Particularly when the networks involve institutions and stakeholders who seek to assist a community , the balance between community capacity building and neoliberal or paternalistic engagement requires careful and open discussion of power in decision-making for program development and evolution (Drake 2014; Harris 2009).